Starring Bing Crosby, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, and Ray Walston
Directed by Frank Tashlin
Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
We kick off our first full week of holiday reviews with a musical so obscure, I never heard of it until I found the soundtrack record last year. After White Christmas was biggest hit of 1954, it was likely inevitable that Bing Crosby would turn up in a holiday musical again. 20th Century Fox opted to grab Crosby after he left Paramount and borrow Reynolds from MGM, along with picking up handsome newcomer Wagner.
They tossed White Christmas, Crosby's earlier Oscar-winning turn as a priest in Going My Way, and Crosby's dramatic turn in The Country Girl into a blender and came up with the story of a priest in New York's Theater District who gets involved in the lives of his parishioners. Does this holiday mash-up still work today? Let's begin with Father Conroy (Crosby) and church-going college girl Holly LeMaise (Reynolds) as they prepare for a holiday show and find out...
The Story: Holly takes a job as a chorus girl in a local dive club when her father, former vaudevillian Harry LeMaise (Les Tremayne), becomes desperately sick. Tony Vincent (Wagner), the ambitious young singer at the club, hires Holly as part of his act. He's taken with her, but she finds him terribly obnoxious and forward at first.
Holly's not the only one in Tony's orbit Father Conroy ends up helping. He befriends Tony's pianist Phil Stanley (Walston), an alcoholic songwriter who is now reduced to playing piano for Tony's act. Tony wants him and Holly to come along when he's booked for a show in Miami, but Father Conroy doesn't approve. He doesn't think Tony's right for Holly. It takes Tony becoming the godparent to the infant son of chorus girl Mary (Connie Gilchrist) and Conroy offering him a spot on his Christmas charity TV special for Tony to understand what real love is about.
The Song and Dance: I'm a bit surprised at how dark this story is for the late 50's. The side stories with Mary and her baby and Phils alcoholism are taken seriously and not played for comedy. This is unusually intense for a cheery MGM-style musical with big numbers and gorgeous color. Reynolds in particular runs with the drama; Bing plays off her fairly well as the priest who promised her father he'd look after her. The DeLuxe color and nifty costumes definitely give off that brassy 50's vibe, with some nice widescreen cinematography in the glowing numbers.
Favorite Number: The movie starts with its biggest assets on display before the credits even begin as Father Conroy and Holly rehearse the title song in the church. Tony hopes to woo Holly in her apartment with pizza and a song, but as Holly reminds him, "You Can't Love Them All." This is heard again later as a more traditional number for Tony and the chorus girls at the club. Tony and Holly joke about Holly's giving up college in their duo routine with Tony calling her "The Girl Most Likely to Succeed." They also get "Cha Cha Choo Choo" in a goofy Puerto Rican number at the club with the chorus girls and a cardboard train.
Bing joins Walston at the piano twice, to sing one of Phil's old hits, "I Couldn't Care Less," and to hear Phil perform the song Father Conroy inspired him to write, "The Secret of Christmas." The teen girl Tony turned down for his act earlier in the movie returns in the charity show to sing the pop spoof "The Night Rock and Roll Died." "Secret of Christmas" gets a full-on rendition in the finale, as Tony insists on Phil playing it and Father Conroy singing it. Holly ends up joining in as she watches them on TV.
What I Don't Like: Wagner seems to be playing a different movie entirely. He's doing tough-guy melodrama while Reynolds and Crosby are in a fluffy MGM musical. Tashlin can never decide if he wants this to be a big, brassy widescreen cartoon or a dark look at what it takes to get ahead in show business. Tony is such a jerk and so obnoxious to everyone around him, you can understand why Father Conroy doesn't want Holly near him. His last-minute conversion is too sudden and way too soppy. Other than "Secret of Christmas," the music isn't all that great, either.
The Big Finale: The all-over tone and dull numbers make this for major fans of Crosby or Reynolds only.
Home Media: Only on DVD via the 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment