1h 22min | Comedy, Fantasy, Musical | August 1948
Directors: William A. Seiter, Gregory La Cava (uncredited)
Stars: Robert Walker, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, Eve Arden, Olga San Juan, Tom Conway.
Billy Daniel ... dance director (as Billy Daniels)
Elia Kazan ... stager: original musical production
Watched online, a little blurry, a little echo-y.
Window dresser RW kisses an ancient statue of Venus during a lightning strike, and she comes to life as Ava Gardner.
I think it was 30 minutes before we got a song, but then we got them regularly. Only 3 songs listed in Soundtracks, but multiple performers of each, so they are either repeated or have a long enough duration for 3. The most haunting: Speak Low; I feel like I've heard Lena Horne sing that one. AG is dubbed, but not others. All 3 songs are music by Kurt Weill.
Interesting that Hugh Herbert is listed as Mercury with scenes deleted. We could have used some more humor. EA was her usual persona; OSJ got to go to extremes (throwing objects...melting in love). DH's voice was welcome; I tried not to look at him too much. RW was well-suited to his nervous character, but I don't want to watch him in a romcom, and AG deserves better as a love object. But you're not going to believe someone better as a window dresser, unless it's someone like Donald O'Connor who works for this studio and we could have had some dancing (grrrr.) No idea what the dance director did here.
I'd brought over a rating of 6 from Netflix; I completely agree today.
Universal, dir. Seiter & La Cava; 6
