The Second Greatest Sex

This is one of the nuttiest musicals ever put on film. I caught it a few years ago early in the morning on AMC. Let's just say it starts out with a big production number of all these women caterwauling about "What good is a woman without a man" and goes down(?)hill from there. With lyrics like "The Lysistrata, the Lysistrata, cuz we gotta gotta gotta get our men back" Oi! Throw in Mamie Van Doren, Bert Lahr and a dream ballet with Tommy Rall, what more could you want? If you can catch it, it's worth the time for the jaw dropping factor alone.

In my view, this is a neglected musical gem, with a fine adaptation of the Lysistrata story. Jeanne Crain never looked lovelier (some of the closeups on her as George Nader sings to her through a window are ravishing). Bert Lahr basically reprised his lion from Wizard of Oz, especially in his vocal at the end. Mamie van Doren was a delight. It's a pity they cast her as a sexpot in other movies. Otherwise she might have been groomed as a more mainstream star. Jimmy Boyd of "that" children's Christmas song did remarkably well, almost flawlessly delivering his lines like a real pro. The film sagged a little in the unnecessary scene where Bert Lahr teaches Boyd unsuccessfully what sex means. I found that scene pointless.

The fine athletic dances were modeled on Kidd's choreography for a similar but superior film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But then MGM could do musicals in its sleep. The choreography was also similar to that in Li'l Abner.

Some songs were quite good (especially the opening song), but others were pedestrian (George Nader's song). For some reason Hank Mancini is credited as composer on one site but the credits show he didn't write any of the songs.

If the film has a weakness it's due to the action sequences, which could have been filmed with more drama and imagination (compare the action sequences in Seven Brides).

THE SECOND GREATEST SEX is a weird yet endearing comedy/musical that despite being part of a cycle of western musicals in the mid 1950's is one of a kind film. An unusual story and setting, the movie also boasts the most scatter-shot casting of the decade, truly a once-in-a-lifetime cast.

Universal rarely made musicals in the 1950's so when they got around to making this one they didn't have much talent under contract to play the supporting roles, so they hired people from all over the place: pop singer Kitty Kallen, teen novelty singer Jimmy Boyd ("I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"), ballet dancer Tommy Rall, and radio hillbilly vocalist Cousin Emmy, most of them making a very rare appearance in motion pictures. And to that vaudeville/Broadway legend Bert Lahr in one of his few film appearances since THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939. And that's even not counting forgotten stage musical performer Paul Gilbert (future father of Melissa Gilbert) and one Mary Marlo, making her film debut at age 60 (her only other appearance was an unbilled bit the next year) as Lahr's wife. The only Universal contractees in this film are Mamie Van Doren and (an obviously dubbed) George Nader.

Jeanne Crain has the lead in this film an 1880's beauty who resents fiancée Nader's obsession with the long-standing feud between two rival counties for a bank safe full of documents (didn't make sense to me either.) The men of the three counties spend years on end stealing and recapturing the vault from each other (with nary a gunshot heard). When Nader goes traipsing after the safe now stolen yet again on their wedding night, Jeanne has had enough and leads the women of the town into a sex strike on the men until they vow to give up this "war" after hearing a school teacher's tale of Lysistrata.

Most of the songs are full cast numbers although Nader "sings" a love song to Crain. Kallen also gets a solo which is danced to by Rall. Neither Boyd nor Cousin Emmy get a song of their own despite being cast presumably because they were singers. There's quite a bit of dancing in this and one may be taken aback a bit by seeing these western numbers danced to in mostly ballet fashion by the male dancers.

The billing is almost as strange as the movie. Studio contractee Van Doren is surprisingly pushed back to seventh billing, I would say she deserved at least fifth but perhaps Gilbert and Keith Andes contracts required them to be in the top six. Kathleen Case, on the other hand, has only a line or two and is billed over several players who have major roles.

Although this movie makes good use of Universal's well-used western locales it is no closer to reality than Paramount's stylized RED GARTERS. It is however, more fun, with a cast jumping into it with gusto and good humor. Too silly to be really good, nevertheless it's entertaining and worth a look if you can find it.

This movie started out promising with a very big eye opener for women to realize they are nothing without a man, something which I as Muslim can identify with. Unfortunately some of the most crazy Hollywood show cases followed and the result of it all wasn't that bad,but plainly weird, and I was like hey, this feel like someone just forced me to drink too much orange juice. Sure... Such a waste of talent to

That's a typical couplet from this Universal musical, a rather desperate attempt to cash in on MGM's success with "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." It hews to that formula very closely: Take an ancient myth ("Lysistrata" instead of "Rape of the Sabine Women"), set it out West, write a plot-specific score (in this instance, by many hands), and cap it with lots of athletic choreography (by Lee Scott, who's no Michael Kidd, but that is, admittedly, a high bar). George Marshall, by now something of a Western musical veteran, having just wrapped "Red Garters," directs briskly, and it's an interesting cast. Neither George Nader nor Jeanne Crain could sing, both are dubbed, but both sure were pretty. Kitty Kallen, a popular recording artist at the time who didn't have much luck with movies, has one nice ballad. The always wonderful Tommy Rall, inexplicably eighth-billed, does some astounding leaps. Keith Andes, too hunky to be playing a priest, gets to sing a song, one of those pseudo-religious mid-'50s things, while chopping down a tree, and winds up with Mamie van Doren. Bert Lahr clowns, Paul Gilbert gets a big specialty number, Jimmy Boyd squeaks, and the story gets spun out decently enough. It's another enterprising mid-'50s musical, trying to keep a fading genre alive. Is it good? Not very. But fun? You bet.