Movie #886 "Anything Goes" --- I picked this one up for $5 a few months ago and set it aside to watch it because I don't remember every seeing it while I was growing up --- which is unusual because most of my favorite movies were movie musicals, and esp. with two favorites here, Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor, I thought it couldn't be a miss. Well, I'm here to tell you........it IS a miss! yikes! Could barely wait until it ended. "Classic"? I don't think so. There's so life in this --- people are just walking through a very bad script. It takes some of the classic Cole Porter songs from the musical with the same name (one I have never ever liked!) and retools the story so you can't even recognize it (not that you can ever remember the musical's plot, it is so convoluted itself) so you need to know that if you ever come across this film, don't expect to see the stage version by the same name. The plot is sooooooooo thin, the dialogue dumb, the musical numbers are even lame! (e.g. some turban number toward the end of the picture for some unknown reason) What a waste of talent, esp. the two male leads. Actually, I was never a big Mitzi Gaynor fan --- thought she was a mediocre talent, weak voice, just okay hoofer, and hammy actress, but she's kind of a shining light here because when she's in the film, it seems to have some life. One thing I would say in a positive fashion is that I have never liked the song "Blow Gabriel Blow" but I think Crosby does something with the number that makes it listenable (such a word?) to me, so kudos there. And I have always thought O'Connor is one of the best hoofers of all time, so watching him with kids bounce balls off his head and dance was fun to me, even though the number seemed stuck in there, like Oh, here's a Cole Porter song that we could put in because it's easy to stage with kids????? Really, this film was a mess, so I wouldn't recommend it. But it is pretty funny to watch Bing Crosby try to keep up with the other 3 capable dancers he is set up with. At least in White Christmas, Danny Kaye wasn't as good of a dancer as O'Connor is in this, and Kaye would dance around Crosby in a funny fashion that made Bing look somewhat better! Don't need to see this, and it isn't a classic, not really!
Anything Goes1956NR106 minutes I gave it 2 stars out of 5.
This classic Bing Crosby-Donald O'Connor vehicle takes inspiration from Cole Porter's masterpiece about two collaborating composers, Bill Benson (Crosby) and Ted Adams (O'Connor), who wind up recruiting two very different actresses (Zizi Jeanmaire and Mitzi Gaynor) to star in their next Broadway hit. It's a race to the klieg lights from there on out. Memorable tunes include "You're the Top" and "I Get a Kick Out of You."
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