Starring June Haver, Gordon MacRae, James Barton, and Gene Nelson
Directed by David Butler
Music and Lyrics by various
This week, we look at two musicals of the 1950's featuring Debbie Reynolds. This hit was her first major speaking part in a movie, playing the youngest sister of June Haver's title character. How does the tale of an Irish father whose old-fashioned ideas of love may drive his beloved children away look nowadays? Let's start with those three young women in 1898 New York, just as the Spanish-American War comes to a close, and find out...
The Story: Patricia O'Grady (Haver) wants more than anything to be on the stage, like her mother Rosie was. Her father Dennis (Barton) is worried she'll work herself to death like her mother did and doesn't want her to have anything to do with performing. He's determined to choose his daughters' beaus himself, but his oldest Katie (Marcia Mae Jones) has already married a cop (Sean McClory) who just returned from the war and is pregnant with twins.
Walking past Tony Pastor's theater, Patricia and her youngest sister Maureen (Debbie Reynolds) encounter Pastor himself (MacRae), who's dressed as a tramp. Patricia can't help being drawn to the footlights, and to Tony and his head dancer Doug (Gene Nelson). She invites them for dinner, telling her father they're college students. Tony insists on telling the truth, which leads a raging angry Dennis to throw them out and lock Patricia in her room. No one will stop Patricia from getting on the stage...but when her father is really in trouble, it'll be even harder to keep her away from home.
The Song and Dance: I've only read about this one in books on musical films, but it wound up being a charming surprise. There's some really lovely performances here, especially from Barton as the patriarch determined to keep his daughters from any kind of harm. He's having so much fun being a grumpy dad - check out the sequence where he dances around a tavern while insanely drunk. There's some really cute numbers, too, and gorgeous color costumes representing New York's working class and vaudeville just before the turn of the 20th century.
Favorite Number: The first big number is "A Farm Off Old Broadway," sung by MacRae as a dandy singing of the charms of the Great White Way to farm hand Nelson and his column-swinging routine. Haver, as Rosie O'Grady, joins Barton for a charming old-fashioned vaudeville number, "My Own True Love and I," when Dennis talks about his vaudeville days to his daughter. Virginia Lee swirls her skirts to "It Looks Like a Big Night Tonight," then drags in a poor fellow for a hilarious acrobatic routine. The big finale is a medley of winter songs, performed in a Christmas skating scene with Patricia and Tony on a sled and even Dennis getting his own pratfalls in before Katie's husband announces he's a father.
Trivia: James Barton was a real-life vaudevillian in this era who appeared in stage and film musicals.
The role of Maureen was written specifically for 17-year-old Reynolds.
Gene Nelson's film debut.
According to Wikipedia, the movie was in production for so long, it was originally called A Night at Tony Pastor's in 1942 and George Raft was named as the lead.
What I Don't Like: The story is as resolutely old-fashioned as Dennis and his ideas about marriage. While Katie's pregnancy does give it a bit of a twist, this is otherwise a comic version of the type of melodrama that's been common since this movie was set. Some of it can come off as almost annoyingly corny or goofy nowadays. Oh, and though Tony Pastor was a real-life vaudeville producer and theater owner, he was born in 1837 and would hardly have been a hunky singer in 1898.
The Big Finale: If you love the cast or old-fashioned historical musicals, you'll want to go backstage and say hello to the daughter of Rosie O'Grady, too.
Home Media: Currently DVD-only from the Warner Archives.
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