This film was Peter Bogdanovich's homage to musical comedies of the 1930s. A millionaire named Michael Oliver Pritchard III and a singer named Kitty O'Kelly meet and fall in love. Meanwhile...
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, Duilio Del Prete, Eileen Brennan, John Hillerman, Mildred Natwick.
Rita Abrams ... dance coordinator
Albert Lantieri ... dance coordinator
Watched online, befogged and truncated print (to avoid copyright infringement), runtime 1h 37m. I found 2 others with different effects applied, one that had a longer runtime.
19 songs in the Soundtracks, all by Cole Porter.
This is widely panned, with an IMDb rating of 4.9 with 930+ votes, and it's on several "worst movie" lists.
However, I liked what I saw, as limited as that was. (The fog filter was pretty dense, but I recognized the actors in each scene.) I liked most of what I heard; my primary complaint would be about the Italian DD, whose voice is fine, but his accent is too thick for the spritely, clever CP lyrics. If I had a dvd, I'd probably turn on the subtitles.
This print ended abruptly before the expected plot resolution: the opening credits run over a music box with 2 couples dancing, but they stop and change partners, then resume dancing. We already had 2 switches so far, and I was expecting another because they were unhappy with the 2nd switch.
The wardrobe was gorgeous and all black and white, even the extras. So although the grass is green, and the flesh is skin toned, this is a b/w film.
Although none of the principals are great dancers, they do some timestep tapping in unison, and they're ok.
The singing is almost non-stop, with very little dialog. Since I'm used to opera, that doesn't phase me. But the CP lyrics are more complicated than opera, which are oft repeated, so it was exhausting. Again, subtitles might help.
If this film were on disc for a reasonable price, I'd scoop it up. But there's only an OOP 2013 bluray, and the cheapest on Amazon is $95; similar pricing on eBay, with those listed as auction items to drive the price even higher. I've put a "watch" on it.
Fox & more, dir. Bogdanovich; 6+
