Starring Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Jimmy Durante, and Kathryn Grayson
Directed by Richard Whorf
Music by Jules Styne; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Our first two reviews this week are in honor of cable channel Turner Classic Movies, who celebrate their 30th anniversary this month. TCM began as a way for Turner Broadcasting to show off its enormous catalog of vintage movies from MGM, Warner Bros, and RKO without commercial interruption. They became known for their unique interstile segments, their use of indie rock and jazz music in their station promotions, and for showing older films uncut and in widescreen before this was common on home media.
They're also known for returning many lesser-known and neglected films to the public eye, including this small-scale musical from MGM. How does this sweet story of three talented friends in New York who search for fame while helping a teen in need look today? Let's begin in England, as Danny Miller (Sinatra) waits to go home to Brooklyn, and find out...
The Story: Danny does finally make it there, only to run headlong into the post-war housing shortage. Nick Lombardi, the kindly janitor for his old high school, gives him a room in the basement with him. He first meets music teacher Anne Fielding (Grayson) there. She doesn't share his positive outlook or his feelings about New York. She tried to become an opera singer, with no success, and ended up at the school instead. Also turning up at the school is Jamie Shellgrove (Lawford), a shy young Englishman whom Danny met before he left London. His grandfather thought Danny could show Jamie how to really live.
Jamie and Danny are too shy to try for a music career themselves. Danny initially ends up as a shipping clerk in a music shop, until Nick helps him to audition. He then adds words to Jamie's music, turning his funeral march into a lovely ballad. All three argue in favor of a teen in Anne's class (Billy Roy) for a music scholarship, but he's just a half-year too young. They end up getting him to give a concert in the music shop in order to show everyone in Brooklyn what he can do. Meanwhile, Danny is in love with Anne, but she's more interested in Jamie. He loves her, too, but doesn't want to hurt Danny's feelings.
The Song and Dance: I first saw this movie on TCM in college around 2001 and really enjoyed it. It's delightfully sweet and unpretentious for an MGM musical of the 40's and 50's. The black and white cinematography and Whorf's intimate direction gives it the feel of some of the better 50's sitcoms. It also has a surprisingly good score for one of MGM's smaller titles, including the standards "I Believe" and "Time After Time."
While Sinatra and Lawford are adorable as the shy guys who try to work on breaking out of their shells, it's Durante who dances off with the movie. He's hilarious, whether explaining the post-war housing situation to Sinatra or joining Sinatra to help cheer up one of the kids at the school (Bobby Long). Sinatra even does a credible imitation of him in "Song's Gotta Come From the Heart." Look for Gloria Grahame in the beginning as a mouthy nurse who questions Danny being from Brooklyn.
Favorite Number: We open with Danny briefly playing "Whose Baby are You?" in England on the piano. Jamie ends up having to encore the number at the music shop in Brooklyn for a group of swing-crazed teenagers. Sinatra sings "The Brooklyn Bridge" on the actual Brooklyn Bridge when he arrives home. He, Grayson, and her students turn a Bach song into "Invention Number 1" during a class. Danny and Nick encourage Johnny with "I Believe," as they remind him that there are many things we can't see, but still have faith in. Likewise, Nick encourages Danny to audition at the music shop by reminding him that "The Song's Got to Come From the Heart." Danny sings "It's the Same Old Dream" as a typical ballad...but teen singers the Starlighters aren't impressed and do their own swing version.
The big hit here was "Time After Time," which is first heard performed by Danny after he adds words to Jamie's music. Anne gets to do her own lovely rendition later when Danny announces that the music shop intends to publish it. Anne and Danny sing the opera duet "La Ci Darem La Mano" from Don Giovanni while out to dinner; Jamie accompanies them on piano. Near the end of the movie, Anne imagines herself performing the difficult "Bell Song" from Lakme in a fully-staged version of the opera.
Trivia: That's a 17-year-old Andre Previn playing all of the piano solos in the film, including the one in the finale that cements that scholarship.
Despite singing and dancing so well in "I Believe," Bobby Long apparently dropped out of show business shortly after the film's release and would join the Navy from 1951 to 1955.
What I Don't Like: First and foremost, this is not for those who prefer their musicals on the big, bold, and brassy side. It's small and quiet for a musical from this era. It's not even filmed in color. Grayson's first opera duet with Sinatra is cute, but her big fantasy "Bell Song" sequence late in the film comes totally out of left field and is never mentioned again. It was probably added to give Grayson more to do and show off her soprano. The producer was right that she can come off as a cold fish compared to the guys, even after she's supposedly thawed later in the movie. The story can come off as cutesy and trite, especially in the second half, when they're trying to help the teen get his scholarship.
The Big Finale: If you're a fan of the four leads or are looking for a smaller-scale MGM musical, this is an underrated charmer that's worth buying the Brooklyn Bridge for.
Home Media: On streaming and DVD, the latter currently from the Warner Archives.
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