Lovely to Look At

"Roberta" (1935) was based on a play of the same name. Now here in 1952, MGM decided to remake it. However, they didn't really like the plot and the characters and so all they really kept were the songs and a few pieces here and there. Not exactly a re-make, huh?

I should point out that the reason I watched this is because I really like Red Skelton films. But, I don't usually like him in musicals because then his comedy clearly takes a back seat. Can this film somehow be a good musical AND a good Skelton vehicle?

Al (Skelton) and his two buddies (Howard Keel and Gower Champion) are trying to get backers for their Broadway show...but with no luck. Then, out of the blue, Al receives a telegram...his aunt in Paris has died and left him her fancy dress business. So, the three head to Paris...intent on selling the place and using the money for their show. But there's a problem...Al is smitten with one of the ladies running the business (Kathryn Grayson) and has a hard time telling her of his intentions. The same happens with his buddies and they decide, instead, to try to make the place even bigger and grander...and they seem to have forgotten about their play. This is odd...even odder is their idea of turning this dress shop into a combination dress shop and night club of sorts! If this sounds confusing, welcome to the club!!

The confusion gets worse when practically everyone seems to have fallen in love with Tony (Keel)...and you wonder whether he'll end up with Stephanie (Grayson) or Bubbles (Ann Miller) or the one he really seems to be in love with...Tony! As for the third friend, Jerry (Gower Champion) says very little and is really only there to do fancy dance numbers with his real life wife, Marge Champion.

So is this any good? Well, it depends. If you love a big, long and very splashy dance sequence at the end and don't mind that the film has many formulaic elements (pretty much all of them are embodied in Tony!), then you'll no doubt enjoy it. As for me, I wanted more comedy, more Skelton and less of everything else. Mildly entertaining and that's all.

That 30 minutes includes the dance numbers by Ann Miller and The Champions (indeed they were). The other 15 minutes is at the end of the film, a gorgeous fashion show designed by Adrian. It's the ultimate display of fantasy 50s feminine fashion. The designers and runway models of today should view this on how it should be done rather than the current crop of strident and pouting stringbeans who posture and pose in the drab and dreary unimaginative rags that pass as au courant fashion.

Grayson and Keel didn't really gel in this confection. Grayson always seems to be pouting, but that seems to have been her basic acting style. Keel is a bit stiff here, but his singing is right on the money. Red Skelton was quite funny back then and hugely popular; alas, his type of humor seems to have lost its appeal over time. Zsa Zsa was never the consummate actress like her sister, Eva (!!!) but her presence here added a daffy charm that soon became the Gabor sisters' trademark.

Still, the star of this flick is Adrian with his array of fab 50s feminine fashions that are definitely "Lovely To Look At". The gowns were especially spectacular and they inspired many a prom dress back then; also, debutante balls, weddings, and beauty pageants.

Glad to see that this film has finally become available. For many years, I believe it had problems being released because of copyrights held by the Jerome Kern estate.

...the reviews for Lovely To Look At really expose how much even classic Hollywood films can't bring joy to grownup children who can't enjoy a piece of entertainment for itself, but must keep comparing it to something long past, which is about as typically (and sadly) "status-quo" in this pathetic world we now live in as I can imagine ("make Hollywood great agin"?). I love the film 'Roberta' too - it's one of the Astaire-Rodgers films, so that's almost an automatic; the fact it stars Irene Dunne is a great bonus in my book - But reviews of 'Roberta' belong on the 'Roberta' page. 'Lovely To Look At' is its own thing entirely.

You've got the great singer Kathryn Grayson, the great dancers Ann Miller and Marge & Gower Champion, the fine musical star Howard Keel -who, like Red Skelton, really seems to bother modern (tiny) minds - and some great numbers (including Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, sung beautifully by Grayson), and "I won't Dance" with the Champions. But if you insist, let's keep the reviews about actors that were in the film this was BASED on, but not actual In this one; smart! None of these gorgeously-performed numbers make me long for 'Roberta', which, again, is a completely different production , its own thing. And one final note...

The number of sad, pathetic whiners who seem to genuinely hate the late, great Red Skelton is Mind-boggling. One self-professed genius reviewer chalked this up to MGM pandering to "the Midwest", which is about as arrogant an attitude for a supposed classic Hollywood film lover as I can imagine - if you hate condescending to "middlebrow" tastes so much, I can't imagine why you ever thought you'd enjoy ANY classic Hollywood films; if you must take such an antipathetic stance against the "corn" (some of us consider it a selling point, not something to simply "put up with"; ESPECIALLY MGM, which was run by the family-obsessed Louis B Mayer, whom I suspect I'd have a lot of disagreements with, but damn I do love the films, even Andy Hardy, which I'm absolutely SURE you are all "Above" enjoying, so back to my main rant...) I'd suggest you stick with more modern fare. Superhero films just might be for you. Maybe some modern filmmaker can tap-dance for you all. It strikes me now how brilliant the line "Here we are now, entertain us" is. That's the attitude of today's spoiled society; don't produce anything, just whine and complain about what we do have, and those who are actually doing things (worse, complain about stuff from 70y ago). Wow, a stance against a comedian from 75 years ago - how BRAVE. There ARE comedians who get on my nerves, but I appreciate them ALL, because it's tough to perform for an audience (as the man said, "Hell is other people"; your whining about ol' Red is at least partly the reason the statement remains true about humanity; I can't think of any reason a modern audience should dislike Red Skelton, except the fact that he comes across as genuinely decent, which of course whiny malcontents cannot possibly understand in a comedian; no cheap shots?!? Shocking; oooohhh my pearls!), and it's REALLY tough to be funny for an audience of diverse people. So while I despise all critics, i have special contempt for any moron who feels the need to savage a long-dead comedian, especially a great guy such as Red Skelton always seems to me to have been. There are many worse old Hollywood people Much more Deserving of your ire than Red Skelton, but you're all so entitled, so I don't expect you'd bother to think about that. His big sin is that he's not funny to you NOW (70 years later; shocking that comedy isn't exactly The same as it was then... hmm). Again, in closing, I recommend the marvel universe for you too-smart-for-a-70-year-old-film "coastal elites" lol. The guy came from VAUDEVILLE, a now-extinct form of entertainment. Look it up.

And if you downvote my review as "not helpful" I will consider it an honor. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your hair.

This could have been much better. Terrific cast, however Red Skelton (one of my favorites, usually) isn't in good form (but Ann Miller's form is terrific), Howard Keel is lackluster, and Zsa-Zsa is YOUNG! However blah the plot and acting are, I can highly recommend this picture on the basis of 3 dance routines by Marge & Gower Champion, two of which are unique. The first takes place among clothes racks, utilizing a wheeled dress-sizer. Take a long look at the dance... there are no cuts! IT IS ALL ONE TAKE! The last dance is near the end of the film, where jewel-thief Gower tries to take a diamond bracelet from mannekin Marge. Superb choreography in both routines! I gave it an 8 out of 10.

Neither the RKO 1935 version of Roberta or MGM's 1952 Lovely To Look At are anything like the original show on Broadway. RKO eschewed a male lead singer opposite Irene Dunne and went with Randolph Scott. In and of itself that necessitated change as the vocal chores got divided up between Irene Dunne and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers who were the secondary leads. In that version it was Scott who inherited the Parisian dress shop and romanced a woman who managed the place named Stephanie played by Dunne.

Stephanie played by Kathryn Grayson is still running the dress shop known as Madame Roberta's. But here it's Red Skelton who inherits half the place from his late aunt. He's partners in an act with Howard Keel and Gower Champion and they want him to sell his half so that they can get the money for a Broadway show. The three of them have to cut Ann Miller in on the deal just to get passage over to Paris.

Of course it's Keel who Grayson pairs off with and in doing so the film comes into balance vocally as the stage show did. Getting the dance numbers are Marge and Gower Champion, Marge playing Grayson's younger sister.

I think I can see the way the minds worked at MGM. In 1950 they copped the Best Picture Oscar for An American In Paris with a nice Parisian setting. Then the following year, Keel, Grayson, and the Champions were in a remake of another Jerome Kern classic Showboat which did very well. What to do, but combine all that in a Jerome Kern show that's Parisian based in Roberta. Besides why let all those expensive sets recreating Paris go to waste.

Also the fashion show finale was absolutely inspired by the fantasy ballet from An American In Paris. But the fantasy of Kelly in that film is replaced by a surreal reenactment of Jimmy Durante's famous line of 'everybody's getting into the act'.

Sometimes these things work and sometimes they don't. In this case the sum was definitely not greater than its parts. Howard Keel in his memoirs said that he felt that Mervyn LeRoy did not do right by him in this film that he had to make up his own interpretation of his character. Maybe LeRoy had too loose a hand and the film needed an overall creative genius like Gene Kelly.