SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET

SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET (1951). Director: Richard Quine.

Frankie Laine plays himself, a singer with a TV show whose sponsor, a peanut brittle company, is represented by Gloria Pelley (Audrey Long). Gloria's old boyfriend, "Stretch" or Ted (Jerome Courtland) is hoping to make it in show business, and he has a pretty agent Betty (Terry Moore of Mighty Joe Young fame, pictured with Laine) who has a big crush on him. Naturally she's jealous of the attentions of Gloria, who wants to sign Ted up for the Frankie Laine show. Moore and Courtland are cute and competent, Pelley has a little more spice, and Frankie Laine was simply not cut out for success in the movies. Lynn Bari plays Betty's older roommate Mary and is given all the sardonic lines, but she's not in the class of Eve Arden when it comes to delivering them. One singer does an hysterically overwrought version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" -- awful! Very minor musical is as insubstantial and gooey as cotton candy.

Verdict: Try and miss it. *1/2.