Du burlesque à l'opéra

High-C Susie! that's hilarious. and it's Abigail Chandler's stage name when she gets on stage to do her burlesky. Keep an eye out for Jimmy Durante doing his awesome shtick. He was a pro fer sure. fun to watch Durante work fun word-play into a song. When Abby's sister comes for a visit from back home, she tries to keep her from finding out the truth about her on stage performances. Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson co-star as sisters in this musical from MGM. Peter Lawford is in here as Lawrence Patterson. and Grady Sutton and Barbara Billingsly are in here as party extras, according to imdb. It's okay... it travels the line between comedy and serious period piece, and mostly succeeds. a funny number where she gets down to her bloomers and sings "after the show". i was never a big fan of either June Allyson or Peter Lawford, but if you turn down to high octave arias, the story is pretty good. I'll give this one an "okay". shows occasionally on Turner Classics.

A huge hit for MGM and Kathryn Grayson, the black-and-white film features a lot of classical music, Liszt and Wagner among others, with Jimmy Durante for comic relief. The always fresh-as-a-daisy June Allyson plays the other sister and balances Grayson's rebellious side, as she defies her puritanical family and shows her limbs on a turn-of-the-century vaudeville stage. Grayson has never been funnier than when she is disrupting the opera sequence from "Lohengrin" as the great Lauritz Melchior fumes his way through the aria. Musicals of this period may not be profound, but they are still a lot of fun to watch, especially when Melchior's dog hears "his master's voice" in a recreation of the earliest recording session. --from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Being a great fan of Lauritz Melchior, I was extremely delighted to be able to see the few movies he made in 40's last night on TCM. The four times he sings in the picture were, for me, extreme highlights, especially when he sang 'Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigem Schein'.

June Allyson was a delight and the act she did in the night club, left me laughing. Alot was based on her innocence and it worked great.

Kathryn Grayson was also a delight and the film was very clearly made to showcase her and Melchior. But even so, she did come out in glorious voice and made her and Allyson's characters people to care about.

Jimmy Durante was also a great treat as the club manager and hood, using like phraise: 'I don't know nothin' alot to make people do what he wanted.

To finalise this comment, for me it was Lauritz Melchior who steeled the show every time he was on the screen, but the story was good with a happy ending where everyone had what they wanted.

"Two Sisters from Boston" (1946) is an amusing mix of romance, comedy, and music. MGM's Pasternak unit skillfully hedged its bets by offering opera (Wagner and Liszt are represented, but in English), music hall ribaldry, and plenty of "cheesecake" -- i.e., feminine legs on display.

Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson play two Boston sisters from an upright Back Bay family. The family isn't poor, but the paterfamilias (a suitably dour Henry Hayden) is notoriously stingy. One of the sisters -- Abigail, played by Miss Grayson -- is allowed to go to New York to study opera. But her skinflint uncle doesn't give her enough expense money to pay her rent, so Abby takes a part-time job in a Bowery saloon, where she stars as "High C" Susie, singing with Spike (Jimmy Durante) in low-comedy skits.

Word gets out, and the outraged Bostonians travel south to New York to check out the rumors for themselves. There, the younger sister Martha (June Allyson) confronts Lawrence Patterson Jr. (Peter Lawford), son of the opera impresario, and demands to know what's happened to her sister. Lawrence Jr. is clueless, but he is instantly smitten with Martha, and from that point on he makes it his business to see that her sister Abigail gets an opera audition.

There is a lot of sly humor involved -- Jimmy Durante, in probably the best role of his career, covers for both Abigail and Martha in between hilarious bits on the stage of his Bowery auditorium. Ben Blue, who early in the film shows up at the saloon and heckles Durante during his act, turns out to be a staid butler at the Patterson mansion. Durante recognizes him and discovers that he has amnesia except when he is drunk. In a hilarious scene, Blue slowly gets in his cups, then blurts out to the startled Patterson family: "She's High C Susie! She's the Belle of the Bowery!" and points directly at Abigail, who's about to audition for the opera. But Martha is standing right next to Abby, and she declares to the shocked gathering that SHE, not Abigail, is the true "Belle of the Bowery." Now she has to prove it.

All this, plus at least three operatic arias by the great Danish baritone Lauritz Melchior, and a happy operatic debut by young Abigail. Lawrence Jr. attends Martha's game attempt to substitute for the Belle of the Bowery, sees through the artifice, and falls deeply in love with her. At the end, Abigail is seen singing gloriously on stage in full operatic regalia, while Lawrence Jr. and Martha are nuzzling in the box seats.

And a great time was had by all.

Dan Navarro -- daneldorado93@yahoo.com

Nice turn of the century film where Kathryn Grayson comes to N.Y. to sing in a joint. Her presence there threatens a scandal in her native Boston as her uncle is the Republican candidate for mayor of the town.

He comes with his wife to investigate and the fun starts. June Allyson is her sister and Jimmy Durante, the owner of the place where Grayson is singing. To save Grayson, Durante arranges for her to sing at the opera with the established Lauritz Melchior.

Peter Lawford, falls for Allyson but thinks that Grayson is having an affair with his father.

The picture becomes funny at times but needed technicolor to brighten it up.

Ben Blue is funny as a drunken waiter and Melchior shows some comedic gift here.

A pleasant film capturing the turn of the century musical traditions in America.