Starring Eartha Kitt, Ronny Graham, Alice Ghostley, and Robert Clary
Directed by Harry Horner, John Beal, and Eugene Anderson Jr.
Music and Lyrics by various
Revues saw a revival on film and stage in the 40's, when they entertained the troops going overseas. Though they continued on Broadway for a few years after the war ended, they ended up being superseded by that upstart rival, television. Variety shows were among the most popular genres on TV in the 1950's, casting the same wide net over show business that revues once did. Why go see a theater show when you could watch the same type of acts on Ed Sullivan or Milton Berle - and even more - for free? There were a few revues on Broadway in the early 50's that did manage to do relatively well, this among them. Leonard Stillman had been putting out New Faces revues since the 1930's, always on the cheap. He struck gold with the 1954 edition, rounding up a genuinely talented cast and some great material. It was so well-received, it was adapted as a film two years later, one of Fox's earliest ventures into Cinemascope. How well did they pull this off? Let's begin backstage at the New Faces show and find out...
The Story: Wealthy Texan Mr. Clayton (Charles Watts) insists that he'll back the show if he's impressed with the talent and numbers involved...and with his daughter Virginia's (Virginia de Luce) performance. Virginia is not only frustrated that her big number keeps getting cut off, but she's fallen in love with one of the dancers. Meanwhile, diminutive Frenchman Robert Clary (himself) locks a bill collector in a dressing room before he can collect or stop the show.
The Song and Dance: And yeah, this one is all about the song and dance. There's admittedly some impressive talents here. Eartha Kitt became a recording superstar, Ghostley, Clary, Graham, and Paul Lynde were TV sitcom stalwarts, and June Carroll and Carol Lawrence were among the most popular leading ladies on Broadway in the 50's and 60's. Some of the more memorable non-musical sketches include a spoof of dark stage melodramas of the 50's featuring Lynde as the criminal father, Ghostley as his wife, and Graham as the son who'd rather play baseball than follow in his father's footsteps and Graham in a fairly amusing takeoff on Truman Capote and the southern Gothic stories he specialized in.
The Numbers: We open and close with "We're the New Faces," with said new faces stuck into a black set as they sing about why they love what they do and what we're going to see. Kitt gets the first actual number, "C'est Bon," a sultry French ditty. Virginia deLuce keeps trying to sing "He Takes Me Off His Income Tax," but never actually gets through the song before the next act is announced. Clary is "Lucky Pierre" when he's joined by the female dancers (including Carol Lawrence and Patricia Hammerlee) for a typical girls-and-guy routine. Weary woman of the world June Carroll sings wistfully about "Penny Candy" as she sees the ghosts of her childhood and recalls how others made fun of her desire to be an actress.
Alice Ghostley is a plain woman whose "Boston Beguine" may be the closest thing she gets to exotic excitement. Robert Cary is joined by Eartha Kitt and Rosemary O'Reilly to show why "Love Is a Simple Thing." Mother and daughter June Carroll and Alice Ghostley say it's "Time for Tea" as they recall how the daughter almost fell in love...but her parents drove her suitor off, and she never married. Clary's joined by Lawrence and the chorus girls again, this time offstage, to perform the traditional French song "Alouette." Eartha Kitt introduces the show's big standard, the seductive "Santa Baby," as a woman who wants a lot more than candy and an orange in her stocking for Christmas.
Graham, Ghostley, and the chorus spoof operetta waltzes as they describe the delights of damp "Waltzing In Venice," then "Taking Off the Mask." For Robert Clary, everything is "Raining Memories." Kitt is a Turkish woman singing about "Uska Dara." Robert Clary is a school boy who claims "I'm In Love With Miss Logan," but gets quite disappointed when he realizes Miss Logan has someone else. The chorus gets the world's only hoedown dedicated to the trial of that infamous murderess "Lizzie Borden." Kitt and Clary go back into French mode with "Bal, petit bal." Kitt finishes things off with "Monotonous,"as a star who is bored with her life of fame.
Trivia: Film debuts of Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, and Carol Lawrence.
What I Don't Like: For all the wonderful numbers and performances, this doesn't really belong on film. It's a filmed play and doesn't pretend to be anything else. This intimate revue didn't need the widescreen and made no use of it whatsoever. There's a lot that hasn't dated well, too, notably Lynde's rather annoying safari sketch and Graham's Truman Capote takeoff. (No matter how funny Graham is in that segment, a lot of people aren't that familiar with Capote's work nowadays.) The story is piffle and adds absolutely nothing to the numbers or the movie.
The Big Finale: Even with the above caveats, this is still worth seeing for the performances and songs alone if you're a fan of any of the above stars or of 50's musicals and revues.
Home Media: In the public domain, so it's pretty easily found anywhere. Tubi currently has it for free (though in a rather blurry copy).
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