Themes: Love Triangles, College Life, Football Players
Main Cast: June Allyson, Morris Ankrum, Tom Dugan, Connie Gilchrist, Jane Green
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 92 minutes
Plot
This second film version of the DeSylva/Brown/Henderson Broadway musical Good News may not be the best of the Arthur Freed-produced MGM musicals, but it's certainly one of the peppiest. The film is set at Tait college during the Roaring 20s. The wisp of a plot involves Tait football-star Peter Lawford, who will be ineligible to play in the Big Game if his grades don't improve. June Allyson is the demure Tait coed who takes on the task of tutoring Lawford, while campus vamp Patricia Marshall takes action when she believes (rightly so) that she is losing Lawford to Allyson. The film is deftly stolen by comic relief Joan McCracken, who stops the show with her energetic rendition of "Pass That Peace Pipe"--which, like the famous Lawford/Allyson duet "The French Lesson," was specially written for this 1948 version of Good News. Retained from the original score is the rousing "Varsity Drag." Mel Torme, Tom Dugan and Donald McBride are among the familiar supporting-cast faces in this bubbly Technicolor musical, which was adapted for the screen by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
College musicals were pretty much a thing of the past in 1947 -- which perhaps explains why Good News works as well as it does. Enough time had passed for the people involved with the movie to attack the story with an underlying layer of nostalgia and gently ironic fun. By no means a classic -- the slip of a story is just too silly and insubstantial - Good News has an infectious joyousness, energy and eagerness to please that makes it hard to dislike. Betty Comden and Adolph Green's screenplay is full of pep, and the score is consistently engaging. June Allyson plays for cute, as usual; she's an acquired taste, but the taste goes down more easily in this film. As her match, Peter Lawford is a little on the dull side, but he moves surprisingly well. They're featured in "The Varsity Drag," one of the movie's two big production numbers; it's a treat, but the real highlight is "Pass That Peace pipe" and that number's incredible Joan McCracken. An amazing spitfire of a performer, she anchors one of the most energetic dance routines this side of Gene Kelly, with far too many kids crammed into a little malt shop and practically tearing the set apart with their unquenchable high spirits. Charles Walters, making his directorial debut here, would go on to helm Easter Parade and Lili. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Peter Lawford - Tommy Marlowe; Georgia Lee - Flo; Donald MacBride - Coach Johnson; Patricia Marshall - Pat McClellan; Joan McCracken - Babe Doolittle; Ray McDonald - Bobby Turner; Robert E. Strickland - Peter Van Dyne III; Clinton Sundberg - Prof. Burton Kennyone; Loren Tindall - Beef; Mel Tormé - Danny; Bill Harbach
Credit
Edward C. Carfagno - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Roger Edens - Associate Producer, Helen Rose - Costume Designer, Irene Valles - Costume Designer, Charles Walters - Director, Albert Akst - Editor, Ralph Blane - Composer (Music Score), Lew Brown - Composer (Music Score), Buddy G. DeSylva - Composer (Music Score), Roger Edens - Composer (Music Score), Ray Henderson - Composer (Music Score), Hugh Martin - Composer (Music Score), Lennie Hayton - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jack Dawn - Makeup, Charles E. Schoenbaum - Cinematographer, Arthur Freed - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Paul G. Chamberlain - Set Designer, Lew Brown - Screenwriter, Betty Comden - Screenwriter, Buddy G. DeSylva - Screenwriter, Adolph Green - Screenwriter, Frank Mandel - Screenwriter, Laurence Schwab - Screenwriter
