A Felicidade Estava Por Perto

I remember listening to one of Bing Crosby's old radio shows Dinah Shore was his guest and she was hawking this new film she did for Paramount, Aaron Slick From Punkin' Crick. Said Bing who opined that it sounds like one highly sophisticated piece of work.

Maybe if the rather large score that Jay Livingston and Ray Evans had contained a memorable song the film might be better known.

Alan Young plays the title role and he and Dinah Shore own adjoining farms in the bustling metropolis of Punkin' Crick. The two get involved with a pair of sharpies Robert Merrill and Adele Jergens and it's country versus city folk. Guess who wins.

For the life of me why Robert Merrill signed for this film is beyond me. If he was going to do a film adaption of some Broadway musical I would understand. But none of this material is worthy of that voice.

Aaron Slick From Punkin' Crick is mildly amusing. Alan Young comes out best.

May not be one of the greats...but I would have thought it well-known enough that some over-45 IMDb contributor would have compiled a review by now.

Alan Young makes a pleasant enough Aaron Slick, a likeable hayseed you would expect to see in GREEN ACRES. After Josie (a young Dinah Shore) is tricked into selling her farm she gets herself mixed up with the Mob until homespun Crick comes to her rescue. Very much a product of 50's American provincial theater.

Few laughs, a few songs..nothing much to remember five minutes after its finished. Hasn't stood the test of time either and is dated as all hell now.

I have to admit I watched this oddity out of curiosity because of Dinah Shore's oft repeated put-downs of it. Whenever her film career was brought up over the years on her television show Dinah would mockingly mention this film with a wry smile and a chuckle, it's easy to see why that would be her reaction.

Maybe not the worst movie ever made but a dumb, flat footed concoction to be sure. If the horrible title wasn't enough of a warning, although the alternate title "Marshmallow Moon" isn't much better, the basic plot summary should warn off most people. Stereotypes abound and the musical numbers are mediocre but it has nice color photography and an amusing supporting performance by Minerva Urecal. As for the two leads, Dinah is almost idiotically naive and too chipper for words, Alan Young starts out as an annoying bumpkin but gets better as the film goes along. A forgettable enterprise best viewed, if at all, by those who enjoy campy foolishness.

Marshmallow Moon(or Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick) is an okay film, but after a few days it is not much more than that. There are a fair number of things to redeem it. The costumes, sets and photography are striking enough, and while not particularly memorable the music especially Marshmallow Moon is quite pleasant. The film is decently directed too, but the main attraction is the cast. Alan Young, Dinah Shore, Adele Jurgens and especially Robert Merrill(yes the very same Robert Merrill the baritone) give it their all and their efforts are commendable. However, the film is rather ponderously paced, complete with a hokey story, predictable set-ups and scenes comedy wise and a disjointed script. So overall, a decent watch but rather forgettable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

It's not that ALAN YOUNG and DINAH SHORE don't try to bring some life to a lifeless, uninspired script co-authored by Claude Binyon, who directed this mess. Considering what they have to work with, they sometimes rise to the occasion and produce a few chuckles. And as the villains of the piece, ROBERT MERRILL and ADELE JERGENS contribute somewhat to what few laughs there are.

Shore is a country bumpkin lass who longs for the big city and is taken in by on-the-lam gangsters (Merrill and Jergens) who are really after the $20,000 worth of savings. Young is the equally country hick neighbor enamored by Shore and willing to go to the extreme to extricate her from the clutches of the villains.

It has a L'IL ABNER flavor to the sets and costumes but the score is rather commonplace and no help in bringing any entertainment value to the ponderous farce.

It's films like this that probably put a hex on DINAH SHORE's stab at a film career. Wisely, she was content to enjoy her TV stardom.