Main Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Red Skelton, Marge Champion, Gower Champion, Zsa Zsa Gabor
Release Year: 1952
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
The reason the 1935 Astaire/Rogers film version of Roberta was unavailable for years was that, in 1952, MGM bought the property and refilmed it under the title Lovely to Look At. Inheriting one-half of a Parisian dress salon from his late aunt, Red Skelton travels to France with his showbiz friends Howard Keel and Gower Champion. The threesome hopes to convince the owners of the other half of the salon to sell their share so that Skelton, Keel and Champion can finance a Broadway show. Meeting Skelton's "partners" Kathryn Grayson and Marge Champion, the three Americans discover that the salon is all but broke, so they pool their resources and wits to make the establishment a winning proposition. The plot thickens as more and more characters are added to the storyline, including stagestruck gendarme Kurt Kaznar and chorus girl Ann Miller. Songs retained from the original Jerome Kern Broadway score for Roberta include "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," "I Won't Dance" and, of course, "Lovely to Look At." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Adrian did the fashions and Gabriel Scognamillo did the art direction and they, along with director Mervyn LeRoy, are chiefly to blame for a garish and overproduced closing number that may have caused housewives to swoon in 1952, but is all but guaranteed to leave a modern audience cold, especially on the small screen. Happily, some of Jerome Kern's songs have been retained for this updated version of Roberta, including a beautiful version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" performed by Kathryn Grayson, and Red Skelton's "Irish Tenor" routine is as funny as ever. Marge and Gower Champion perform a couple of snappy dance numbers choreographed by Hermes Pan, but the producers left Ann Miller out in the cold. And that is a shame because Miller steals the show every time she opens her mouth, which, alas, isn't often enough. Was it mentioned that Zsa Zsa Gabor plays a character named Zsa Zsa? Well, she does. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
