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| Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor clown around |
ANYTHING GOES (1956). Director: Robert Lewis.
Broadway veteran Bill Benson (Bing Crosby) and hot shot TV star Ted Adams (Donald O'Connor) are teaming up to do a Broadway show. They each decide on a leading lady, unaware of what the other has done. So on a boat back to New York from Europe, they have to contend with the fact that they promised the plum role to two different women: Patsy (Mitzi Gaynor) and Gaby (Zizi Jeanmaire). Complicating matters is the realization that each man has started to fall in love, not with the woman they chose to star with but with her rival!
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| Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O\Connor |
Twenty years earlier Crosby did a previous version of
Anything Goes that co-starred Ethel Merman. This new version throws out the plot of the Broadway musical it was based on but uses some of Cole Porter's songs, along with a few new ones by Cahn and Van Heusen. (You can tell which are whose fairly easily). This is a one-gimmick plot but it does add some suspense to the proceedings, and Paramount studios manages to give the flick some of the gloss you associate with MGM, thanks to Technicolor, VistaVision, some excellent art direction, and cinematographer John F. Warren. More importantly, the performances by all are adept and enthusiastic.
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| Zizi Jeanmaire with chorus boys |
Zizi Jeanmaire (billed in this only as "Jeanmaire") was a French dancer and actress who did most of her work in Europe. She is quite good in
Anything Goes and is given one zesty number as well as a featured ballet with little boys, sailors and several lookalikes. The production numbers include the title tune choreographed by Ernest Flatt, "I Get a Kick", and the finale, "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," which features the four stars in a striking tableau.
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| "Blow, Gabriel, Blow." Jeanmaire, Crosby, Gaynor, O'Connor |
Anything Goes, however, goes on for a little too long, and there are some dull stretches, including a nightclub bit wherein Crosby plays a mind-reading Rajah that becomes tiresome rather quickly. In spite of that, the movie is fun and colorful for the most part. Phil Harris [
The Patsy] is cast as Gaynor's father, Steve, and Kurt Kasznar [
Land of the Giants] as Crosby's agent, Victor Lawrence.
Verdict: Talented cast helps put this over. ***.
2 comments:
My best friend is a Broadway purist, so he always warned me away from this bastardization of the play, so I have never seen it. But we did get to see the Broadway revival in 1990 starring Patti Lupone--amazing. I know the words to every Cole Porter song--put your cotton in your ears if you ever go to karaoke with me, Bill!
-C
Now you may may a better voice than you think! I don't think this movie is a bastardization so much as a whole new story that has virtually nothing to do with the play besides the title. Anyway it does have some great songs and singers, including Der Bingle!
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