One Sunday Afternoon

How can you outsing, outact and outdance Jimmy Cagney? Maybe you can't. At least Dennis Morgan didn't here in this film with the same characters and basic plot as 1941's Strawberry Blonde. Both films are colorful and feature a lighthearted glimpse at a turn-of-the-century romance, but 'Blonde' trumps 'Sunday' in almost every regard. Can anyone portray a brawling, impish, but lovable Irishman better than Cagney? No, and I am surprised that Director Raoul Walsh and Sunday's producers thought that a mere seven years after the release of Strawberry Blonde, people would forget how great Jimmy really was. There's another problem with this film, too. In both romances, Virginia is the femme-fatale that all men crave, while Amy is a mousy suffragette type that even Biff sees as second-best. In the first film, Virginia is Rita Hayworth and Amy is Olivia DeHavilland, while in the re-make, Virginia is Janis Page and Amy is Dorothy Malone. One can see the wise casting in the original, while in the remake, the ladies are of equal charm and beauty (but neither approaching even DeHavilland's Amy). A bright spot is Don Defore,(later 'Mr. B' of TV's Hazel) who makes the Barnstead role more likable. On its own, One Sunday Afternoon might have seemed an enjoyable B-grade musical, but by comparison, it is severely paled. I wonder why Walsh directed both only seven years apart??

At times the dialog is the same as The Strawberry Blonde. and of course Blonde is a better film. But, this is a fun musical and it has the wonderful Janis Paige who was a fine stage performer and was the lead in the original Bway production of The Pajama Game. What you rarely see in musicals of that era is live singing (never at MGM). However, in this movie several of the musical numbers are sung live and it make a huge difference. It's truly where you see how real the talent is of the performers. Speaking of talent, those viewers that have seen the Cagney version will marvel at how much better the dramatic scenes between Cagney and DeHavalind are than the those with Paige and Morgan....which are basically word for word the same. It's a tribute to Cagney's talent and charisma. The movie that made Rita Hayworth a star.

I guess one man's meat is another man's poison--but believe me, this film in no way compares to the original STRAWBERRY BLONDE ('41) that starred James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland and Rita Hayworth.

Not even the addition of gorgeous technicolor can make up for this lackluster telling of the dentist (Dennis Morgan) who marries a nice girl (Dorothy Malone) but can't forget his ill-fated romance with the town flirt (Janis Paige) and her crooked husband (Don deFore). These are all perfectly amiable screen personalities but they just don't deliver the socko performances of Cagney, de Havilland and Hayworth.

Trust me, rent the video of STRAWBERRY BLONDE and see the difference!! This should have been a real charmer but it just falls flat--and Dennis Morgan is no replacement for James Cagney as Biff Grimes.

The picture is as artificial as a turn-of-the-century postcard and the music is as banal as the script. Terribly disappointing.

This film is fun to watch.Dennis Morgan sings beautifully as always.Dorothy Malone,Janis Paige and Don Defore are superb in their roles.Ben Blue gets a lot of the laughs.He marries a girl who is taller then him.It's fun to see them together!It wasn't the BEST Dennis Morgan film ever made,but he sure does make it worth watching!It's very enjoyable!

A dentist recalls his past as he prepares his chair for the man who was responsible for him spending time in the penitentiary. Sounds like a film noir, but this is actually a turn-of-the-century musical with Dennis Morgan, Don Defore and Dorothy Malone. I was a bit surprised, but given that it's directed by Raoul Walsh, I stayed with it for a bit and then couldn't bring myself to stop watching. This is necessary viewing for Dorothy Malone fans. Her scenes with Dennis Morgan seem racier than they actually are. He is not bad either, referring to himself as a "hairpin" as in "I'm that kind of hairpin". Even the singing is good, with an all-female barbershop quartet, and way more than a few well-deserved laughs.