Lullaby of Broadway

Another of my most enjoyable movie musicals with my favorite star, Doris Day, singing and dancing with Gene Nelson. I'll never forget the tap dance they did together going up a staircase-fantastic! An excellent cast includes Gladys George, and two of the funniest men around in the 50s: cute S.Z. Sakall and that buggy-eyed looney Billy DeWolfe who will tickle your funnybone. Sakall played in most of Doris' musicals and he is a character to remember! Whatever happened to Gene Nelson? He was surely a fine dancer!

'Lullaby of Broadway' had a lot of promise. Gene Nelson, a very talented dancer, Doris Day (my main reason for seeing it), a singer and actress personally can't get enough of, a fantastic poster, Technicolor and the involvement of veterans like SZ Sakall, Gladys George and Florence Bates.

While 'Lullaby of Broadway' could have been better overall as a film, none of the above disappoint. Three things let it down. The story is silly and uninspired, livened up by the songs and most of the staging of them. Some of it feels under-directed in some non-musical scenes and even in a couple of numbers, especially "You're Dependable", which needed a good deal of reigning in but instead makes Billy De Wolfe and Anne Triola to over-compensate.

De Wolfe and Triola do resort to mugging often, and it grates rather than entertains with some of the vaudevillian humour feeling 30+ years out of date. Triola is especially hammy, a very large slice of ham where subtlety completely eludes her.

However, the Technicolor is just glorious, with gorgeous colours. The clothes are also a feast for the eye. 'Lullaby of Broadway' benefits too from very memorable songs, particularly the title song, "Zip! Went the Strings of My Heart" and "Just One of Those Things". Most are choreographed well, with a breath-taking routine for "Zip! Went the Strings of My Heart" that is one of the best routines ever seen in any musical with Doris Day.

The script is light and fluffy but also amiable and witty, while there is enough zippy pacing to make up for the mostly underwhelming story.

Day captivates in her acting, which is natural and fresh, and especially her sublime singing. Nelson is an effectively likable leading man and proves himself a fine dancer. SZ Sakall plays his usual role but does it well, charming, cuddly and never irritating, while Florence Bates and Gladys George bring both humour and class to their supporting roles (although George also has a few scenes she has some memorably funny and truthful lines).

In conclusion, good if not great fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Light entertainment at its best, a great guilty pleasure for your pc.

This film boasts surprisingly strong performances by a solid cast: let's say it, a cast humble enough to throw themselves into an odd sort of film: part melodrama, part musical, part fashion show for its star.

Radiating joie-de-vivre, out-singing anyone of her time, serious one moment then tongue-in-cheek the next, Day is a star, an under-rated one these days.

Gene Nelson's dancing is important to see if only to better understand Fred Astaire's. The Astaire difference was this: talent, yes, Nelson had it as well, but not the ability to bring us to the brink of something endless through his motions: to make you know he was on the edge of something vast and mysterious; to suggest a whole unseen world by dancing in this one. Bravo, Fred!

After living in England, bubbly American singer-dancer Doris Day (as Melinda Howard) sails for New York. Aboard ship, Ms. Day meets likewise inclined Gene Nelson (as Tom Farnham), a Broadway star, homeward bound. The two are mutually attracted, but Day finds Mr. Nelson too forward. Day expects to return to her mother's mansion, but the house had been sold to blustery German brewer S.Z. Sakall (as Adolph Hubbell). A former Broadway star, Day's mother Gladys George (as Jessica Howard) has hit the skids, and is trying to lay off the sauce. Butler Billy De Wolfe (as Lefty Mack) tries to hide the truth from Day...

"Lullaby of Broadway" wisely brings Gene Nelson back for more singing and dancing with Doris Day. They had created momentary magic in a previous minor picture, "Tea for Two" (1950). Jumping on a piano and dancing incredibly with Day on a staircase, Nelson moves up to leading man, herein. While the co-stars are wonderful, the production has the appearance of quickly being thrown together, with familiar songs and reheated story lines. Strangely, Nelson's singing is dubbed. However, Day and Nelson are marvelous. One wonders what they would do at MGM, if afforded material like "Singing in the Rain" (1952).

****** Lullaby of Broadway (3/26/51) David Butler ~ Doris Day, Gene Nelson, Gladys George, S. Z. Sakall

If you love Fifties movie-musicals that stress music over story, "Lullaby of Broadway" is the prototype. It takes moviemaking back to the Astaire-Rogers films, which highlighted dancing, music, and wisecracking dialogue. "Lullaby" isn't quite "Top Hat", but it does represent a trend where old, sentimental hit tunes are given updated arrangements and settings.

In her autobiography, "Doris Day: Her Own Story" (published in 1976), the actress describes her early years as a contract player for Jack Warner and the heated disputes she had with the autocratic movie czar over miscasting and bad scripts. But in "Lullaby," there is virtually no script to complain about. It's mainly a revue. But what a revue! From Ray Heindorf's jazzy rendition of the old title tune (from "Gold Diggers of 1935") over the opening credits to the end, this movie clicks along in high gear from one showstopper to the next.

Day also recalled in her memoirs that "Lullaby" contained, by far, the toughest dance routines of any film she ever made. One especially challenging scene called for her to perform an intricate series of steps on a huge staircase while weighed down in a gold-lame dress. At first, she balked, warning the crew to have an ambulance waiting after the first take. With encouragement from the director David Butler and others, however, she managed to complete the number.

"Lullaby of Broadway" is not the best of the Day/Warners musicals--that distinction goes to "Calamity Jane" (1953)--but it's as good as the rest. With Gene Nelson as Day's love interest, Billy De Wolfe as a vaudevillian-turned-valet, and S. Z. Sakall as a Broadway "angel."