1h 28min | Comedy, Crime, Music | 15 May 1953 | b/w
Director: Don Weis
Stars: June Allyson, Van Johnson, Louis Calhern, Angela Lansbury, Dorothy Dandridge.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046235/
Watched online, ok print for small screen.
This has no business with a Music tag. 3 songs in the Soundtracks.
Dorothy Dandridge, in gown and hairdo used on the poster for Bright Road ('53) sings Taking a Chance on Love in a completely excisable number in a nightclub. She's announced by her own name within the film, and does nothing else.
The plot is hard to follow because the film doesn't engage my attention after the opening scenes. A barking dog leads the manager to the apartment of a dead guy. The dog is not his, and they think the death is natural until someone sticks a chef's knife in his chest after the manager and others move the body from the living room to the bedroom.
JA is not singing in NYC; a lot of time/effort is spent in the script explaining that she came from a tour, is missing work, and is trying to contact her bandleader. She was lured to NY by her uncle's attorney (why, I forget) named Benjamin Goodman (guess who she thought the telegram was from), and now she inherits the income from a million until she dies. But AL wants the money; her foundation is the next in line after JA kicks. AL tries to lure JA to her death by sleepwalking off the balcony, but luckily VJ plays some music (record/radio) that lures her to him just in time.
Then we get the romance developing between JA & VJ (yawn), and it turns out the doctor did it, and tries to kill JA when she figures it out. But VJ comes to the rescue. The End.
If you like VJ and JA, and plenty of people must have, then this might be pleasant. For me, it was a chore. Since I didn't pay full attention, I'll be generous.
MGM, dir. Weis; 6-
