M-G-M. Director Vincente Minnelli; Producer Arthur Freed; Screenplay Betty Comden, Adolph Green; Camera Harry Jackson; Editor Albert Akst; Music Adolph Deutsch (dir.); Art Director Cedric Gibbons, Preston Ames, Oliver Smith
Fred Astaire
Cyd Charisse
Oscar Levant
Nanette Fabray
Jack Buchanan
James Mitchell
Plot is the one about a dancing film star whose pictures aren't selling. A couple of writing pals conceive a stage musical for him and the rest of the story is concerned with making the show a success after a flop tryout and weeks of rewriting and new starts.
Twelve songs [staged by Michael Kidd] from various Broadway musicals are either chirped or terped. Showing up as an imaginative highlight is 'Girl Hunt', the modern jazz ballet finale done to a turn by Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. A takeoff in dance on the Mickey Spillane type of private eye, number is a new cleffing for the picture by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, credited with all of the songs.
Astaire, as the film star, shows his ability with a song and dance character. Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray make up the writing team. Fabray is given enough chance to display her talent from legit musicals, and her personality is caught by the cameras. Charisse is an eye-filling filly, especially when dancing. Levant is his usual phlegmatic self. Buchanan enacts the show's director and costar and is one of the picture's strong-points with his comedy moments.
1953: Nominations: Best Story & Screenplay, Color Costume Design, Scoring of a Musical Picture.
(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1953. Running time: 112 MIN.
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