First things first. I am always puzzled by extra-cinematic considerations when critics (amateurs or professionals) discuss a film. Yeas ago I recall a review of A Man for All Seasons focused primarily on how evil Sir Thomas More was compared to the morally idealized image of him in the film.
As the Hollywood producer famously said, "If I want to send messages I'll use Western Union." If I want to learn about Sir Thomas More I'll read an historical biography of him.
I didn't go to see this film to learn about Eva Tanguay, apart of course from bare outlines. I WOULD have been disappointed if Tanguay was dramatized as a scientist working alongside of Madame Curie. But I'm content with the bare (no pun intended) outlines.
This film is perfect entertainment, though it ends on an incongruous note with the anticlimactic. New Orleans dance number, by far the worst in the film. The choreography and set design don't even make sense for a blues sequence in New Orleans.
Criticism of the frame story is misguided in my view. It's not to be taken seriously or coherently. The main purpose was to show precisely how biographical details can never be accurate, a technique, of course, made famous in a more serious vein in Citizen Kane.
The acting, especially by. David Wayne as Eddie McCoy. Is superb throughout, at least by musical standards, though Oscar Levant looks like he's mostly reading his lines.
But the standout, of course, is the energetic and ebullient Mitzi Gaynor in one of her finest roles, far more memorable than her later pedestrian role in the film version of South Pacific. Apart from the final dance number, all of her numbers are great, but especially the second *I Don't Care* sequence, with Jack Cole's famous multi-leveled choreography. But even David Wayne hat at least one good number.
As the Hollywood producer famously said, "If I want to send messages I'll use Western Union." If I want to learn about Sir Thomas More I'll read an historical biography of him.
I didn't go to see this film to learn about Eva Tanguay, apart of course from bare outlines. I WOULD have been disappointed if Tanguay was dramatized as a scientist working alongside of Madame Curie. But I'm content with the bare (no pun intended) outlines.
This film is perfect entertainment, though it ends on an incongruous note with the anticlimactic. New Orleans dance number, by far the worst in the film. The choreography and set design don't even make sense for a blues sequence in New Orleans.
Criticism of the frame story is misguided in my view. It's not to be taken seriously or coherently. The main purpose was to show precisely how biographical details can never be accurate, a technique, of course, made famous in a more serious vein in Citizen Kane.
The acting, especially by. David Wayne as Eddie McCoy. Is superb throughout, at least by musical standards, though Oscar Levant looks like he's mostly reading his lines.
But the standout, of course, is the energetic and ebullient Mitzi Gaynor in one of her finest roles, far more memorable than her later pedestrian role in the film version of South Pacific. Apart from the final dance number, all of her numbers are great, but especially the second *I Don't Care* sequence, with Jack Cole's famous multi-leveled choreography. But even David Wayne hat at least one good number.