2h 30min | Comedy, Crime, Musical | 3 November 1955 | Color, WS
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Stars: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine, Robert Keith, Stubby Kaye.
Michael Kidd ... dances and musical numbers staged by
Yes, MB sings and dances, but, per IMDb trivia, the audio for each of Marlon Brando's musical numbers is constructed from multiple takes. And his dancing isn't much, and covered well by the ensemble.
Stubby Kaye had the same role in the original stage production (1950-53). Vivian Blaine was also the originator of Miss Adelaide onstage.
Most of the songs here have a 1950 release date, with 2 published in '55, so this might be a fairly faithful recreation of the B'way musical.
Songs performed (32 chapters with menu); all Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser:
- ch2. New York folks street scene
- ch3. Fugue for Tinhorns, Sung by Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, and Danny Dayton
- ch4. Follow the Fold, Played by the Mission Band and sung by them and Jean Simmons, later by MB
- ch6. The Oldest Established (Permanent Floating Crap Game), Sung by Frank Sinatra, Stubby Kaye, Johnny Silver, Harry Wilson, Jerry Orbach (opening line) and other men in barber shop
- ch10. I'll Know, Sung by Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons at the Mission
- ch11. Pet Me Poppa, Sung and danced by Vivian Blaine and The Goldwyn Girls at the Hot Box Club
- ch13. Adelaide's Lament, Sung by Vivian Blaine in her dressing room
- ch14. Guys and Dolls, Sung by Frank Sinatra, Stubby Kaye, and Johnny Silver walking down street after Adelaide has broken up with Nathan
- ch17. Adelaide, Sung by Frank Sinatra and other men in the bar
- ch18. A Woman in Love, Sung by Renee Renor in the Havana restaurant
- ch19. dance-off with MB & JS
- ch20. If I Were a Bell, Sung by Jean Simmons
- ch21. A Woman in Love, Sung by Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons back in New York
- ch23. Take Back Your Mink, Sung by Vivian Blaine and The Goldwyn Girls in the Hot Box Club
- ch26. shootin' craps ballet
- ch28. Luck Be a Lady, Sung and danced by Marlon Brando and the gamblers
- ch29. Sue Me, Sung by Vivian Blaine and Frank Sinatra
- ch30. Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat, Sung by Stubby Kaye and a chorus of gamblers at the Mission
Rated 8 on 2006-01-02, today I'm totally tepid about this. I'm not a fan of Damon Runyan, nor MB. And I despise amateurs in musical roles, which is how MB & JS come across. I think I might like this better if those 2 roles were cast with true musical performers.
The women dancing is also ensemble. They're half the players in ch 19. But the 2 Goldwyn Girl numbers, ch's 11 & 23, did not dazzle me; it might be that they are deliberately mediocre to convey the type of nightclub where Adelaide would work, but the club itself looks nice, upscale.
The dvd projects letterboxed on all 4 sides. It dates back to the days before home screens were routinely widescreen, but it's really a shame that none of my options to alter the width eliminate the black zones on left & right. Hopefully they fixed that with subsequent releases.
If I'm lucky, the song that will repeat in my head is ...Rockin' the Boat (ch30). "Well done" to SK. That, the dance numbers, and Adelaide's Lament (ch13) rescue my rating downgrade from 8 to 7ish.
Disclaimer: my feelings may be colored by the biography of FS that I recently completed. Although I respect his early ambitions for mastering the art of delivering a song, that bio cast him as a dark, troubled person, who definitely lost his self-creation focus after making it as a singer, and seemed like just an all-around jerk. On the other hand, I think he could have been better in the lead than MB, but then who would have played Nathan Detroit (where he is well cast)?
Goldwyn, distr. MGM, dir. Mankiewicz; 7-
