Mardi Gras

This movie is great for young girls. it is definitly not a guy movie. It has a lot of morals in it, which may not meet with the new generation today. it is fun to watch and good music. Great to watch during the mardi gras celebration time in new orleans. nice clean movie.

Studious cadet at a military academy wins the student raffle to travel down to New Orleans at Mardi Gras time to hopefully meet a popular starlet from Hollywood. Despite an original story by Curtis Harrington (!) and the Oscar-nominated musical direction from Lionel Newman, "Mardi Gras" seems cramped and uninspired. Pat Boone does some good work in the lead, but his blandly 'charming' cohorts are hardly appealing: Gary Crosby shamelessly pokes fun at father Bing, while Tommy Sands seems to disintegrate after his early solo and Richard (Dick) Sargent stands around with his arms folded. The early scenes at the academy work best (think "Taps" with music), however these characters are not worth following and their adventures do not reap big returns. *1/2 from ****

A traditional musical made at 20th just as traditional musicals were dying, and supposedly infused with vigor by casting it with several young heartthrobs: Pat Boone, Tommy Sands, Gary Crosby, Dick Sargent. But it's pretty tired. The first half-hour is an unexciting display of military academy life, with our four cadets marching, kidding each other, and affirming their good-natured camaraderie. Then they hit the Mardi Gras, where they're raffling off to their fellow cadets a date with movie star Christine Carrere. Pat wins, and their love affair is troubled by you're-a-movie-star-I'm-a-cadet, and her manager, Fred Clark, and his secretary, Sheree North, contribute supposedly witty sayings. Sheree proves, again, she should have been a much bigger star--she's pretty, she can sing and dance, and she's a natural comedienne--and there's also a comely Barrie Chase in a supporting part. The Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster score is miles below what they wrote for "Calamity Jane," and the wholesomeness-mixed-with-1950s-salaciousness may give you whiplash. A couple of nice numbers, though, and it's the last movie directed by Edmund Goulding, who made some great ones. Worth a look, then, but expect to be underwhelmed.

The story begins at Virginia Military Academy, where the students are apparently chosen based on singing ability, as Pat Boone, Tommy Sands and Gary Crosby are all singing friends. Their other friend is Dick Sargent...and his singing appears to be someone else actually doing the singing. I wasn't surprised by Boone or Sands...they are famous for their singing. But Gary Crosby is quite good and sounds a LOT like his famous father.

As for the plot, the VMI marching band has been invited to a Mardi Gras parade and Barry, Tony and Dick (Crosby, Sands and Sargent) come up with a money-making scheme...to arrange for a date with a famous French actress, Michelle Marton (Christine Carère) with whoever wins the raffle...which is Paul (Boone). And, would you believe it, Michelle and Paul eventually fall in love and the studio want to play this up for publicity purposes.

The songs are all very pleasant and peppy. However, none are all that memorable. This is made worse by having a few too many songs as well. Trimming a few and perhaps getting one or two blockbuster tunes might have made the musical aspect of the movie work. Overall, I think the bests things going for the movie is the location shoot in New Orleans as well as Boone, who comes off pretty well in the story. Nothing especially life-changing or amazing, but a pretty decent time-passer.

During the '50s music scene, Pat Boone had much success early in his career covering many songs originally written and recorded by black artists-in fact, many of them he recorded were at the time more successful than the originals but nowadays, his versions are considered more inferior. His ballads are more tolerable to listen to since many of those were written for him. He was a contrast to Elvis Presley which made both men very successful singers and movie stars during this period. While Presley at the time played variations of the Rebel, Boone played Clean-Cut, Goody-Two-Shoes like here as a military school cadet. Both had their own appeal and Boone's in full supply in this, only his third movie. He's not the only singer here, though, as Bing Crosby's son Gary is also in this as well as Tommy Sands. They go to New Orleans to meet a movie star of French roots, here played by Christine Carere. Other lovely ladies in this one are dancer Barrie Chase-who also was performing with Fred Astaire on TV during this period, and Sheree North, initially a possible replacement for Marilyn Monroe before 20th Century-Fox dropped her after the studio put her in this. It's interesting that Sands both filmed this movie in a state he partially grew up in-he was raised as a child in Shreveport-and also sang of the glory of Texas-since he grew up as a teen in Houston. He also had a brief reunion with Fred Clark-who had previously played his agent in the TV play "The Singin' Idol"-during a scene at the hotel. Clark here plays the publicity man for Carere. This was quite an enjoyable musical comedy-romance. It was the last time for director Edmond Goulding before his death. It was also the last time for Charles Gemora dressing like a gorilla on film as he does here in the actual Mardi Gras parade filmed at New Orleans which is only a couple of hours drive from my current hometown of Baton Rouge. In summary, Mardi Gras is worth a look. Oh, and this was Richard (Dick) Sargent's second appearance in a Pat Boone movie, having previously teamed with him in Boone's debut, Bernardine.