1h 35min | Musical, Romance, Comedy | 4 November 1954 | Color, WS
Director: Richard Thorpe
Stars: Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Edmund Purdom, Vic Damone, Louis Calhern, Steve Reeves.
Valerie Bettis ... choreographer
Bootleg, excellent print, except that it's letterboxed on 4 sides.
10 songs in the Soundtracks, with some performance info missing.
Extreme health-food philosophy, combined with body-building, numerology and absolute veganism (no wool rugs allowed) makes this different, and therefore engaging. But I didn't care what happened to the characters, and we didn't get VD singing enough (1-2 songs). JP sang a lot, but having VD without singing was a big disappointment. DR sang a few too; more that just a duet with JP, as the Soundtracks currently states.
I remember 1 dance number, when the sisters (7 in all) and the body builders were clearing the lawyer's house of animal fabrics and window screens.
The entire film is just about the culture clash of the sisters+grandparents against anyone "normal." This would have been a great film for Julie Newmar, who espoused such things in a Columbo episode, but she's still too new in the biz to have such a large role.
MGM, dir. Thorpe; 6
