Deliciosamente Perigosa

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.

Poor plot, dire music, amateurish dancing, but surprisingly likable overall! The screenplay is quite witty and the acting in the minor parts is excellent. Better directed and photographed than most musicals of this type the time passes quite nicely. Watch for amusing cameos by stalwarts Arthur Treacher and Louise Beavers. There are a number of glaring inconsistencies and holes in the plot. Morton Gould, surely the least charismatic band leader ever to star in and write the music for a musical, plays just the sort of dull symphonic schmaltz that is apparently holding back the prospects of Arthur Hale's new production, while Josephine's shocking burlesque act shows a great deal less leg than her interminable number in a legitimate play at the end of the film.

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.

Plug Powell's bouncy effervescence into a generator and the sky would light up. At times she's a little much, but as an aspiring teenage singer, she really lights up the screen. Now, if she can just get the vocal career she wants and turn sister Moore from a burlesque queen into a legitimate stage performer, she'll be happy. Meanwhile, big-time stage producer Bellamy gets to stand around and look handsomely important. All together, they make an engaging threesome.

For sure, director Lubin keeps things moving, while the choreographed musical numbers are imaginative eye-catchers. Too bad the songs are forgettable even with the renowned Morton Gould conducting. Note the fringe presence of all the lively servicemen as the big war winds down in the production year of 1944. And for those interested in ladies' fashions of the time, there's plenty, especially with the stately Moore modeling. Then too, is that the great W. C. Fields doing a quick grab-by in the rolling record scene. It passes quickly, but see what you think.

Anyway, it's a fast moving, if not particularly memorable musical, that showcases a teenage Powell clearly on her way up the movie ladder.

15-year-old Sherry Williams (Jane Powell) attends a private all-girls music school. She's very proud of her older sister Josephine (Constance Moore) whom Sherry believes is a very famous concert singer. Sherry heads to the city to track down her sister, only to learn that she's actually a burlesque queen known as "Bubbles Barton". Sherry's image of her sister is shattered, and Josephine and friend Arthur Hale (Ralph Bellamy) try to smooth things over. Also featuring Arthur Treacher, Louise Beavers, Ruth Tobey, and Morton Gould & His Orchestra.

This was the second film appearance for teen singing star Powell, and her first in a fictional role (she'd played herself in 1944's Song of the Open Road). She's cute and has screen presence, but she's also a bit rough, acting-wise, overdoing several scenes. But perhaps that was intended, as she's an emotional teenager. The songs are passable, if unmemorable. The burlesque setting, and some of the racy dialogue, shows that the production code boundaries were being pushed against, if ever so gently.