Musique aux étoiles

For me the main reason to see this film is Allan Dwan's wonderful direction. He has the good sense to park it and point it when the action dictates, e.g. in the musical sequences, but he also takes the opportunity to explore every inch of a very complicated set with the camera: up and down the stairs, out the back from low and high, in and out the front door, all around the top studio apartment, and towards the end an enormous crane shot of the house fronts.

And he gets good performances out of the cast. I don't agree with the other comments about the acting. The women are all excellent (Jane Frazee in the lead, Irene Rich as the landlady) and Gail Patrick is downright sensational as the cousin from Boston. Victor McLaglen and James Ellison as the Boston sleaze-bag are both excellent; Kenny Baker works hard at it; Franklin Pangborn always a delight: only William Marshall as the composer is a bit wooden, but then he is the designated sap in the script.

All in all a very nice ensemble piece with good music too. The firemen's ball number is hilarious.

Overcrowded and generally undistinguished Republic musical. Nonetheless, it does have its moments, like the opening hook with Frazee frazzling the boys, or McLaglen's feisty fireman spicing up the screen. Too bad the rather frantic musical scenes don't reach highlight status; after all, the flick has its hopes as a musical. And what's with the many distracting characters just popping in and out without any set-up -- I wish we got to know some better. Then too, what's the big deal between Boston and New York that takes up too much dialogue time. After all, there are many other states sitting among audiences then and now.

The plot itself turns on which guy Frazee will end up with, Ellison or Marshall. Frazee is aptly lively and sweet, but her two suitors are on the forgettably bland side. (Good thing Ellison went on to matinee cowboy movies.) And get a look at the fully-clothed calendar girl so scandalous for 1900; a Playboy version it ain't, but then styles and mores do change.

Anyway, I think the screenplay could have used a lot of sorting-out and a better musical score, if that were possible given scheduling demands. As is, the flick's overall obscurity is not surprsing. All in all, it's not surprising that Republic specialized in cheap cowboy flicks during this same period. So, "Hi-Yo, Silver"!

Quick note on the print I viewed: not the best picture or sound quality, but apart from a view small cuts, complete. It can be found on Disc 1 of the 50 Movie Pack of Musicals DVD.

The story is so-so, predictable for a musical. A songwriter and a artist share a flat in an artists-friendly establishment. One is in love with the girl next door but the other enjoys stringing her along.

Someone is wealthy but he doesn't like people to know. And the girl next door has a father with a fiery temper.

The songs are rather catchy and pleasant, and singers such as Kenny Baker and Janet Martin move them along. Attempts at comedy come off well as does the (slight) drama as the story unfolds.

'Calendar Girl' is a cheaply-made B picture from Poverty Row but, for all that, it isn't bad, and will keep you entertained.

The mid-Forties were a time of turn-of-the-century nostalgia by Hollywood studios and the ticket buyers. Provided the actors looked wholesome, the sets were elaborate and the songs appealing, a lot of tickets could be sold by showing an America that was simple, friendly and happy...and far away in time from WWII. Just think of Meet Me in St. Louis, Up in Central Park, The Dolly Sisters, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, The Harvey Girls and Cover Girl. Republic Pictures, a B level studio if there ever was one, sent out Calendar Girl in 1947. It's an A effort from a B studio, but the final product, while looking good, suffers the same fate of so many movies from B studios...actors who look great and can't act.

It's Greenwich Village in 1900, and moving into a brownstone rooming house are two old friends, aspiring composer Johnny Bennett (William Marshall), big, blonde, poor and innocent, and aspiring artist Steve Adams (James Ellison), big, dark, wealthy and charming. The rooming house is filled with other artists and musicians, ranging from the almost perpetually unbilled Gus Schilling as a painter of horses who spends his time eating bananas and mumbling, to that reliable tenor Kenny Baker. The misunderstandings accumulate like single socks when Johnny and Steve both meet Patricia O'Neil (Jane Frazee), aspiring dancer and daughter of the local fire brigade chief played by Victor McLaglen. It's not long before both men find her special, with Johnny writing songs inspired by her and Steve, that devil, painting her portrait, then submitting it in a calendar competition by adding some leg. Spread liberally throughout the movie is the fireman's jamboree, Delmonico's, the brownstone's patio, a convivial beer garden and Steve and Johnny's rooms. They all get songs to sing there written by Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics). These two were old pros with many hits between them, and they provide songs that are romantic, melodic and bounce along in the style of the period. If none of the songs are especially memorable, they get the job done nicely. Two, "At the Fireman's Ball" and "Calendar Girl" are nice, indeed.

But by the time the movie is half over, we realize that we're not going to learn anything more about the characters or story than we already have, that the songs will be at a level that won't improve, and that there's a long way to go to the end. And this is because of the casting, which was probably the best Republic Pictures could come up with. Jane Frazee gets top billing. She's a proficient light romantic lead who dances well and looks a lot like Vera Ellen. While she looks about 20, however, she sounds about 35. Marshall and Ellison both look like handsome Hollywood hunks, but neither is believable. Ellison, as usual in his movies, comes across as a self-aware actor. Marshall just seems out of his depth, especially when called upon to do a little dancing and sing the songs he's given. Even Gail Patrick, the quintessential selfish society princess, who plays Steve's rich fiancée from Boston, seems adrift. Well, we'll always have the memory of her as Cornelia Bullock, Carole Lombard's older sister in My Man Godfrey. The problem here, I think, is that we're never sure if we're supposed to detest her or warm up to her.

This is not a well known musical but includes several excellent songs written by Jimmy McHugh. The principal vocalists include Bill Marshall, Jane Frazee, Janet Martin and specially Kenny Baker. The latter's tenor is shown off to good effect and he is capably joined in duets with Janet Martin, one of the several young players under contract to Republic who disappeared with the decline in the studio system. It is a multi-star cast including Victor McLaglen as a Fire Chief, Irene Rich as a Boarding House owner, Gail Patrick as a wealthy Bostononian and James Ellison. The story involves the trials of young hopefuls in the music/dance world, Martin, Frazee, Marshall, etc. and Ellison, a wealthy young artist from Boston. Martin plays a predatory female after Baker a young song plugger while there is a triangular mixup between Frazee and two potential suitors, Marshall and Ellison and Patrick. Highly recommended as a much better than average small musical from Hollywood just before television started to cut into the profits of the movie studios.