In my attempt to have a more prolific repertoire of Oscar Nominated Films, I have taken it upon myself to watch 89 new Best Picture Nominees that I’ve never seen before between 1 Dec 2016 and The 89th Annual Oscars on 26 Feb 2017.
Here is my 81st review of the 89 chosen Films…
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“Go down to the ocean and pull a wave over your head! ” – Bert
Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Feb 2017)
Brief Synopsis – An aspiring actress and dancer tries to get the lead role in a new musical being produced by her former classmate with the help of a reporter.
My Take on it – I’ve never been the biggest fan of these kind of screwball comedy/musicals because they all might be fun to watch, but usually make little to no sense.
The plot here is quite thin and the idea is more to be able to demonstrate the dancing and singer talents of the cast instead of telling us an interesting story.
The cast is nice with Jack Benny, Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, Una Merkel, June Knight and Buddy Ebsen (in his fist film) in prominent parts, but none of them really are able to take this material to the next level.
I have a lot of trouble believing that this is the kind of film that really should be included among the upper echelon of films that have been nominated for Best Picture over the years; perhaps it was better received 80 years ago, but now it just doesn’t really cut the mustard (as they say)
Bottom Line – Film that fits in well with the screwball comedies of the time that mixed romance and music, but the story itself isn’t so great. I’m a bit surprised that this film got nominated for Best Picture. Nice to see Ebsen and Benny in this.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The song “I’ve Got A Feeling You’re Fooling” contains the line “It’s just the well-known old Army game”. The “Army game” is a variation on 3-card Monte where the object is to confuse the player in order for the dealer to win. It was named the Army game since it was often played in the Army trenches during WW1. (From IMDB)
Rating – BAFTA Worthy
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