Starring Belita, Kenny Baker, Patricia Morrison, and Irene Dare
Directed by Leslie Goodwins
Music by Dave Oppenheim; Lyrics by Roy Ingraham
By the early 40's, Sonja Henie was far from the only skater in Hollywood. The "B" studios seemed to have more luck finding their own European ice queens than the majors. This was the first vehicle for British ice skater Belita Jepson-Turner, whom Monogram wanted to build into a star after featuring her in the 1941 film Ice Capades. They also acquired child prodigy skater Irene Dare from RKO and singer Kenny Baker for this bit of backstage fluff about a singer who finds himself caught in a romantic triangle while trying to keep the star from leaving the show. How does all this look today? Let's begin on the ice, with said star Belita front and center, and find out...
The Story: Claire Thomas (Morrison) is the owner of an ice show that may shut down if she can't keep her star attraction Belita (herself) from leaving to get married. The show's singer Danny Donovan (Baker) has been proposing to her for months, but she's always let him down. She finally changes her mind when she needs to be married in order to adopt Katrina (Dare), a Dutch orphan and amazing skater. Trouble is, Danny is also courting Belita, who goes along with it in order to make her fiancee Tom (Henry Wadsworth) jealous. He proposes to Belita to keep her in the show, but he's also still engaged to Claire. Now he has to figure out whether to go with his heart, or what's good for the show.
The Song and Dance: I have to admit, I like Belita a lot more than Henie. She's just as charming off and on the ice and is a somewhat better actress. I don't think Henie could pull off the thrillers Belita appeared in a few years later. I wish she'd continued with these ice skating musicals. This was a lot of fun, with some lovely numbers for Belita and Dare. Frank Faylen also has a few good moments as one of the comics at the show who is in pursuit of skater Lucille (Joyce Compton), and there's European comics Frick and Frack literally kicking the producer Claire invited to see the show out.
Favorite Number: We open with the Beaux Arts Ball number "Lovely Lady." Baker sings the dreamy ballad before skaters in gorgeous gowns glide across the ice. 1941 male skating champion Gene Turner gets a solo in a tux before Belita joins him. Katrina gets a brief but very cute dream in which she skates across a lake in the peasant costumes of her native Holland, with chorus children in equally sweet costumes joining her. Katrina is more taken by boy skater Billy Baxter (Danny Shaw) doing rope tricks and skating under legs in the cowboy chorus number "Cowboy Joe of Carnegie, MO."
Frick and Frack show off more of their antics with chorus girls in lederhosen as they hear "Calling From the Mountain," and end up sliding down it. Danny reminds Claire that "A Girl Like You, a Boy Like Me" ought to get married in a sweet off-ice ballad in the office that ends with them admiring miniatures of a house and a laundry scene. Katrina and Billy are the cutest couple on the ice in a short instrumental number while Danny is trying to keep Belita in the show. Katrina is also the world's cutest Inuit princess when she's "Dancing On Top of the World" with the chorus in glitter and feathers and a real (and really adorable) little penguin.
"Love Is a Beautiful Song" begins with Baker crooning the ballad to Belita, but it quickly turns into an elegant Fred-and-Ginger duet on ice when she joins Gene Turner in a tux, and they glide and spin together. Oddly, though they're listed in the playbill we see someone opening, Billy and Katrina don't appear in the big patriotic finale "Sing a Song of the Sea." (I wonder if their sequence was cut for time?) Belita and Turner do get big solos in this sailor-themed number set on a rather claustrophobic battleship that also includes "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean."
What I Don't Like: Though Monogram spent more money on this than usual for their movies, this is still a fluffy B movie from World War II. The sets frequently look like the cardboard they are, especially that rather silly igloo in Katrina's "Dancing On Top of the World" routine. The plot is piffle, the songs forgettable. Morrison could do a lot more than one number and turn down Baker's proposals. Baker is annoying and not too bright for leading the ladies on when he's not singing. Wish we could have seen more of the kids, too. Other than their numbers, they pretty much disappear during the second half (and as mentioned, don't appear at all in the finale).
The Big Finale: This and Belita's other big full ice musical Lady, Let's Dance are highly recommended for fans of figure skating, Belita, or 40's musicals.
Home Media: Seems to be streaming only at the moment. Amazon Prime has it for free with a subscription.
No comments:
Post a Comment