Athena

On a visit some weeks ago to my local Hollywood Video store, I noticed this title available among the VHS tapes in the Musicals section. Since I knew it had not been produced in CinemaScope (and therefore wouldn't suffer from the dread "formatting") and being a Jane Powell fan from 'way back, I rented it. It is certainly an odd concoction for a very conservative major studio of the mid-Fifties era; studio bound; directed by the pedestrian Richard Thorpe; packed with a cast selected to appeal, presumably, to the the younger members of its potential audience; and not as overflowing with musical numbers as I had hoped.

Jane is as pretty as ever, in overlit but warmly rich Eastmancolor, chirrupping in her matchless colortura; Debbie Reynolds lends her usual lively support; Vic Damone, despite his eminently listenable baritone, once again demonstrates why he never became a top boxoffice draw; and Edmund Purdom is perfectly cast as an unlikely stuffed-shirt suitor to Jane's way-out-there Athena. One can only imagine the chasm of misunderstandings that would bedevil their future marital bliss. With the elegant Louis Calhern as an unlikely patriarch, health and fitness obsessed, and the lovable Evelyn Varden as his woozy mate, convinced that astrology is the key to happiness. Add a passel of pre-steroid Muscle Beach denizens, including the handsome Steve Reeves and Ed Fury, before their emigration to Italy to appear in all those Hercules epics, and you've got a brew that's not really indigestible but doesn't really coalesce as its makers may have hoped.

I caught this film on TCM the other day and I must say I was strangely enthralled by it. There was something magical about the atmosphere created in this film with the sets and the star fields. Jane Powell's singing of "Love can change the Stars" was especially mesmerizing and it made me want to immediately go and get "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers". Steve Reeves was especially notable in this film. The weightlifting competition was yet another treat to behold. The song and dance numbers were lively and Debbie Reynolds was a dynamo. All in all, I taped this film and have reviewed it many times since.

Bodybuilding had a disreputable allure in the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Few would admit to its hold on them, but how else could you explain the box-office success of movies like "Hercules Unchained" and subsequent gladiator trash with a fleet of amply-endowed stars like Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest, Dan Vadis, Mickey Hargitay, and Brad Harris bulging flagrantly in front of the camera?

The premiere member of this elite group was a former Mr. Universe--the dark, statuesque Steve Reeves. Before the days when he was sporting a leather loincloth, chained at the wrists, tensing his biceps, and literally bringing the house down, Reeves was introduced for the public's delectation in the 1954 musical "Athena." In it, he plays Ed Perkins, the prize stallion of a stable of physical culturalists groomed by the barrel-chested Louis Calhern--handlebar moustache, bluster and all--as Ulysses Mulvain, a septagenarian who espouses to a neo-Spartan approach to life, replete with vegetarian diet, and plenty of fresh air and exercise. Reeves vies for the affection of the title character, Mulvain's granddaughter (Jane Powell), who, much to the chagrin of the "stars," has eyes for a stuffy, young lawyer (played by the impossibly handsome Edmund Purdom--if there ever was an actor with a silky-milky-white complexion, it's him), himself being primed and tweaked for a U.S. senate seat. Reeves settles for a supporting role in his first major outing on the screen and sits on the sidelines while Powell charts her inevitable course with Purdom glowering at her incessantly. The body beautiful has his big scene with taking the title at a re-creation of the Mr. Universe contest that for insiders must have seemed pretty hokey.

That aside, if you're willing to go with it, "Athena" can be fun--a kind of stilted mixture of numerology, prurient interest, and music--all served up by the not-so-discerning minds of writers William Ludwig ("The Student Prince"), Leonard Spigelgass, and the by-then renowned songwriting team of Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Their classic "The Boy Next Door" changes sex with Vic Damone singing it, and their "Love Can Change The Stars" is just syrupy enough for the sweet tooths of hopeless romantics. (My favorite is the spry "I Never Felt Better.") But none of these compares with the grandeur of blazingly blonde Powell's rendition of "Chacun Le Sait" from Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment." It's full of passion and indignation and fire, and Powell has never achieved so high a note of glory on screen as she has in these few much-too-short minutes.

Also on the sidelines--Debbie Reynolds as Athena's sister Minerva, and, descending from the clouds of Hollywood movie mysticism, Evelyn Varden as Salome Mulvain, grandmother of the nymphs, greeting everyone with something that sounds like "Namari gongo par" and coming out trances every so often to bestow upon her loved ones the will of the stars.

The robust smash hit of 7 Brides For 7 brothers literally spawned this star struck mini musical of 1954....and if one has a closer look in reels 1 2 and 3 (instead of 4 5 and 6) one can almost hear the board room pitch quoting the 7 Brides box office as the excuse to rush ATHENA into production: "That what they want! healthy boys and girls with an appetite for life living on some farm. The boys flex their muscles and the girls tend their.......er......garden." and so we have what is a lively and funny musical for the 20 year olds market that was called the teen market very soon after........quite rightly predating the AIP Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello frolics ten years later in Muscle Beach Party etc. Athena is good fun and well made. The muscle contest at the end to the tune "Jealousy" is well coded with beefcake antics....and all filmed from what might be called the bulging cossie angle. Hilarious! I would be fascinated to see the missing ten minutes as reported on the IMDb that the original running time was 115 minutes as opposed to the 95 mins only now available. I wonder was edited out and where can the footage be seen?

A film starring Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds and featuring songs by those behind the wonderful songs for 'Meet Me in St Louis' Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine promises much. They certainly do not disappoint, though 'Athena' could have been better than it turned out to be.

It is let down by a story that is paper-thin, flimsy is being generous, sometimes contrived and routine in direction in the non-singing and dancing scenes. The script is even sketchier (if shining in the scenes with the grandparents), with little logic and even less attention to characterisation which is all nice and pleasant (with nobody being characters that you hate) but not much else. And as beautifully as Vic Damone sings (and goodness isn't it a wondrous sound he makes), it is not matched by his dull presence and wooden acting.

However, Jane Powell is cute as a button and effortlessly charming as well as being on top-form vocally (especially in "Chacun Le Sait" from Donizetti's 'La Fille Du Regiment'). She is matched and partnered wonderfully by the energetic and spirited Debbie Reynolds, who also shows a knack for beautiful singing. Edmund Perdum brings a delicious dry wit to his character, and while the stuffy, pompous and stiff kind of character can easily be an annoyance when poorly executed Perdum does bring enough charm to stop him from being insufferable.

Louis Calhern is an absolute joy in his supporting role and it is a shame that he didn't have more scenes. Steve "Mr Universe" Reeves is imposing and commanding, with the body-building scene one of the film's highlights. Evelyn Varden is delightfully eccentric without overdoing it, while Virginia Gibson also has fun with her role.

Production values in 'Athena' are above average, with luminous photography and very attractive costumes. The sets are less than lavish but have enough imagination and colour to stop them from looking ugly. The songs, while not classics like the best of the composers' songs for 'Meet Me in St Louis', are better than given credit for. The melodies are easy to remember and very beautiful, the marvellous orchestration helps it, and there is some very clever and sophisticated lyric writing.

Standouts are "Love Can Change the Stars", "I Never Felt Better" and the role-reversal version of "The Boy Next Door" (here called "The Girl Next Door"). "Vocalise"/"Harmonise"/"Imagine" are also lovely. "Venezia" is touchingly wistful but holds the least relevance to the story. The dancing is full of dazzling energy and the choreography always avoids being overblown or routinely static.

On the whole, unexceptional story and script wise, but when it comes to all but one of the performances, the songs, the choreography, the singing and the dancing 'Athena' is also irresistible. 7/10 Bethany Cox