When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.
Director: Ken Russell
Stars: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, ..., Tommy Tune.
Christopher Gable ... musical choreographer
~18 songs in the Soundtracks; originals by Sandy Wilson, a couple by Brown & Freed: You Are My Lucky Star and All I Do is Dream of You.
The accents, especially the Cockneys, are very thick. It took me less than 30 seconds to turn on the subtitles.
KR clearly likes old musicals, since he does overhead geometric shots ala Busby Berkeley at least 3 times in the film. Once he has 2 circles of girls doing different patterns side-by-side, but I think he had only the one set and optically joined the 2 sequences.
I'm surprised to find this was originally a stage play from the 50s, because so much of the point of the film appears to be going into someone's imagination to view the production number in some enhanced way. This happens a LOT, and it's not always clear who's mind is being tapped each time.
The accents, especially the Cockneys, are very thick. It took me less than 30 seconds to turn on the subtitles.
KR clearly likes old musicals, since he does overhead geometric shots ala Busby Berkeley at least 3 times in the film. Once he has 2 circles of girls doing different patterns side-by-side, but I think he had only the one set and optically joined the 2 sequences.
I'm surprised to find this was originally a stage play from the 50s, because so much of the point of the film appears to be going into someone's imagination to view the production number in some enhanced way. This happens a LOT, and it's not always clear who's mind is being tapped each time.
Among the Connections on IMDb is listed this, which I don't remember at all:
The Band Wagon (1953) "Triplets" number paid homage to
I'd like to like this better. I don't think it's a spoof of old films. I think any references backward are homages. But one of the reasons we get so many fantasy sequences is that the stage musical we're seeing is done badly, with a tinny upright piano providing the music. But then the fantasy isn't performed any better, it's just more lavish or imaginative visually, or better instrumentally.
Maybe I'll like it better next time. Wow, IMDb rating of 7.8 with 2.5k+ votes.
Maybe I'll like it better next time. Wow, IMDb rating of 7.8 with 2.5k+ votes.
distr. MGM, dir. Russell; 6
