andrewdgreen-71914

I am a huge fan of both Doris Day and James Cagney. Some of Day's greatest songs and most glamorous settings are the high points of this biographical movie. While this movie endears us to Doris Day I think it can make you hate James Cagney. We all sympathize with Doris Day's character who shows amazing resilience in this role. If real life was half this bad for Etta the jazz singer she portrays then we all sympathize with how women were exploited and treated by men in the 20th century. The movie is mixed entertainment with enjoyment of Doris's amazing singing and epic costumes and scenes and contrasted with consternation over the mob boss character and his cruel mistreatment and domineering cruelty over Etta played by Cagney. If this was Cagney's only movie I think you would never watch another one.

I love Debbie Reynolds but in this movie I feel like she was trying to be Betty Hutton. Very out of character and sometimes annoying. She overacts the part and the songs and dance routines are very forgettable to say the least. Debbie is not at her best in this musical and her greatest work is still Singing in the Rain, a part far more suitable for her amazing talent. This unsinkable Molly Brown sunk all the way to the bottom for me. Most of the headliners in this musical were unable to launch their careers from this platform. At times the movie was entertaining but sometimes it was very hard to endure.

This was one awesome well produced, real to life love story. Of course the Triumph Motorcycle put it over the top. The main characters were innocent engaging and fully captured the freedom of the 1960's as two generations seemed to clash trying understand each other. The closing song literally brought me to tears with memories of fleeting lost love. This one is a real winner in my estimation.