Starring Anne Jeffreys, Robert Sterling, Cyril Ritchard, and Cornelia Otis Skinner
Directed by Max Liebman
Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
We continue our All-American Weekdays with a pair of lesser-known patriotic TV musicals. Dearest Enemy was Rodgers and Hart's second Broadway musical, and their first with an actual plot. It ran a year and a half in 1925 and 1926, a substantial hit for the time, but hadn't been seen since. Some of the songs remained popular enough for NBC to dust this off as one of their musical spectaculars. How well do Rodgers and Hart's very modern music work with the antique setting? Let's begin with a group of grouchy British colonels in London post-American Revolution as they call one specific incident that caused them to lose the war and find out...
The Story: Patriotic New York housewife Mary Murray (Skinner) and her young ladies are making gunpowder and bullets in preparation for the invasion of the British on their shores. They are taken over by General William Howe (Ritchard) and his men, including his aide John Copeland (Sterling). Copeland also brings along Mary's niece Betsy (Jeffreys) in nothing but Copeland's jacket. Her own clothes were blown up by British cannon fire.
George Washington sent a soldier (Evan Wright) with a message that Mary and her girls should keep Howe and his men at the mansion overnight so he and his troops can reassemble in New York. Not that the girls mind much. Betsy isn't happy at first, until Copeland's charm wins her over. Mary and General Howe also find much in common. Their romances are threatened when Howe figures out what's going on. The ladies, however, still have to keep them from leaving. Even after the colonies win the war, Howe and Copeland never forget those charming American women...but it turns out they haven't forgotten them, either.
The Song and Dance: Jeffreys and Sterling were finishing a two-year-run as the ghostly madcap couple in the TV version of Topper when this came out. That and their own real-life happy marriage shows in their strong chemistry together. Monologist Skinner and TV favorite Ritchard also make an attractive couple and have some of the show's funniest lines. Neil Simon wrote the script to this one, and it shows the witty repartee and some of the goofier gags with how the ladies get the soldiers to stay. I also appreciate that they seem to have kept all but one of the original Rodgers and Hart songs, something that didn't always happen in Broadway adaptations of the 40's and 50's.
Favorite Number: We open with a prologue set in England after the war, as Howe and the officers lament their loss in "Cheerio." This also becomes the first big chorus number in the US, as Howe, Copeland, and their troops reprise this to the people of New York as they take over the city, reminding them that they can use "Sweet Peter," gunpowder, to keep them in line. Mrs. Murray and her ladies get two numbers lamenting the arrival of the British and the loss of their menfolk to the battlefields, "Heigh-Ho, Lackaday!" and "War Is War."
Copeland and Betsy get this score's standard, the soaring duet "Here In My Arms." They also have two more numbers together, "I Beg Your Pardon" on Betsy's scandalous entrance sans clothes, and "Bye and Bye" during Mrs. Murray's ball. Mrs. Murray and Howe get their own charming duets, "Old Enough to Love" early on and "Where the Hudson River Flows" during the dance routine at the ball. Howe jokes about how he and his men are tired of living like "The Hermits" after the number and don't mind sticking around. The ladies all admit "I'd Like to Hide It" when they're torn between their new love for the British troops and keeping them from wrecking havoc on Washington's arms.
Trivia: Mary Lindley Murray was a real person who did detain General Howe and his troops so Washington and his men could regroup after the Battle of Brooklyn in New York and move to safer quarters to plan their next attack.
What I Don't Like: First of all, the copy currently put out by VAI Entertainment is not in the best shape. It's fuzzy in many places and worn in others. Considering many TV specials of the 50's that were filmed live remain lost, we're still lucky to have this at all.
Second, Mary Murray and General Howe may have been real, but Betsy, Copeland, the ladies, and their romances are all fictional. Online research reveals that a lot was changed from the original version of this show, too. In the stage show, Betsy made her first appearance in a barrel, holding a parasol. The ending was different, too. The men were captured and freed, and Copeland reunited with Betsy in America. Also, this is not for those of you who aren't fans of operetta. The ballads sound very 1920's, but the chorus routines and patter songs for Skinner and Ritchard are pure light opera patter and may not be for those who prefer a more modern sound to their musicals.
The Big Finale: Definitely not a bad start for Rodgers and Hart. Too bad this is the only filming of this show to date. Lovely American Revolution romance deserves to be far better-known.
Home Media: Like all of the VAI TV musical DVDs, this is in print but expensive. You're better off looking for this used or on eBay.
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