babblingbooks

I am an entirely biased Mitzi Gaynor fan. The most all around talent of them all. Singer, Dancer, completely natural actress and entertainer extraordinaire.

I think the less said about Scott Brady the better. Someone once said about an early Katherine Hepburn movie "she covered the range of emotions from A to B" ... well she was still two up on Scott. Couple of nice Damon Runyon comedy relief characters that did do nice work, however. The bloodhounds were fun and provided a great ending.

The number "Bout Eighty Miles Outside of Atlanta" knocked my socks off. Straight out of a Lil Abner scene in Dogpatch (only better) The other big number, "Jack of Diamonds" was also a good example of Mitzi comin' on full blast. Throw the rest of the movie away and just give me those two numbers and I am still happy.

Thank you for your attention .. go see the movie.

Well, I, for one, find this show to be very interesting and entertaining. Walk away when the commercials come on and come back three or four minutes later and you will eliminate most of the irritation. Howie Mandel does a really good-natured hosting bit that should be a lesson to those that take themselves too seriously.

The girls are great and are having a lot of fun. This show will develop into a truly entertaining habit for the American viewing audience.

I found myself muttering at the ridiculous offers of the mysterious banker (the cheap creep ... get real!) I wanted some of the macho type, posturing contestants to refuse an offer and have to settle for a lot less. (goody goody) .. The whole gamut of human emotions that is strung out here is quite consuming... I look forward to the next show to see what sort of contestant we have and how they will handle it.

I should like so much to slap some of the contestants silly. Greed is either funny or pathetic and sometimes both at once. Tune in and feel very superior to these poor creatures and find yourself pulling for some of them and despising others. All the facets of watching a wrestling match without having to ignore the phoniness. These people really do want that money.

I am trying to tell you why you are going to get hooked. A very nice package and I say, "Yay, Howie, keep it on the fun level that it is now. Watch it. Enjoy it. Don't let anyone tell you it is not worth while until you have tried it yourself. Any night it is NOT on, I am very disappointed.

OLD DAD

All of the June Haver musicals were worth watching, to me, mostly because of the time frame of the music involved (the gay nineties thru the twenties ... that is to say, 1890 thru 1930.)

This particular one, I enjoyed Monty Wooley's performance as a bit of a con man and an entrepreneur, as well as a rare appearance of Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, a former boxer who didn't have to fake a boxing match. Anthony Quinn had a chance to do comedy and fared quite well. Quinn makes a bet with Wooley that he (Wooley) cannot, as he claims, make a musical star out of the next female who comes out of the ladies room in a restaurant. You have four and a half guesses who comes thru the door.

There is one dreadful number called "Bessie and Her Bustle" which made me cringe. June's other numbers did her no harm but Only "Irish Eyes Are Smiling" was any real help to her. Dick Haymes was a bit of a dead fish as an actor but his singing was really quite splendid.

Some other reviewer called June's performance "butch", which is ridiculous. She was pert and feisty and altogether charming. Gordon MacRae would have done the Haymes part much more satisfactorily but then this is true of many, many leads that required an actor as well as a singer. I would recommend this film if you are a June Haver fan and if you like a lot of good old Irish songs. (Ball biography,roughly) How about "Mother Machree" and "A Little Bit Of Heaven Fell From Out the Sky One Day" and "Let The Rest Of The World Go By."