Composer and lyricist Irving Berlin makes his first appearance in my Year with the Ethel Merman vehicle Call Me Madam. Wealthy Texas oil widow Sally Adams is posted as Ambassador to little Lichtenburg and lusty singing ensues.
Joinging La Merm in this film (and actually holding their own) are Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, and George Sanders. Mr. Sanders sings one nice number and Ms. Ellen dances a nice dance or two, but the real delight is Mr. O'Connor. I've of course seen him clowning in Singin' in the Rain, and loved "Make 'Em Laugh", but in Madam, O'Connor has to sing, dance and romance the girl--usually all at the same time. And he pulls it off with elan. A tap number where he bursts a lot of balloons is particularly creatively choreographed.
Madam's music perhaps is not uniformly the best that Berlin produced. The memorable song from the score is "You're Just in Love" and it doesn't take a genius to realize it's the best number, because the film reprises the tune again and again! Fortunately, it really is a great quodlibet song with two melodies overlapping one another. "It's a Lovely Day Today" is also a memorable tune, but the other haven't lasted the course of time.
I've actually seen this show live on stage, in a City Center-like staging in Chicago with Jo Anne Worley as Adams and Malcolm Gets as her press secretary Kenneth Gibson. It was about ten years ago, but Worley was great, as I recall, and Gets had a very nice singing voice.
Call Me Madam
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Screenplay by Arthur Sheekman based on the
Book by Howard Linsday and Russel Crouse
Released by 20th Century Fox in 1953
Cast: Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment