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Lady Be Good

 
Movies:

Lady Be Good

  • Director: Norman Z. McLeod
  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Musical
  • Movie Type: Showbiz Drama, Musical Drama
  • Themes: Musician's Life, Foibles of Marriage, Ladder to the Top
  • Main Cast: Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, John Carroll
  • Release Year: 1941
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 111 minutes

Plot

The 1924 George Gershwin stage hit Lady Be Good was brought to the screen by MGM; any resemblance (beyond the Gershwin score) to the original play is purely accidental. The MGM scriveners came up with a new story concerning married songwriters Ann Sothern and Robert Young, who can't live with each other and can't live without each other. Top billing goes to dancing star Eleanor Powell, who certainly deserves it. Red Skelton is around and about as well, inserting a few much-needed laughs. While such Gershwin songs as "So Am I", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Hang on Me" are well showcased, the hit of the evening is a new song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, the Oscar-winning "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Our favorite scene: Ann Sothern and Robert Young composing "Lady be Good" out of thin air in two minutes flat! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

"How many songs makes a musical?" is a question that Hollywood and Broadway answered quite differently in the 1930s and 1940s. On Broadway, a typical musical would have at least a dozen songs; in Hollywood, four or five was more frequently the norm, despite the fact that often the musical numbers were the film's sole reason for existing. Lady Be Good has five (plus reprises), and they're mostly winners. The most impressive number is "Fascinating Rhythm," which is danced to a fare-thee-well by Eleanor Powell, the Berry Brothers and 80 chorus boys (and which also features five pianos and a 65-foot chiffon curtain). Powell also shows off her impressive terpsichorean skills during the title number -- with a dog as her partner. Most of the singing is handled by Ann Sothern and Robert Young, with Sothern sounding particularly good on both a slow and a swing version of "You'll Never Know." Sothern also sings "The Last Time I Saw Paris," a tremendous hit and an Oscar winner, more because of the wartime context than the actual quality of the song. When Lady isn't singing or dancing, there are a lot of dry patches, but if a viewer sticks with her, he'll be reasonably entertained. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

Cast

Red Skelton - Joe "Red" Willet; Virginia O'Brien - Lull; Tom Conway - Mr. Blanton; Dan Dailey - Bill Pattison; Reginald Owen - Max Milton; Rose Hobart - Mrs. Carter Wardley; Phil Silvers - M.C.; Warren Berry - Berry Brother; Connie Russell - Singer; Jimmy Dorsey; Edward Gargan - Policeman; Doris Day - Debutante

Credit

Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, John S. Detlie - Art Director, Busby Berkeley - Choreography, Adrian - Costume Designer, Norman Z. McLeod - Director, Frederick Y. Smith - Editor, George Bassman - Composer (Music Score), Ira Gershwin - Composer (Music Score), Jerome Kern - Composer (Music Score), George Stoll - Musical Direction/Supervision, George Folsey - Cinematographer, Oliver Marsh - Cinematographer, Arthur Freed - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, John McClain - Screenwriter, Jack McGowan - Screenwriter, Ralph Spence - Screenwriter, Kay Van Riper - Screenwriter, Herman Wouk - Screenwriter, George Gershwin - Featured Music

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Babes on Broadway; The Five Pennies; For Me and My Gal; Night and Day; Singin' in the Rain; Strike up the Band; Birth of the Blues
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Wikipedia: Lady Be Good (1941 film)
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Lady Be Good

Eleanor Powell
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Jack McGowan
Kay Van Riper
John McClain
Starring Eleanor Powell
Robert Young
Ann Sothern
Berry Brothers
Music by Roger Edens
Jerome Kern
Oscar Hammerstein II
George and Ira Gershwin
Cinematography George J. Folsey
Oliver T. Marsh
Editing by Fredrick Y. Smith
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) September 1, 1941 (U.S. release)
Running time 112 min
Language English

Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film which was released in 1941.

The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed. This was the first of several films Powell made with Skelton.

Although Powell received top billing, the main stars of the film are Sothern and Young. They play respectively Dixie Donegan, a would-be lyric writer and Eddie Crane, a struggling composer, who almost by accident write a hit song - Lady Be Good. They go from success to success, writing Gershwin and Kern songs, and marry. But when Eddie starts spending more time in rich New York society than composing, they grow apart and divorce. They eventually realise they are still in love and can't do without each other.

The film takes its title and theme song ("Oh, Lady be Good!") from the 1924 George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical, Lady Be Good, but otherwise has no connection to the play. According to film historian Robert Osborne in his introduction to a broadcast of the film on Turner Classic Movies in August 2006, the film was devised as a vehicle to launch Sothern as a musical star at MGM, however since she and Young were known primarily as light comic stars, Powell was brought in for a supporting role but given the top billing in order to attract audiences.

This film's most notable sequence involves an epic tap dance routine by Powell to the melody of Gershwin's "Fascinating Rhythm" (another song taken from the play). This musical number was later featured in two films in the That's Entertainment! documentary series -- in one of the films (That's Entertainment! III), behind-the-scenes footage was shown, revealing how this scene was accomplished. In order to allow Powell to dance between a series of pianos without interruption, pieces of the set had to be quietly removed off-camera as she worked her way across the stage. This musical sequence was directed by Busby Berkeley. Another sequence features Powell doing a dance routine with a dog that she herself trained for the number.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Song for "The Last Time I Saw Paris" which was composed by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II.

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