Musique aux étoiles

I enjoyed this movie. It captured the aura of the era better than most 40s productions with many authentic-seeming details. The fire horses were particularly effective. I wonder if they doubled as chariot horses in other movies. One of the most effective devices was having the musicians and singers at their windows, instead of having the music come out of nowhere. The movie made me want to live there! It looked like everyone was having a good time.

The characters were engaging and did clever bits of business--I especially liked the artist on the telephone to his fiancée, the songs were buoyant, the patter was funny--such as the cow painter who couldn't get a word out, the dancing and singing very good. My favorite musical number was The Fireman's Ball which was clever and original but also in keeping with the 1900 setting. (I went back and watched that again because it was so entertaining.) Good line in it about "belle of the brawl." The women were strong-minded as was typical in movies of the war years, and the dresses were beautiful. I'm not a big fan of romantic ballads but I know from listening to 1940s radio shows online that they were hugely popular in that decade so I'm sure the audience liked that part better than I did.

For me the main reason to see this film is Allan Dwan's wonderful direction. He has the good sense to park it and point it when the action dictates, e.g. in the musical sequences, but he also takes the opportunity to explore every inch of a very complicated set with the camera: up and down the stairs, out the back from low and high, in and out the front door, all around the top studio apartment, and towards the end an enormous crane shot of the house fronts.

And he gets good performances out of the cast. I don't agree with the other comments about the acting. The women are all excellent (Jane Frazee in the lead, Irene Rich as the landlady) and Gail Patrick is downright sensational as the cousin from Boston. Victor McLaglen and James Ellison as the Boston sleaze-bag are both excellent; Kenny Baker works hard at it; Franklin Pangborn always a delight: only William Marshall as the composer is a bit wooden, but then he is the designated sap in the script.

All in all a very nice ensemble piece with good music too. The firemen's ball number is hilarious.

This is not a well known musical but includes several excellent songs written by Jimmy McHugh. The principal vocalists include Bill Marshall, Jane Frazee, Janet Martin and specially Kenny Baker. The latter's tenor is shown off to good effect and he is capably joined in duets with Janet Martin, one of the several young players under contract to Republic who disappeared with the decline in the studio system. It is a multi-star cast including Victor McLaglen as a Fire Chief, Irene Rich as a Boarding House owner, Gail Patrick as a wealthy Bostononian and James Ellison. The story involves the trials of young hopefuls in the music/dance world, Martin, Frazee, Marshall, etc. and Ellison, a wealthy young artist from Boston. Martin plays a predatory female after Baker a young song plugger while there is a triangular mixup between Frazee and two potential suitors, Marshall and Ellison and Patrick. Highly recommended as a much better than average small musical from Hollywood just before television started to cut into the profits of the movie studios.

For Republic Pictures this was undoubtedly one of their bigger productions in 1947 and I couldn't help thinking that with a score by top songwriters Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson this film might be better known had some major studio did it.

As it is Calendar Girl takes place at the turn of the last century and it concerns life in the artist's colony of Greenwich Village. Two men of the arts from Boston, painter James Ellison and composer William Marshall, arrive in town and take up residence in the artist's boardinghouse of the indulgent Irene Rich who must have a literal last name to put up with the itinerant payments of rents she gets and expects. Another in the house is singer Jane Frazee who both Marshall and Ellison court.

The problem is that Ellison is already engaged to Gail Patrick back in Boston and he's wealthy on his own and just taking a hiatus from the family banking business. He's making a play for Frazee and that's coming between him and Marshall.

As for Marshall he gets a different kind of partnership. Singer Kenny Baker is becoming Hart to his Rodgers and with his tenor is plugging their songs as well.

I can't forget Frazee's father Victor McLaglen who is a fire captain and still regards Frazee as Daddy's Little Girl even after she becomes a celebrity of sorts when Ellison's painting makes her the Calendar Girl of 1901. McLaglen is just his overbearing, lovable, oafish self.

The lack of production values kills what is a nice picture and could have been a classic over at MGM.

I didn't know that Republic Pictures made a musical until I saw "Calendar Girl" as a second feature of a DVD I bought for another movie. And, what a pleasant surprise. This movie is better than the big studio film on the same DVD. I don't know if B studio, Republic, made any more musicals among its more than 1,100 films, but this sure is a good one. I've seen quite a number of Westerns, war films, and dramas and mysteries that Republic made over the years. Some were quite good, and others not so good.

But "Calendar Girl" is an entertaining and fun comedy musical and romance. The plot is familiar - struggling song writers, musicians and artists going to New York to try to become successful and famous. But, the setting is somewhat unusual, and it provides for much of the humor and some of the warmth of the story. It takes place mostly in and around Lulu Varden's Greenwich Village home for hopeful artists and performers. The comedy, music and antics add up to very good entertainment.

I wasn't familiar with any of the lead actors in this film, but the supporting cast showed that Republic could get some very good casts from around Hollywood. Gail Patrick was a prominent supporting actress in dramas and comedy romances. But two very good comedy actors, and a third from that genre, were very prominent supporting players for many films and studios during the early to mid-20th century. Franklin Pangborn plays a stage show producer, Dilly Dillingsworth; and Gus Schilling plays a sort of scatterbrain handyman for Lulu, Ed Gaskin. Charles Arnt is in the film as Capt. Olsen.

The supporting cast also includes an Academy Award winner in Victor McLaglen. The seasoned actor of drama and comedy won his Oscar in 1935 for his role as Gypo Nolan in "The Informer." But, here, he plays a more familiar comedy role as a brash, tough guy and fireman He's the father of the female lead's character, Patricia O'Neill. Jane Frazee plays Patricia and is one of the five leads with whom I wasn't the least familiar before watching this film. The others are William Marshall as Johnny Bennett, Kenny Baker as Byron Jones, James Ellison as Steve Adams, and Irene Rich as Lulu Varden.

Well, they had varying careers in the film and on stage and all were quite good. Marshall sang for Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians before he had his own band for a time. But the big surprise is Kenny Baker, with his grand tenor voice. He got his start on radio with Jack Benny. He too didn't have a long career, but he made several more musicals and then quit acting for a career as a motivational and spiritual speaker. Irene Rich had been a silent movie leading and supporting actress. She transitioned well into sound, and when somewhat older she had many very good motherly and matronly roles, as she does in this film. She also became very popular on radio and had her own show for a decade, called "Dear John," aka, the Irene Rich Show.

The plot is very good, with all kinds of talented artists living in Lulu Varden's large home and the adjoining Greenwich Village lodgings for would-be artists. Some of the tunes are familiar, and those who like musicals should enjoy this film.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Lulu Varden, "Girls may be attractive to boys, but only ladies attract gentlemen, and only gentlemen are rich."

Johnny Bennett, "Hey, you know, you're pretty intelligent." Byron Jones, "Oh, not only that, but I'm smart too."

Steve Adams, on the phone, "You're the most wonderful girl I've ever known." Olivia "Lily" Radford, "I'd rather be the only one."

Matthew O'Neill, "I save lives." Dilly Dillingsworth, "And we, in the theater, save souls."

Steve Adams, "Love to have you along, John boy, but you know the old adage - Two's company and three isn't even a quartet."

Steve Adams, "Why didn't you let me know you were coming?" Lily Radford, "I prefer to steal up on my prey and catch the critter dead to rights." Steve," Whadda you mean, Lily?" Lily, "I think you know what I mean."

Patricia O'Neill, "It was very nice of you to take me instead, though." Johnny Bennett, "Oh, I didn't want to. I fought against the whole thing. Steve, I said, now why should I take out the most beautiful, the most wonderful girl in New York? When I can be alone in the attic playing dominoes? But I finally gave in."

Lily Radford, "Steve, I've changed my mind. We're going to Delmonicos." Steve, "Oh, but we can't just walk out.. on the mayor." Lily, "He isn't the mayor of Boston. Goodnight." Johnny Bennett," Good night, Lily."

Matthew, to Lulu, "Well, you've sprung your trap, and I'm not in it." Lulu, after he leaves, "Then, I'll just have to set my trap again."

Lulu, "Two people can live as cheaply as one, IF they're in love. And, IF they live in my house."

Lulu, "My dear boy, I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong."

Johnny Bennett, to Lulu, "Good night, Cupid." Lulu, glancing at her shoulder, "Darn it. Is that bow and arrow showing again?"

Johnny, "Look, Steve, uh, don't ever do anything to hurt her." Steve Adams, "I never hurt 'em, kid. I just stun 'em."

Lulu, "Women do have legs, you know. And they're very beautiful." Matt O'Neill, "Woman, you're depraved." Lulu, "And you're blind. You don't know beauty when you see it."