Can you still call this film Anything Goes if the title song has been excised from the score? (See correction in comments below) Well, the film has little to do with the stage version of the show which preceded it by almost 20 years.
Donald O'Connor makes his second appearance in a week of my Year, playing the younger leading man to Bing Crosby's older leading man. Mr. O'Connor impresses again with a tap number in an on-ship children's playroom (don't ask). O'Connor and Ms. Gaynor are well-matched as dance partners, but have to suffer through some mediocre choreography. Perhaps the greatest disappointment is the crooning of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" by Crosby and O'Connor at the end of the film. It needs a voice as blaring as Gabriel's horn--like Ethel Merman in the original stage cast.
Still, there's one nice addition from the pen of Sammy Cahn, a comedy song for Crosby and O'Connor near the top of the film. And Edith Head gives good costume to the two women.
Anything Goes
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Additional songs by Sammy Cahn
Book for the film by Sidney Sheldon
Based (loosely) on the play by Guy Bolton and PG Wodehouse
Released by Paramount Pictures in 1956
Cast: Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Zizi Jeanmaire
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3 comments:
Hi
You ask how the movie could be called "Anything Goes"?
I must agree with you that it does bear little or no ressemblance to the Broadway show,or the 1936 movie version, but the title song IS in the movie!
Watch the movie again, you WILL hear and see the delightfully delicious Mitzi Gaynor sing and dance in a figure-hugging Edith Head outfit, to the title track:
ANYTHING GOES
The childrens' playroom on board ship was a standard feature of Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
Look closely and you will see that the "props" are authentic CGT items
The entire set is a pretty good idea of what transatlantic travel was like aboard a luxury liner in 1956, including the childrens' playroom
I stand corrected on the song being in the film, perhaps I was focusing on other things--like the Edith Head costumes.
I didn't realize there was another film version, I'll have to look for it. Please feel free to suggest other things and point out other errors or interesting tidbits.
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