capricorn9

OK - I know I will be sent to Sweeny for a shave myself for what I am about to say, but here goes.....This is another reason why a Sondheim show is hard to film. There is something missing and I just can't put my finger on it. I'll admit it is a great looking film with great actors and it is always nice to see a Broadway musical on film, but there is just something there that kept me from coming away with a "WOW" as the credits rolled.

Maybe it's knowing the show so well and what a big scope of a thing it is on-stage and then to find it all in the cramped quarters of a movie screen with all the choral music missing. Some of those sounds and harmonies are just as haunting as the show itself.

As I mentioned above, it is great to have it added to the list of adapted Broadway musicals and Tim Burton was the perfect choice to do this kind of film, but.........

As the song title states, I can sit and watch this film again and again, especially now that it's on DVD and in a glorious release! What colour, what spectacular circus scenes. Both Busby Berkley and Charles Walters make use of the Cinemascope screen. Doris Day is at her perky best and what a treat to see two such clowns as Martha Raye and Jimmy Durante in a film together. Even such a small part as John Noble, the rival circus owner, is played by a great character actor - Dean Jagger. The only small fly in the ointment is Stephen Boyd. He is not suited for musicals, in fact I could never see what people saw in him as an actor, except maybe his good looks......OK, I'll give him that, but only that. The R & H (Rogers and Hart this time) score survives and even the additions by Roger Edens work to bring the wonder and amazement of the Pop Wonder Circus to life. This was one of the last, if not THE last, major musical from MGM and it shows they still had not lost their touch!

This is an odd, but charming, little film. A remake of an old Ginger Rogers film called Tom, Dick or Harry. But somehow in musicalizing it and making the changes necessary for the new location, something has been lost and I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Your have a great cast! Jane Powell, fresh from her MGM days. Kaye Ballard in one of her very rare movie roles (there are times when she still seems to be playing to the balcony) and a great supporting cast of people like Frank Caddy, Una Merkel, Cliff Robertson, Tommy Noonan and Keith Andes, who was also rarely seen on film. The choreography by Gower Champion is bright and inventive, especially the number on the beach and a score by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. What else could someone want?

I still don't know.

Ms Powell's character has no redeeming characteristics. She is out for one thing and one thing only - to marry a rich man and she doesn't care who she steps on along the way. Then when she does have the millionaire she just drops him suddenly,on the very hour of their wedding, to go back to Fiancée #2, the mechanic, with no thought to Fiancée #1 (her childhood friend) who seems to be the only one honestly in love with her. Ah love - one can never understand it.