Kess und kokett

The Girl Most Likely has the dubious distinction of being the last film ever shot by RKO before the studio folded. If it looks familiar it is a musical remake of the Ginger Rogers classic Tom, Dick, and Harry. Standing in for Ginger is Jane Powell recently of MGM and directing is Mitchell Leisen. But even with those two considerable talents, The Girl Most Likely is a far cry from some of the classic expensive musicals that Powell did at MGM like Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.

The serviceable, but unmemorable score was written by the songwriting team of Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane who also did better things at MGM like Meet Me In St. Louis.

The Girl Most Likely does faithfully follow the plot of the film from which it was adapted. Jane who was getting a little old for these kind of parts now despite her diminutive size plays a young woman newly in the work force, but with an eye for marriage. And she accepts at different times proposals of marriage from three different guys, go getting real estate salesman Tommy Noonan, Bohemian auto mechanic Cliff Robertson, and her millionaire boss Keith Andes whom she really set her cap for.

Tom, Dick and Harry had some imaginary sequences where Ginger Rogers imagined life with each of her three prospective husbands and those do lend themselves to musical numbers. Somehow I think if this had been done at MGM by the Arthur Freed unit it would have come out a lot better.

In the supporting cast take note of Kaye Ballard as Jane's best friend in the Eve Arden part and Frank Cady and Una Merkel as her parents.

As The Girl Most Likely follows the plot of Tom, Dick and Harry those of you who saw that film know who Jane winds up with. But you won't get that out of me.

This movie features mostly people not known for their singing or their dancing... singing and dancing. The story is pretty weak and the musical numbers and dances are uninspired to put it mildly. Some of the principals were fortunate enough to be in much better films than this; how they ended up here I don't know but it's just a lame effort. The sets and color are nice enough and there are some interesting period touches for the 1950's, but overall, it's not a movie you'll finish watching (if you DO finish it) and want to see it ever again.

Jane Powell is "Dodie", who toys with men, and then gets them to propose. Cliff Robertson, Keith Andes, and Tommy Noonan all want to marry her, but now she must make her choice. The story of this film production is more interesting than the plot itself... apparently it was filmed as RKO was going under, but Universal ended up releasing it. The one really bright spot here is Kaye Ballard, who was a fixture and sidekick in so many hollywood films. Ballard performed frequently around LA and Palm Springs, and was SO talented. and of course, Frank Cady was in Petticoat Junction and Green Acres. SO much singing in here....(too much). kind of a gidget film, but Powell is already much older. (sandra dee was only 17 when she played Gidget ! although this film might have inspired Gidget, two years later. ) Robertston went on to some pretty big things. Noonan died quite young. Script is so-so. Looks like it was all television for director Mitchell Leisen after this one. a big yawn. Skip this ... there's probably something better showing.

I saw this one at a theater in Westwood, California during its initial release and hadn't remembered much about it except for the lilting title song performed by the Hi-Lo's (the very best of the male singing quartets of that era) and the lively "Balboa" dance number with a flotilla of dancers splashing through the water's edge on a partially flooded soundstage setting.

Turner Classic Movies showed it earlier today and, oh my!, what a tremendous waste of the various talents involved. Almost everyone in the cast, except for Cliff Robertson, whom I've always found to be close to terminally bland, is criminally underused. The Newport/Balboa Island setting for most of the action isn't capitalized on, except for the title sequence. The production numbers are almost all sub-par, not coming close to the norm in Jane Powell's M-G-M extravaganzas. The treatment of Mexican nationals and American Indians is typical of 1950s all-white heedlessness. And the script is about as silly as they come by any standard, with Jane's final choice of her three suitors (cued by that "Pink Cloud Feeling") being the fadeout disappointment.

Gower Champion's ability to get a troupe of talented dancers into showing some real razzle-dazzle is best showcased in the "Balboa" number and Nelson Riddle's arrangements almost redeem the surprisingly lackluster songs by the usually reliable Ralph Martin and Hugh Blane (who weren't responsible for the listenable title song). All in all, if RKO Radio Pictures weren't already moribund, this one was sure to provide the final nail in its coffin.

This is an odd, but charming, little film. A remake of an old Ginger Rogers film called Tom, Dick or Harry. But somehow in musicalizing it and making the changes necessary for the new location, something has been lost and I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Your have a great cast! Jane Powell, fresh from her MGM days. Kaye Ballard in one of her very rare movie roles (there are times when she still seems to be playing to the balcony) and a great supporting cast of people like Frank Caddy, Una Merkel, Cliff Robertson, Tommy Noonan and Keith Andes, who was also rarely seen on film. The choreography by Gower Champion is bright and inventive, especially the number on the beach and a score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. What else could someone want?

I still don't know.

Ms Powell's character has no redeeming characteristics. She is out for one thing and one thing only - to marry a rich man and she doesn't care who she steps on along the way. Then when she does have the millionaire she just drops him suddenly,on the very hour of their wedding, to go back to Fiancée #2, the mechanic, with no thought to Fiancée #1 (her childhood friend) who seems to be the only one honestly in love with her. Ah love - one can never understand it.