Holiday in Mexico

If you have an hour and a half to kill and enjoy Jane Powell's singing and Walter Pidgeon's dashing good looks, this beats the heck out of watching this week's third installment of Dateline NBC. Seriously, the music is very good, the comedy is fast, and the sweetness is easy to take. Totally forgettable fluff, but an enjoyable way to pass time.

I'm a bit late to this discussion, but the reviewer who kept harping on Powell not being an actress makes no sense. She carries herself quite well; of course she can act. Geez--she's charming and handles the role well. Someone who can't act would come across as a clueless amateur. Powell did just fine here and elsewhere. Look at SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS.

Oh yeah, and ROYAL WEDDING. Powell did well opposite many a Hollywood star.

Anyway, even though this movie is hardly among the classics, it's a fine showcase for Powell.

HOLIDAY IN Mexico is filmed in bright and lush MGM Technicolor, but looks as though the filming never strayed far from the Culver City lot. It's the trite story of a teen-ager (JANE POWELL) with a crush on a much older man (JOSE ITURBI), and having frequent heart-to-heart talks with her sophisticated father (WALTER PIDGEON).

The first half of the film at least gets away from the trite plotting with a bunch of musical numbers that are attractively staged and presented in the way MGM always managed to do. Iturbi, ILONA MASSEY and others get a chance to shine. But the second half spends too much time straightening out the problems of RODDY McDOWALL and Jane, as they deal with the central problem--Jane's crush on Iturbi which has to be cured before the final reel.

It's a chore sitting through some of the syrupy scenes between Jane and Walter Pidgeon, but at least there's a good song for the finale--Schubert's "Ave Maria" which Powell sings beautifully. Didn't Deanna Durbin's IT'S A DATE wind up with the same Schubert song?

Pidgeon shows a good flair for comedy in some of his scenes, but none of the film seems to have an air of reality about it. You watch actors go through their paces and that's it.

It's strictly fluff for fans of Powell and Pidgeon, nothing more, saved by a few choice musical numbers, and the running time is too long.

This is my favorite all time Hollywood musical. I saw it in 1946 at the age of 15 and was stunned by the talent of newcomer Jane Powell. MGM knew how to create a star and they pulled out all the stops in this film. From the opening scene where Jane sings "Italian Street Song," you knew this was a unique talent. Young, attractive, bubbly with a golden voice. When she sings "Ava Maria" in the final scene, you knew MGM had a new star. The musical selections were excellent throughout. They utilized Jose Iturbi perfectly by having him play two of the most popular piano classics: Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto and Chopin's Polonaise. Beautiful Ilona Massey sang the familiar Hungarian Czardas. Walter Pigeon was perfect as Jane's father and Roddy McDowell was her poor confused beau. The plot was trite and dragged at times but it was the music that made it all worth while. Jane also sang "I Think of You" which was adapted from the same Rachmaninoff concerto. This film made me a lifelong fan of Jane Powell and I lament the fact that Hollywood no longer makes musicals like that. There is one current performer who reminds me of Jane Powell and that is Kristin Chenowith. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn't make films anymore that would showcase her talent.

Christine (Jane Powell) is the loving daughter to Jeffrey Evans (Walter Pidgeon), the American ambassador to Mexico. His friend Stanley Owen (Roddy McDowall) asks her to be his girl, but she doesn't have the time. Instead, she is taken with 50 year old concert pianist. Meanwhile her father falls in with an old love.

Teenager Jane Powell is playing with puppy crush and her daddy's love. It remains innocent and the movie stays in that zone. Roddy McDowall is also great in the that space. Jane gets to sing a bit and there is some fun like the silly little diddy Yo Te Amo Much. It is rather long at over two hours. The light fun does wear thin.