Most people who have actually seen this movie seem to love it, and comment on its humor. Certainly it is a top drawer comedy, but I first saw it as a teenager and fell in love with Wanda Hendrix immediately. She is gorgeous, and has a speech pattern that borders on a little lisp, and it gives her a combination of innocence and appeal that is hard to beat. You easily learn to hate the bad guy who is out to get her, and the development of the romance is delightful. And, of course, any time Barry Fitzgerald is on camera, he steals the scene. Ilke Chase and Monte Wooley are marvelous in character parts. Robert Stack does a great job as the wolf you love to hate. When Wanda Hendrix is tracing letters with her finger on Art Lund's chest, you have to be a very unusual person not to feel your temperature rise a little. I agree with the reviewer who can't understand why this gem has not been published on DVD. I'd stand in line to get it.
Reviews
4 Reviews
On the Riviera
(1951)
Danny Kaye at his best
18 December 2006
I can't imagine why anyone would dislike this marvelous film. Danny Kaye does a superb job playing a double role, showing a subtlety of acting ability that some might not have thought he had. He is not, for once, cast like a complete fool. Don't get me wrong; he plays those parts well, and is often hysterically funny, as in The Inspector General and The Court Jester. In that picture he does get to play a part that is not a fool, as he is hypnotized into thinking himself a swashbuckling hero, but it is a role that calls for him to lampoon the part he is playing. In On The Riviera, however, he plays a genuine masterful leading male role: a millionaire French airplane manufacturer with a gorgeous wife who is worth the price of admission. His other role is a traditional Kaye role: an American comedian. The gimmick is that he is an almost perfect double for the suave French romantic lead. He really plays three roles, and the subtlety with which he distinguishes them is superb. He is the American comic, he is the French millionaire looking a little like Yves Montand, and he is the American comic successfully passing himself off as the millionaire, fooling the wife and the valet as well as the general public. The role reminds me of Yves Montand in Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe: he plays the millionaire and he plays a poor guy trying to break into show business by passing for the millionaire. All in all, a triumph for Danny Kaye, well decorated with gorgeous females.
The Story of Three Loves
(1953)
Should have been three movies
10 October 2005
Each of the three love stories would have been worthy of a movie to itself. The second, with Leslie Caron, must rate at least a 7 for anyone who enjoys her, but her work in Lili outshines everything else she has done. The third, with Pier Angeli and Kirk Douglas was a treat even for a viewer who does not usually like Kirk Douglas. It rates a 9 on the basis of the marvelous sequences as he teaches Pier Angeli the art of high wire performance. But it is the first, which deserves 11 out of 10, which makes this film a "must see." I know of no other film in which great orchestral music has been treated with such respect and insight. There are long, uninterrupted sequences of the marvelous Moira Shearer dancing to one of Rachmaninoff's fabulous Variations on a Theme of Paganini. The combination is superlative ballet, and superlative interpretation of a great orchestral work of the late romantic school. As icing on the cake, James Mason is the audience of one as she dances, an irascible impresario who is, quite understandably, overwhelmed by the magic of Shearer's performance. The story ends too soon. At full length, with three times the dancing, and a better love story between Shearer and Mason, it would be a movie I might expect to see in Heaven. It makes the whole film easily worth a 9.
The Fleet's In
(1942)
A wonderful snapshot of an important time in history
10 October 2005
"Hey there, mister! You'd Better Hide Your Sister, 'Cause the Fleet's In!" That is the vivacious opening of a film that captures the spirit of an era fondly remembered by those who lived it. I remember the film specially since it was one of the first I ever saw. I saw it as a teenager when it came out, and enjoyed it greatly. There were laughs, which would sound rather dated now, perhaps, but charmingly innocent. William Holden as an innocent young sailor is a wonderful contrast to the roles he played later. In spite of the impression left by the words of the opening song, the sailors were very polite, and the film is a romance as well as a comedy. The high point for me was an extraordinarily beautiful vocal by Betty Hutton, in a serious vein, of the song: "It's Somebody Else's Moon Above, Not Mine." Dorsey's orchestra is fine, and Helen O'Connell, but Betty Hutton's heartbroken rendering of that moving song steals the show. A winner.
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