Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1954)

TherG's No Business Like Show Business" (CinemaScope) ScMute^ 'R<ntcK<^ O O O O Can't miss being top grosser. Wonderful entertainment for every member of family. Entrancing combination of heart and sock Berlin tunes. Advance ballyhoo and "don't miss" word-of-mouth point to bountiful boxoffice down the line. The best musical film to come out of Hollywood in years! Irving Berlin, who can't seem to miss for clicking, has come up with another smash in "No Business Like Show Business" that bids to top his past successes. It has everything one could ask for in the way of musical entertainment. Lavish, oftimes spectacular, it's loaded with sock tunes, thrilling production numbers, enhanced notably by CinemaScope, and the most wonderful use of color (DeLuxe) to date. Yet for all its bigness, it has more heart than a half dozen musical books put together. Under Walter Lang's canny direction, the excellent cast delineates a saga of a show business family that intertwines the emotions and risibilities, as well as the senses, to wrap up a two-hour package of unadulterated enjoyment. The Phoebe and Henry Ephron screenplay, based on a Lamar Trotti story, forms a sturdy framework for the Berlin sparklers, masterful choreography and spectacular staging. Story bep'ins in 1919 with Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey as a married song-and-dance team on the vaudeville circuit. Their three youngsters, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Johnny Ray, infused with show business blood, rebel against schooling, join Mom and Pop for a sock family routine. The act is imperiled when Ray leaves to study for priesthood and O'Connor falls for Marilyn Monroe, chorine who exploits O'Connor to gain stardom, but falls for him meanwhile. A jealous tiff between the young pair lands O'Connor in the hospital, after a binge, and he runs off when Dailey rebukes him. Act dwindles further when Dailey disappears to look for him and Merman carries on alone. Joyful reunion takes place in stunning production number at an actors' benefit show as Merman leads out her brood, with O'Connor now in the Navy, Ray an Army chaplain. While everyone in the cast sparkles, it is Ethel Merman's surprisingly adept dramatic performance which dominates. She uncorks a characterization that helps build the film into socko all-around diversion. Kudos to Darryl F. Zanuck, producer Sol C. Siegel, and Irving Berlin for map:ical musical entertainment. Robert Alton's staging of the dances and musical numbers is superlative. Employing color like a Rembrandt, Alton's masterpieces combine a nice interplay of subdued, almost black-and-white, scenes with brilliantly tinted shouts of vividity for some breathtaking scenes. 'Pressbook chockful of selling aids, live ad copy and display. "In all the world there's no music like it ... no cast like it ... no story like it ... no show like it! It's the musical CinemaScope was made for!" (Wax) 20th Century-FoK 117 Minutes. Ethel Mermen, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnv Ray, Mitii Gaynor, Richard Eastham, Hugh O'Brian, Frank McHugh, Rhys Williams, Lee Patrick. Producer Sol C. Siegel. Director Walter Lang. "The Country Girl" ScUiHCM I^CltiK^ O O O Adult drama with strong prospects for class market. Stars, provocative theme offer hefty lure in all but action houses and hinterland, where abundance of dialogue may pall. One of the better dramas of the year, "The Country Girl" is mature film fare bound to create talk and wantto-see generally. Having much of the quality of the Clifford Odets' original play, it is virtually a photographed stage play which concentrates almost exclusively on the psychological aspects of a man-wife relationship. There is consequently very little action and a great deal of talk ; virtually every scene is a colloquy in which the principals take part. But the talk is very good ; it provides an engrossing and sensitive examination of a marriage that has failed while the self-respect of an alcoholic husband and his wife has dwindled. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden all turn in fine performances. Plot concentrates almost exclusively on stage star Crosby, who has lost confidence in himself and seeks solace in the bottle, and his wife, Kelly. Holden, producer of the play in which Crosby is to appear, attempts to gain an understanding of both marital and professional situation in order to save his play, and falls in love with the actor's wife in the process. He helps them restore their marriage, guides the star to a successful comeback. (Bret ) Paramount 104 Minutes. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, William Holden. Producer William Perlberg. Director George Seaton. "Young At Heart" Su^iKC^ 'RcUlH^ O O O Rating for family market and juke-box trade drawn by DaySinatra names. Leisurely pace, romantic accent negate it for action market. Star-pairing strong selling angle. Remake of highly-successful "Four Daughters" (1938). Musically entertaining, with sock tunes given top-flight delivery by Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. Falters in heart, pathos and gentle humor that graced original. Major drawback is rambling script, synthetic motivation in romantic complications of Julian Epstein-Lenore Coffee screenplay. Songs incidental in romantic tale of three (not four) daughters in musical household, whose heart affairs go into who-loves-whom maze when dashing composer Gig Young settles in their Connecticut cottage. Tangle gets worse when gloomy, cynical pianist-singer Sinatra enters picture (film runs 40 minutes before he appears). Day jilts Young at altar to run off with Sinatra, struggles to help him rise above his self-styled doomed-by-fate philosophy. He deliberately crashes his car, but wife's faith and love pull him through for happy ending. Tunes are high spots, with Day glittering in half dozen, particularly "Ready, Willing & Able"; Frankie socking over "You My Love", "Just One of Those Things" and "One For My Baby". He sings his hit title song at opening and close. Henry Blanke's production gets deluxe treatment in WarnerColor. Personable cast, headed by Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, give one-dimensional performances under Gordon Douglas' like direction. (Barn) Warner Bros. 107 Minutes. Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, Robert Keith, Elisabeth Fraser. Director Gordon Douglas. Film BULLETIN December 27, 1954 Page 15