Starring Danny Kaye, Pier Angeli, Salvatore Baccaloni, and Patricia Cutts
Directed by Michael Kidd
Music by Saul Chaplin; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be on vacation hiatus from Monday September 18th through the 25th. Reviews will resume the 26th. I'll be doing an extra review every week for the remaining weeks of the month, starting tomorrow.
Danny Kaye was on top of the world after White Christmas, and if the comic swashbuckler The Court Jester wasn't a hit in theaters, it was well-received by critics. MGM gave him a shot in the spring of 1958, with up-and-coming Italian beauty Pier Angeli as his leading lady and none other than celebrated choreographer Michael Kidd doing the dances and the directing. How well do they do with the story of an outcast teacher who falls for not only a circus aerialist, but the circus lifestyle itself? Let's start with Andrew Larrabee (Kaye) and his history class at a boy's private school in England and find out...
The Story: Andrew is very popular with his students, who love his songs about figures from ancient history and romances like Pan. His unorthodox teaching style doesn't put him over as well with the rest of the staff, especially his extremely traditional father Matthew (Noel Purcell). Matthew considers Andrew, his only son who has never published any research, to be a disappointment.
Hoping to finally publish a book and marry his fiance Letitia Fairchild (Cutts), Andrew bikes over to ancient Roman ruins in Sussex to spend his summer digging for a statue of Pan. When he arrives at the meadow, he finds the Gallini Family Traveling Circus and a sign that claims the meadow will be cleared for a new dairy farm. Andrew is able to convince the meadow's owner Lord Elmhurst to give him and the circus another week.
Selena (Angeli), the Gallinis' aerialist cousin, is impressed with Andrew after he accidentally digs into the lion's cage and easily handles the animals. She and her family are even more delighted when he dresses as the ringmaster to avoid Letitia and his brother Dudley (Robert Coote) and puts on quite a show. She thinks he has all the makings of a clown. He's still more interested in finding that statue. After he and Selena are accidentally trapped in the tunnel where he's digging, her family insists they're engaged. Andrew is already engaged...but he's beginning to wonder if academia and his stuffy family and fiancee are really for him.
The Song and Dance: Kaye has ample room for his brand of comedy here, with a story that's slightly gentler than usual for one of his vehicles. For one thing, I'm glad there's no real villain. Lord Elmhurst is set up to be in the beginning, but Andrew quickly deals with him. I'm also glad this is more of an overt musical than a lot of Kaye's vehicles. There's songs for Andrew's brothers teaching him how to deal with their father and the circus people in addition to Kaye's usual patter routines. We even get two of Kidd's vigorous, athletic dance routines. The Technicolor filming, with its contrast between the formal school and colorful circus, is gorgeous. I suspect it was filmed on location as well.
Favorite Number: We open with Andrew leading his young students in teaching them about the "Pipes of Pan." His brothers encourage him to ask their father for the permission to marry Letitia with "Chin Up, Stout Fellow." Andrew claims "Everything is Tickety-Boo" during his ride to Sussex. The song is so catchy and cheerful, half the bikers in the English countryside end up joining him. He tries to explain "You Can't Always Have What You Want" to the circus people. "The Square of the Hypotenuse" is his big patter number when he's posing as the ringmaster. The circus performers honor what they think will be Selena and Andrew's wedding with the rugged dance number "Salud!" in the circus tent.
What I Don't Like: Neither Cutts nor Angeli have much in the way of chemistry with Kaye, making you wonder why he has such a hard time deciding between them at first. In fact, neither of them have much to do at all, especially Cutts. Cutts doesn't even get a song. The story is charming but a little too complicated, and rather silly in the end. Audiences at the time didn't know what to make of it, and some people today may have trouble as well. "Tickety Boo" is mildly catchy, but most of the other songs aren't nearly that memorable, including Kaye's patter number. No wonder this would be his last try at a traditional musical, and his second-to-last film musical period. There's also Kaye's in and out attempt at a British accent.
The Big Finale: Not Kaye's greatest film, but there's enough here to enjoy for it to deserve a second look. Recommended for fans of Kaye or the robust, brassy MGM musicals of the 1950's.
Home Media: Easily found on streaming and DVD, the latter in a remastered edition from the Warner Archives.
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