Starring Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Robert Keith, and James Barton
Directed by Frank Capra
Music and Lyrics by various
Frank Tashlin was not the only major director who took a crack at musicals in the 1950's. We saw the first Crosby-Capra collaboration, Riding High, last month for Kentucky Derby weekend. This one might be even more likely for the duo. First of all, this time, we have original material, rather than a remake of an earlier Capra film. There's also a better cast, including Wyman and Alexis Smith as two of the stronger female characters in a Crosby film, and a genuinely effecting story that related to the realities of the post-war era. How does the story of a correspondent who adopts two children, then tries to convince his ex-fiancee to be their mother come off now? Let's begin with switchboard operators putting journalist Pete Garvey (Crosby) through to his boss George Degan (Keith) and find out...
The Story: Pete, who has been helping to find homes for children in a Paris orphanage, is especially enamored by little Bobby (Jacques Gencel) and his sister Suzi (Beverly Washington). He wants to adopt them, but first red tape holds up him getting the kids' birth certificates, then he finds out he has to marry within five days, or the adoption will be void. He thinks his fiancee Emmadel Jones (Wyman) will leap back into his arms, but she's tired of waiting for him and has agreed to marry wealthy Wilbur Stanley (Franchot Tone). After she bonds with the kids, Pete and George work with Wilbur's fourth cousin twice removed Winifred Stanley (Alexis Smith) and Emmadel's alcoholic seaman father William (Barton) to make Emmadel understand that she doesn't belong with the aristocratic Stanleys and that she gets married to the man who loves her for what she is.
The Song and Dance: Good music and charming performances highlight this exploration into what one man will do to keep his children. Though Crosby comes off well as the newspaper man scheming to marry Emmy, it's the ladies who walk off with this one. No-nonsense Wyman plays off Crosby beautifully as the woman who is tired of waiting for Pete to get away from his work and notice her, and Smtih is such a riot later in the film as Wilbur's hopeful cousin, especially when she and Wyman wrestle each other, you wish she was in more of the movie. Barton and Connie Gilchrist as Emmadel's blousy parents are the other stand-outs, with their salty humor making a wonderful contrast to exasperated Keith and smooth Tone.
The Numbers: We open at the orphanage, with Pete convincing a man from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to adopt budding opera singer Teresa (Anna Maria Alberghetti) rather than Bobby. Her "Caro Nome" is so lovely, especially for someone who may barely be in double-digits, no wonder they took her on the spot. Pete cheers up the kids by telling them about "Your Own Little House." "Misto Cristofo Columbus" gives us an all-star jam session on the plane to the US singing the comic jazz ditty on Christopher Columbus, including Dorothy Lamour, Louis Armstrong, Cass Daiey, and Phil Harris. "Bonne Nuit - Good Night" is Pete's song at the wedding rehearsal.
The standard here is "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." It won an Oscar in 1951, and you can understand from the three times it's heard. The most prominent is the big number with Emmadel and Pete in Wilbur's office. Pete is trying to get her back...and she is almost ready to buy it, after they perform this charming, upbeat ballad together, dancing all around the office furniture.
What I Don't Like: This movie is way too long for what amounts to a romantic farce. They spend too much time with dress rehearsals and in the orphanage and not on the story. Though Pete's genuine fondness for the kids does show through, the way he tries to force Emmadel to marry him after she already had someone else is ridiculous and a bit dated nowadays. Frankly, she and Smith come off better than obnoxious Crosby and blandly manipulative Tone. Also, this is not one of Capra's better efforts. It has even fewer of his touches than Riding High.
The Big Finale: Not Bing's best vehicle, but still recommended for fans of him or the ladies if you love lower-key 50's musicals.
Home Media: Streaming or a two-movie set with the other Crosby-Wyman musical Just for You may be your best bet for this nowadays.
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