"Radio City Revels" is a comedy musical that is best for its music and dancing. The plot is silly and centers around a washed up songwriter, Jack Oakie, who discovers a correspondence student of his who composes songs in his sleep. He and his sidekick, a young Milton Berle tap Bob Burns for a number of hit songs. A young couple meet, Burns falls for Ann Miller, who falls for Kenny Baker (and him for her), while Helen Broderick latches onto Burns. Victor Moore is a radio show producer they all play up to.
Well, all the attempts at comedy (they are just that, at best) and romance pale, and just serve to tie together some very talented folks who sing and dance. It's an old-fashioned revue type of musical. Some of the leads of the cast weren't in many films. Ann Miller's tap dancing is a delight to watch, and some choreographed dance numbers are very good. This is just one of two feature films in which Jane Froman appears and sings. She had a great voice, and it's too bad she wasn't in more films. Her story was the subject of a very good 1952 musical biopic, "With a Song in My Heart," in which Susan Hayward played Froman. But one gets to hear that tremendous voice because she sang all the songs for the film that Hayward lip-synched.
I couldn't tell who a woman dancer is in this film, who seems to be triple-jointed. She does a number that includes super high kicks that seem to be perpendicular above her head. The only entertainer I know of who could do that was Charlotte Greenwood, but it doesn't appear to be her and she's not listed in the credits. Some other entertainers give good dance and movement routines that seem to have gone out with vaudeville. But they're very entertaining and interesting to watch.
