1h 43min | Music, Romance | 13 October 1953 | b/w
Director: Tay Garnett
Stars: Tommy Morton, Mary Murphy, Agnes Moorehead, Herb Shriner, Tallulah Bankhead, lots of stars in cameos.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046027/
Watched online, mediocre/poor copy.
TM, who's an interesting dancer, plays a writer and doesn't dance.
1 song in the Soundtracks, sung by Mary Martin.
Just as I begin to wonder whether watching content not released to dvd is worthwhile, I stumble on one that is.
This is horrible and wonderful, often at the same time. The acting, the writing, everything.
You see in the poster how many cameos there are. And they are wonderful/horrible too. These renowned actors are horrible at playing themselves here, but it's wonderful to see them. Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, walking down the street, arguing about what they'll have for dinner. Are we really to believe he likes double decker sandwiches that overstuff his mouth, and that she eats cold cuts with a knife and fork?
Rodgers and Hammerstein in a scene, supposedly trying to write a song, and Mary Martin drops in to help? Rodgers has the tune, but Oscar is blocked. Later she sings the final product (it's not one that I know).
Shirley Booth signing autographs, begging off and suggesting the kids stay for Cornel Wilde, so we can cut to Cornel Wilde in a workshop, which introduces our leading lady (Mary Murphy, unfamiliar face) and leading man TM.
MM, as the Indiana girl who's been in NY to make it on B'way, has decided to quit and go home, and she's workshopping one last scene with CW, but can't stay for the discussion because she's got a bus to catch. Then wannabe playwright TM pursues her, all the way to Indiana.
In Indiana, she meets Herb Shriner (father to Will and Kin), a latter day Will Rogers, a hardware store owner. This is a guy to fall in love with: he's very down to earth, but sees the romance in hardware: he displays wrenches in his store window on velvet to bring out the blue of the steel. It sounds horrible, but this guy delivers the lines like he means them. Again, horrible/wonderful. This is his only film credit, but he did lots of TV appearances (again, only 1 acting).
TM shares an agent (AM, who does a terrible dialect) with Tallulah Bankhead, who happens to arrive while he's there, and ...
This deserves a good print to surface and get released.
Cinema Prod., distr. MGM, dir. Garnett; 7
