New Faces

Here is is 65 years later and I still find myself wandering around humming "Penny Candy, Candy for a Penny"!!! I was quite young when I saw this. I liked Eartha Kitt of course, and remembered Robert Clary when he turned up in "Hogan's Heroes". But I can never get Paul Lynde's performance as the poor chap recounting his trip to Africe. He tried so hard to be upbeat and positive about this absolutely horrible experience, it's to die for. They were all good, but those two performances have remained fresh in my mind lo! these 65 years later. Last night I was thinking about it and decided that even at this late date, I had to say something.

A 50s Broadway revue is filmed here with a backstage story about needing money to finish the show. The bill collector is locked in a closet and the show goes on.

Many of the new faces went on to stardom and solid careers. Others never made it. Surprisingly, this small show produced a couple of hit songs: "Santa Baby" and "Love Is a Simple Thing." The musical numbers come off better than the skits. The production looks incredibly cheap and the dancing is amateurish. Yet....

It's amazing to see Eartha Kitt sizzle in her musical numbers, using her patented growl to add oomph. She could sell a song with the best on them. Alice Ghostley is terrific (who knew she could sing?) in skits and her solo number "The Boston Beguine." Paul Lynde (looking very heavy) is funny is his skits. Carol Lawrence is mostly a dancer here and has great stage presence. Virginia DeLuce (also known as Virginia Wilson) does well with her ongoing "He Takes Me Off His Income Tax." June Carroll has a shining moment singing "Penny Candy." She also wrote many of the songs for this production. Rosemary O'Reilly get to sing "Love Is a Simple Thing." However, Ronny Graham is way over the top as the show's "star." He comes off as a cross between Jerry Lewis and James Whitmore. Robert Clary is just plain obnoxious and gets ways too much screen time. The rest of the cast gets little to do other than chorus work.

Unbilled and missing from the IMDb cast list are Henry Kulky as the bill collector and Robert Emhardt as the rich daddy.

The film was directed by two men and is pretty bad with static cameras and those annoying shots that show us backstage reactions when performers are singing and dancing.

Trivia: Mel Brooks was one of the writers. Robert Clary was married to one of Eddie Cantor's daughters. Grimes and DeLuce won the 1952 Theatre World awards. Kitt's rendition of "C'est Si Bon" was not in the original show.

I initially saw this on the stage in Chicago after the show left Broadway where it was quite successful for a revue. I remember enjoying it immensely. I then saw the Cinemascope release in 1954 and was pleased that my wife could enjoy it as well. When I found it many years later on VHS and DVD I bought it and have seen it many times. As a musical theatre lover I am delighted that it has been preserved. Of course it is dated and the technical aspects of the filming and copying defects are well brought out by the other reviewers. Eartha Kitt is well represented as is Paul Lynde in two skits, the best a spoof of "Death of a Salesman" and the African travelogue; Robert Clary in two charming songs; Alice Ghostley in "Boston Beguine, hilarious, and yes she can sing!; Ronnie Graham doing a young Truman Capote; several ensemble numbers the best of which is the Lizzy Borden trial. It is clearly apparent that this is a filmed version of the stage show with the added silly plot. Theatre lovers will enjoy a rare opportunity to view an original revue as they were so frequently done in the early twentieth century but are uncommon today. I highly recommend taking a look at it

NEW FACES of 1952 has a backstage structure imposed on it of the cast requiring cash in order for the show to continue; and two cast members being in love, against the wishes of the girl's Texan father. The cast mainly featured Ronnie Graham, Alice Ghostley, Robert Clary and Eartha Kitt. Additional cast members included June Carroll, Virginia DeLuce, Paul Lynde, Bill Mullins, Rosemary O'Reilly, Allen Conroy, Jimmy Russell, George Smiley, Polly Ward, Carol Lawrence, Johnny Lavery, Elizabeth Logan, Faith Burwell and Clark Ranger. The words and music were "mostly" by Ronny Graham, Arthur Siegel, June Carroll, Sheldon Harnick and Michael Brown, with additional contributions from Murray Grand, Ellisse Boyd, Alan Melville, Herbert Farjeon (who gave Joyce Grenfell her start in revues), Francis LeMarque and Peter DeVries. The sketches were written by Ronny Graham, "Melvin" Brooks, Paul Lynde, Luther Davis and John Cleveland. The numbers included: C'est Si Bon Eartha Kitt Meet the Senate Paul Lynde, Ronny Graham & Others Lucky Pierre Robert Clary Penny Candy ? Boston Beguine Alice Ghostley Love is a Simple Thing Robert Clary, Earthy Kitt Famous Southern Writer Ronny Graham Time for Tea Alice Ghostley & Others Alouette Robert Clary Santa, Baby Eartha Kitt Waltzing in Venice ? Take Off Your Mask Ronny Graham, Alice Ghostley Mr. Canker in Darkest Africa Paul Lynde Raining Memories Robert Clary I'm In Love With Miss Logan Robert Clary Pickpocket Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Ronny Graham Lizzie Borden Ronny Graham & Others Monotonous Eartha Kitt Finale Entire Cast

MEET THE SENATE was a senate investigation into jazz, with Ronny Graham in a zoot suit. PENNY CANDY is a heart tugging song by a bejeweled lady thinking back to her childhood when a piece of penny candy could make her happy as nothing in her rich life does now. BOSTON BEGUINE is a famous Sheldon Harnick number which Alice Ghostley really shines in. I couldn't figure out who the "famous Southern author" was supposed to be - Tennessee Williams; Truman Capote (the character's name is Kaput). TIME FOR TEA is a sad lament of missed opportunities in youth which lead to becoming two old maids. TAKE OFF YOUR MASK is Ronny Graham importuning Alice Ghostley to remove her mask at a ball in Vienna, but when he pulls it off, he begs her to put it back on and dashes away on a gondola. MR. CANKER IN DARKEST AFRICA is Paul Lynde in bandages and on crutches, narrating his unfortunate experiences on a recent trip to Egypt. I'M IN LOVE WITH MISS LOGAN is Robert Clary as a young boy with a crush on his teacher and not even knowing her first name. PICKPOCKET is a skit in which Paul Lynde is an unsuccessful pickpocket who is disappointed in his son, Ronny Graham, who plays baseball and gets A's on his report card, and doesn't seem to want to follow him into the family business. MONOTONOUS is Eartha Kitt as a femme fatale, bored with her life even though she "made Johnny Ray smile for me; a camel walked a mile for me."

On the whole, I found the film disjointed and silly, BUT I'm giving it a high rating because it was so much fun to see the likes of Alice Ghostly, Paul Lynde and Eartha Kitt as young performers.

I never knew Ghostly had an actual, excellent singing voice! Always the comic, she also shines vocally in her rendition of "In Boston".

Later, Lynde and Ghostly play the parents of a disappointing son in a sketch that, while amusing, reveals one of the drawbacks of going from stage to film without coaching -- they shout as if they need to work to be heard in the back row. This is an interesting bit of history to be shared with young people today who primarily observe performers fully wired for sound.

For me, the best parts of the film were the several appearances by Eartha Kitt doing her unique and delicious vamping at a time most of us think of as uptight and way too tame. There is nothing uptight or tame about Kitt's performances here! They alone are worth the price of the DVD.