Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Wordiezett So much average

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Prismark10 Howard Hawks and RKO combine to make a MGM musical but fails as this musical lacks pow wow even though Busby Berkeley did some choreography.Janet Leigh plays Nancy Peterson who leaves her small home town of Pelican Falls to go to New York and make it big on Broadway. She bumps into three out of work showgirls who were on tour with a flop show and now try to get back to New York and they want to give their agent a piece of their mind for leaving them stranded.The sleazy agent is Lew (Eddie Bracken) who always ducking and diving. He promises a lot and delivers little. He wants to keep hold of his number one talent Dan Carter (Tony Martin) from quitting show business by promising him that he will get him a spot on a television show with musician Bob Crosby but it is more lies. Carter meets Peterson over a suitcase mix up and he teaches her not be taken in by shysters but he himself gets roped in by his agent's outlandish schemes.The film drags despite a few bright song and dance numbers from the showgirls. A lot of the songs are a dull and the deli store owners and their shtick is interminable.

blanche-2 I'm a sucker for Tony Martin's singing, so I watched this. It stars Martin and some lovely stars: Ann Miller, Gloria DeHaven, Barbara Lawrence, and Janet Leigh. Leigh was the fresh-faced, pretty, vivacious discovery of Norma Shearer. She was a natural.The film also features Eddie Bracken, Bob Crosby, plus Charles Dale and Joe Smith (in roles intended for Laurel and Hardy).Despite this cast and some humorous and romantic moments, this isn't a great musical. The songs are very uninspired. Tony Martin is described in this film as a baritone. You classify singers by sound and not range, and he sounds for all the world like a tenor to me. In fact, the Prologue from Pagliacci, sung by Tonio, a baritone, was low for him, and demonstrates that the beauty of his voice was in the upper range. Compare his voice to Nelson Eddy's, a true baritone.Leigh plays Nancy Peterson, the star of her home town who leaves to become a Broadway star. She meets three hungry, out of work showgirls: Hannah, Foxy, and Joyce (DeHaven, Lawrence, and Miller) whose show just closed and whose agent did not send them money to return to New York.The agent is Lew (Bracken), who is as low level in the agency world as you can get. He lies like a rug and has been promising his great talent, Dan Carter (Martin) a big job. His last lie gets him into big trouble. He has a supposed rep from Crosby tell Dan that he needs to put together an act, and then Crosby will feature him on his television show.Lew convinces the deli owners (Dale and Smith) to finance this big act. Of course rehearsals are interminable; Lew has no place to put it.Everyone is good. Barbara Lawrence was a highly touted actress who never achieved stardom; she's mentioned throughout the film "The Star" but no matter what they put her in or how often they mentioned her, the public never was attached to her.Miller, of course, was a tremendous tapper and featured in some great films. She almost seems to be slumming here.DeHaven, who used to live where I'm from with her then-husband, car dealer Richard Fincher, (she married him twice), was beautiful and a good performer. She did everything - Broadway, theater, movies, TV, hosting, game shows. Today she is 90 and one of the last living actresses from the golden age. There must be something in the water here because the city's men attract film stars. Ingrid Bergman lived here also with her husband, Dr. Lindstrom.Martin sang beautifully, as he always did, but I could have used better music.Leigh was very vibrant, and if her dancing wasn't perfect, she was a delight and sang well. A perfect ingénue.The color in this film is so garish it's not funny. Someone said Howard Hughes knew what he was doing - I frankly don't think he knew much about making movies. He knew a good-looking woman when he saw one, and he had knowledge of airplanes. Irving Thalberg he wasn't.

Andrew Schoneberg Designed partially as a showcase for RKO owner Howard Hughes girlfriend, Janet Leigh. Hughes could afford to import quite a lot of first rate talent in the effort, mostly from best in the musical business MGM. Current or former MGM talent included Leigh, Ann Miller, Gloria DeHaven, and Tony Martin, along with musical number director Busby Berkeley. Leigh proved herself competent as a singer and dancer, and is certainly pleasant in personality and a pleasure to look at.In the musical numbers featuring the four "girls", Gloria DeHaven is the standout (sorry Ann Miller fans). DeHaven sings superbly, handles the dancing with aplomb, has just the right mix of charisma, humor, sincerity, and takes a back seat to no one in the beauty department.I thought the musical numbers well staged and mostly very pleasant (exception the very banal Pellican Falls school song). The comedy of Smith and Dale, I could live without, if you'll excuse the expression. And Eddie Bracken is too frenetic and broad in his comedy for my taste.Though none of the songs became a standard, a couple are excellent; I especially enjoyed "The Worry Bird", and "The Closer You Are" has a gorgeous melody.All in all, the film is the equal of many of the lower budget MGM musicals, and that ain't bad at all.

vldazzle Tony Martin was the only singer/actor who I EVER had a crush on, so I totally disagree with the reviewer who said that he's only fit for gangster roles (REAL women don't want a man who looks pretty like a woman)! I graduated HS in 1955, so I was younger than Janet Leigh in 51, but I loved his big hit "I get ideas". As to the film, he did not look as good as I remember in publicity pictures (there was not the extent of distribution back then so I do not remember ever seeing him in film). I agree that his acting was not superb, but not much worse than Gene Kelly, tho' the dancing could be better. In those days the studios tried to make their people as versatile as possible. I think I'll save this one on DVD just for old times sake (of my old crush) because (with that "Big Chief Hole in the Ground" musical number), it will probably not get much exposure in the future. It is not at all PC (it's almost offensive even to me). It is surely offensive to native Americans.