1h 40min | Comedy, Musical, Western | 18 November 1948 | Color
Director: Laslo Benedek
Stars: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick, Billy Gilbert, Clinton Sundberg.
Robert Alton..Fiesta Dance Specialty Created by
Stanley Donen...dance director
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040513/
In the Tap! Appendix for Ann Miller, Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse. Not really tap, not quite flamenco-style.
Songs performed (9 chapters, no menu)
- ch2. Tomorrow Means Romance, sung by Kathryn Grayson
- ch3. What's Wrong with Me?, sung by Kathryn Grayson, then Frank Sinatra
- ch4. If I Steal a Kiss, sung by Frank Sinatra
- ch4. I Like You, Sung and Danced by Sono Osato with a whip (her only movie credit)
- ch6. If I Steal a Kiss, reprised by Kathryn Grayson *you, not I now
- ch7. Siesta, sung by Frank Sinatra
- ch7. Dance of Fury, Danced by Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller <online>
- ch8. Señorita, sung by Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson
- ch8. Love is Where You Find It, Sung by Kathryn Grayson
- ch9. If I Steal a Kiss, reprised by Kathryn Grayson *you, not I now
I remembered this as a "bad" musical, with one great dance number (Montalban/Charisse/Miller). Instead I find this a perfectly good musical. It's silly, but that's a good thing. It's very, very colorful, mostly from the beautiful costumes.
Very suggestive costuming in the Dance of Fury: RM is all in green, the women are in identical red and yellow costumes, one dominantly red, the other dominantly yellow. The suggestive part: their petticoats are the same green as RM's clothing. Yowser!
I had remembered the camera "dancing with" the trio in Dance of Fury. Watching it now, I see it's just well-cut. And it's not a lot of cuts; you see plenty of legitimate dancing, not illusions of movement. But this is still one of the best dance numbers on film, for my money. (I can add lots of qualifiers, because it doesn't compare to Busby Berkeley spectaculars with dozens of dancers. But for a trio, this is up there.)
One small scene: Juanita, a maid attending KG on her arrival, got some good screen time describing her own encounter with the Kissing Bandit (father of FS). The actress is Edna Skinner (b. '21), who played the neighbor wife of Mr. Ed ('61) for 86 episodes. This is her 1st of 6 film credits. She doesn't sing here, but she was one of the replacements (twice) for Celeste Holm as Ado Annie in the original B'way production of Oklahoma! ('43-'48)
I like this film. Lots of singing, comedy, color, and that dance number. The runaway stagecoach was fun, as are the fight scenes. What more can we ask of a musical? (Of course, for a Great musical, we need more dance numbers.)
MGM, dir. Benedek; 7-
