Deliciosamente Perigosa

This light musical is solid if nothing special, with a story, characters, and production that are all about average overall. The cast is probably the strongest part if it, with a young Jane Powell in the lead role.

The story concerns two sisters and their dreams of a career in show business. As the younger of the two, Powell's character wants to be a singer, and Powell is given several opportunities to perform. As her sister, Constance Moore has a simpler role, but she fulfills it adequately. Ralph Bellamy probably gives the best performance, and he is well-cast as a well-meaning, slightly befuddled Broadway producer. Arthur Treacher also pitches in playing Bellamy's butler.

Most of the rest of it is rather plain, although there are no real flaws. The story is purely lightweight, but it has enough to keep you watching, and the characters are just believable enough to make you care about them.

Jane Powell thinks her sister, Constance Moore, is starring on Broadway. Producer Ralph Bellamy confirms this to her classmates at her posh school. When she goes to New York to visit, she discovers the truth: Miss Moore is starring in burlesque. Meanwhile, Bellamy is unable to cast his new show, a swing version of Strauss as arranged by Morton Gould.

Except for the burlesque connection -- alas, the camera cuts away before we get to see the good stuff -- this looks a lot like a Deanna Durbin musical from the late 1930s, with Miss Powell standing in for Miss Durbin. Miss Powell gets to sing a number of songs in a variety of styles, and Miss Moore cuts loose a couple of time, especially with the big finale, which is a lot of fun; the staging suggests R. Strauss' DIE FLEDERMAUS more than Johann Strauss, but that's fine. Miss Powell shortly went to MGM, where she played this sort of role for several years; Miss Moore appeared in several movies for a couple more years, often in a specialty number; and Bellamy made one more movie that year, then was not seen on the big screen for a decade.

It's the type of story that was often done better for Miss Durbin, and clearly didn't serve anyone's career. Director Arthur Lubin stages the musical numbers pretty stodgily; even if they are set in a theater stage or where Morton Gould's orchestra is playing, there's little sense of the visual fantasy that most movie musicals provided.

I just finished watching this wonderful movie and immediately rushed to IMDb thinking I'd find a whole bunch of cult followers to yap with. Instead I find only 1 post in the forum and 2 lukewarm reviews.

As my title states: C'mon peeps, this movie is FREAKING AWESOME! First of all Jane Powell is absolutely adorable as "Little Poison Ivy", the 15-year-old girl who has a spooky way of looking twice her age at times. But regardless of how she's gussied up, she carries a sweet, impish, Jennifer Jones-like charm which is just perfect for the role.

It's perfect because--enter the sultry sister--Constance Moore works the other end of the spectrum. As a worldly, boogie-woogie burlesque showgirl, Ms. Moore is the perfect compliment to Ms. Powell's Baroque innocence.

Caught in the middle is Ralph Bellamy as a very Jimmy Stewart-like father figure who gets dragged into the whole mess that these feisty sisters create. He does a fantastic job. I would venture to say that in this case he out-Stewarts Stewart.

But what really knocked me out were the supporting performances from the butler Jeffers, the schoolchum Molly and the maid Hannah, each of whom make perfect comedic entrances at the perfect time. It was like watching a Shakespearean comedy where the real big laughs are handled by the minor characters, leaving the major characters to focus on the plot an dialogue. Freaking brilliant stuff & excellent performances all around. This is one of those movies where the cast is absolutely perfect all the way down to the extras, and I can't imagine anyone doing a better job in any of the roles.

Lastly I have to mention the excellent camera work and framing of shots. The director was very creative with perspective and depth, so we don't feel like we're watching a 2-dimensional cartoon all the time. There are clever shots where the action is in the forefront, but our eye is drawn to some detail in the background. And when the director applies this cinematic style to the actual dance numbers, the result is staggering (like in the finale where a parade of girls magically "flows" from behind a column and draws the shot toward the camera while Powell remains the stationary focal point in the background. Yeah it's hard to describe.

I am truly dumbfounded at why this film has such a low (5.9) rating on IMDb. I'm guessing it's because this is a very female-dominated story & performance, and practically all of the votes are from males (out of 40 votes, only 2 are female). Well golly, I don't feel like any less of a man for saying "this girly movie kicks ass!"

I thought this was a lot of fun. Great old film. Solid performances by all.

IMDB says that this is a remake of Mad about Music featuring Deanna Durbin. That surely must be an error. This film, Delightfully Dangerous rather has an identical premise to Two Sisters from Boston featuring Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson & Peter Lawford. If so, pretty incredible given that these films were made within a year of each other. Rather, The Toy Tiger with Jeff Chandler, Laraine Day & Tim Hovey is a very charming remake of Mad about Music. Incredible how many 1930s films were remade in the 1940s.

Pleasant enough film, if slightly exasperating at times. Musical sequences bit too long, in my opinion.