1h 27min | Comedy, Drama, Music | 2 June 1944
Director: Felix E. Feist
Stars: Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, Peggy Ryan
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037368/
Watched online, poor print.
In the Tap! Appendix for Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan. Their first routine is EXACTLY what they did onstage before a huge GI audience in Follow the Boys, but there we got to see it from behind. We get at least 2 other numbers pairing DO & PR, and it often involves some gymnastics and some violence (shoving, hitting). They're friends who've been contentious for a long time, like battling siblings. They're good dancers, but they don't dance for the duration of the numbers.
SF sings a few songs, hitting those high notes (although I don't think she got to G above high C ad noted in a prior film.)
The plot here is SF falling for and seriously pursuing an older man for marriage. He still loves his ex-wife, and maybe DO loves SF? I got bored. The top 3 billed are teens. I thought the 50s were when teens took over the movie-going, but maybe it started back here, in the war.
The battling teens, the pre-maturity crushes interpreted as true love, the adult who is stupid enough to agree to be "engaged" to the teen, the dance routines that haven't enough dancing, the singing that pierces the brain. But not totally annoying enough for a 4?
SF sings a few songs, hitting those high notes (although I don't think she got to G above high C ad noted in a prior film.)
The battling teens, the pre-maturity crushes interpreted as true love, the adult who is stupid enough to agree to be "engaged" to the teen, the dance routines that haven't enough dancing, the singing that pierces the brain. But not totally annoying enough for a 4?
Maybe I should be glad Universal hasn't released the DO filmography.
Universal, dir. Feist; 5
