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As far as the golden age of musicals were concerned, the back trackers were always Paramount and Warner Brothers, who never quite achieved the magic that MGM created, despite their most valiant efforts to produce MGM-esquire musicals.

One such film that could have been a great deal more magical had MGM been at the helm is Anything Goes.

Bing Crosby stars in his second big screen version of the Cole Porter Broadway smash, although this plot has been modified slightly and brought up to date 50' style..it therefore tells a completely different story to Crosby's first version twenty years earlier.

Donald O'Conner, who in my humble opinion was one of the most underrated performers Hollywood ever had, provides the dances and comic turns whilst he romances the beautiful Mitzi Gaynor.

O'Conner was a natural at almost everything he did. He was a superb comic, a gifted actor and a dancer of extraordinary talent on par I think with Fred Astaire and his 'Singing in the Rain' co-star Gene Kelly, yet his contributions to film, have on the whole been overlooked. He was therefore demoted to 'B' movie comedies like the god awful "Francis" films.

Bing sings his way through Porters songs in his usual effortless way, as he tries to discard, appease and finally woo a French Ballet star played by ZiZi Jeanmaire, billed here simply as 'Jeanmaire' Another pleasant appearance is made by 40's band leader Phil 'Balloo in Jungle Book' Harris, and he is a welcome addition although regrettably he is not given an opportunity to perform some of those comic southern songs like 'Woodman, Spare that Tree' or 'The Dark Town Poker Club' with which he made his name.

The plot is scratchy too with Crosby and O'Conner forming an effortless partnership whilst collaborating on a new Broadway show.

The clash of styles and the obvious comparisons of youth and novice against age and experience are hinted at in the beginning, leaving you wanting more of the same, but alas these differences trail off into nothing and they are not exploited to full effect. It would have made this film a lot more enjoyable to see the two male leads spar more together and therefore classic entertainment is unfortunately denied us.

One of the previous reviewers said that there was something missing from this film that they couldn't put their finger on....I think that this was it.

But despite the bad script and leaky predictable plot, the performances are great and the songs as ever are timeless. Porter, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen were three of the best song-smiths in the business.

Watch this one when you can, but don't cancel anything important in order to do so.

I haven't met a musical that I couldn't find something to like about it, so although the story is somewhat bland one can still enjoy the good highlights. It's wonderful to see these stars in their prime -- Bing, Mitzi, Donald, Jeanmaire, and Phil Harris as the father figure.

The dance routines of "You're the Top" and "It's Delightful" are great musical show stoppers. Basically Bing and Donald play the part of two showmen who unknowingly sign two different dancers, Mitzi and Jean, to be the star in their musical. Obviously they have some sorting out to do on this matter while all are sailing back to America.

In my later years I'm learning to appreciate Bing's movies more than when I was young. All in all this is pleasant entertainment that leaves you with a good feeling.

Another reviewer stated that no one goes to musicals for the story. Think of The Band Wagon, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Meet Me In St. Louis, State Fair (1945), Singin' In The Rain. Did you really enjoy those musicals just for the songs and dances, and ignore the story, dialog, and situations? I doubt it.

Some reviewers have criticized the screenplay by Sidney Sheldon. It's not great, but I think the direction is really the problem here. Robert Lewis was an accomplished theatre director and teacher (The Actors Studio), as well as an occasional Hollywood actor, but this was his first and last feature film as director.

There's some originality and wit (think of the two French sailors who appear periodically - a well-done bit), but the tone of the whole picture is off, the pace is off, the director doesn't know the tricks to brighten and even out the screenplay's banalities.

Disagreeing with some other reviews here, I think Jeanmaire has a surprisingly good, strong singing voice for a non-singer She was a professional ballet dancer, not a singer. And she was a pretty good actress - watch carefully and you will see her emotional responses are real. You can even see her breath come fast when she tells Crosby how much she loves him.

I disagree with the reviewer who criticized the number Donald O'Connor did with the kids. Please look at this number carefully and see exactly what an amazing dancer and athlete this guy is. Notice how he dances with that small ball, and the larger ones. How he's able to make the ball bounce exactly right, off of opposing walls, to match his turns, etc. It's amazing.

The song itself - like all the interpolated Cahn-Van Heusen songs - is so completely different in style from the old Cole Porter tunes, it just sounds out of place. Like Neil Simon had written some new scenes for a Kaufman-Hart play. It isn't that Cahn and Van Heusen aren't great, they just aren't the same style of songwriter as Porter, so their songs up against his are jarring.

Mitzi Gaynor, as usual, gives her all. I saw her stage show, once. Though she's very good on film, she was phenomenal onstage.

I could watch Bing in anything.

It's easy to understand why they took their time getting around to releasing a DVD of this one. As can be seen from other comments, the 1956 film version of "Anything Goes" will generally disappoint those who love the stage version. Other than some of Cole Porter's songs and a setting on a cruise ship there is no similarity between the two productions. The very entertaining (and still frequently performed) Cole Porter musical has been transformed into a pretty lame film, and three songs by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn have been inexplicably added to the production. Even worse is the loss of most of P.G. Wodehouse's clever script, which was rewritten by a Hollywood hack into this dumbed-down version.

This doesn't make "Anything Goes" unwatchable. The choreography is mostly first rate. Most of the musical numbers are entertaining and several are excellent. The performances are typical of each cast members career work (both good and bad) and the film has some interesting Hollywood cinema history aspects.

You know almost immediately that this will not be a rousing bit of entertainment, instead of a high-energy opening number the film begins with a back stage party scene that is about as lively as an abandoned railroad track.

Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor play Broadway co-stars who go to Europe to recruit a leading lady for their upcoming show. Each brings their discovery aboard a cruise ship for a transatlantic voyage. Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire play the girls. Since there is only one role the remainder of the film is about determining which one will be featured and keeping it secret that both were already promised the role. There are two romances, with the two actors falling for each other's girl during the ocean crossing. Suspense and comedy are in short supply.

Gaynor manages a pretty good performance; she gets one very hot feature number (the title song-although Porter's original four letter word lyrics are toned down) and duets with O'Connor in the film's best number "It's De-lovely". O'Connor is also featured in a very original dance routine with children and a lot of bouncing balls. In this he dances to Van Heusen's "Bounce Right Back," not much of a song but a good excuse for using him in another unique routine.

Jeanmaire was a French ballet star ("Carmen") who briefly tried her stuff in mid-50's Hollywood. She was a Leslie Caron clone complete with the same hairstyle. Her two solo numbers "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "Dream Ballet" are surprisingly good, at least the dancing portions.

Bing Crosby of course is well known to old movie buffs but others will be somewhat puzzled by his popularity. Nothing he does in "Anything Goes" sheds light on this question. He was a "popular" extremely bland singer and a horrible actor with some comic ability. In "Anything Goes" even his comedy stuff is pretty awful. Paired with Bing, O'Connor has about the same chance for success as someone trying to sneak through a balloon shop wearing a porcupine overcoat.

The Technicolor and VistaVision completely overpower the cheap production design as well as Sidney Sheldon's (the hack writer mentioned above) weak adaptation.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

It has all the trappings of an entertaining musical, but the chemistry is not there. A few of the musical numbers are worth seeing, but many are mediocre at best. The most peculiar thing about the movie is its substitution of boring, pedestrian new songs to take the place of Cole Porter's songs. Although Jimmy Van Heusen certainly composed some good songs in his day, the present "Ya Gotta Give the People Hoke," "Bounce Right Back," and "A Second-Hand Turban" are embarrassing. The producers couldn't find 3 more Cole Porter songs to use instead? Adding to the embarrassment is the bowdlerization of the song "Anything Goes," in which Mitzi Gayner is not even permitted to refer to authors' "four-letter words." Instead, we are nonsensically told that authors nowadays use only "three-letter words." Of course, such censoring of the lyrics of this song negate the entire premise of the song, which is that anything is permitted nowadays.

Donald O'Connor has a very nice dance routine with children and a lot of bouncing balls in "Bounce Right Back," which is the most original number in the film. The comedy duos by O'Connor and Crosby fall flat, as does the vocal by Jeanmaire. Indeed, after hearing the mangled arrangement of her trying to sing "I Get a Kick Out of You," I actually stopped the movie and played a Frank Sinatra version in order to get the bad taste out of my ears. Mitzi Gayner is lively and attractive and does a good job in belting out her songs. Crosby is always good, although the arrangement and photography of his performance of "All Through the Night" were so anemic that one might doze through it, without danger of anything happening to wake one up.

The plot is actually a very good basis for a musical comedy (a mix-up in which both Gayner and Jeanmaire are hired for the same part), but the writing is corny and stilted, there is little real humor, and the comic potential of the situation is simply not realized. Although the drama is of course not the most important part of a musical comedy, if it does not help to motivate the songs and does not create any suspense about what will happen, then the audience is just tapping its feet waiting for the next musical number.

I think that if someone were to edit the film to include five or so of the best musical numbers only (no plot, no weaker songs), one might have 20 minutes of decent entertainment. But to watch the film for 106 minutes to get those 20 minutes of entertainment is not that pleasant.