Greenwich Village

The film, not surprisingly, is set in Greenwich Village, New York (actually a sound stage at Twentieth Century-Fox) and begins with an eager young composer, Kenneth (Don Ameche), arriving in town--hoping to make it big. Soon, he meets up with Dan (William Bendix) and his friends at Danny's Den--the strangest speakeasy in Hollywood history. At this 'joint', Carmen Miranda and Vivian Blaine perform. After hearing some of Kenneth's music, Danny decides to put on a show to showcase his sweetie. The problem is that this sweetie (Blaine) might just be in love with Kenneth AND some sharpie (Felix Bressart) is interested in having the music performed instead by a big-name director instead of on some stage show in the Village. What's next? See the film....or not.

I am glad I watched this film when I did, as I had just finished watching a GREAT MGM musical, "Anchors Away". Although both films were in color, there weren't too many other similarities. "Anchors Away" had great music, singing, plot--everything. And, by comparison, "Greenwich Village" just looked tired and second-rate...which, is what it was. As for Carmen Miranda, she seemed unnecessary to the film and a bit lost. Additionally, fair tunes and the studio's lesser singers (Alice Faye was out on maternity leave), the film never really hit the mark and is a few steps below the average Fox musical of the period. And, when it was over, I couldn't remember much of anything about it. Adequate and no more.

By the way, I was VERY surprised to see Ernest 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison in the film dancing and singing a musical number with a number of other black entertainers. While I was VERY familiar with him as a member of Our Gang (since its beginning) and the East Side Kids, I had no idea he was so talented in other ways.

There are plenty of amiable performances in GREENWICH VILLAGE, all involved in making the most of a very light script about struggling singers and songwriters and producers in the Greenwich Village of the 1920s. But it's strictly fluff--an excuse for some bright song and dance routines with CARMEN MIRANDA stealing the spotlight.

WILLIAM BENDIX is the producer of a night club revue who needs more money to put on a show. DON AMECHE is a man they think is a rich guy because he has a $100 bill when he pays for his fortune from Miranda who charges $5 for a reading. Bendix and his gang hang onto Ameche and he soon gets involved with the songstress of the revue, VIVIAN BLAINE.

Blaine came along at a time when Fox needed a back-up for their temperamental Alice Faye and Betty Grable, who were fed up with doing musicals like this and insisted on better scripts. Unfortunately for Blaine, although she's got natural charm and photographs beautifully, this film didn't do it for her. She had a few more roles in Fox musicals but she had to wait until she found better material on the Broadway stage in GUYS AND DOLLS.

Songwriter Betty Comden can be seen as a hatcheck girl who performs in one of the revue numbers. Judy Holliday's scene was cut from the revue but she does appear briefly as an extra in another party scene.

It's got all the Technicolor trimmings one usually gets in these gaudy Fox musicals--and there's a terrific song and dance number by the Four Step Brothers.

Not really bad as far as these backstage musicals go, but very little invention involved in the script which is strictly a by-the-numbers sort of thing. Don Ameche is as pleasant as ever as Blaine's leading man.

There are three excellent reasons to settle in with this Technicolor extravaganza: Carmen Miranda, Carmen Miranda, and Carmen Miranda! The "Brazilian Bombshell" is at the top of her dazzling talent and is featured in three production numbers, each with it's own nutty, colorful and surreal style--she never disappoints! The musical itself is a slight bauble about a classical pianist finding his heart in a speakeasy (Don Ameche has written a classical concerto with themes from the pop song "Whispering"!); Vivian Blaine, billed as the "Cherry Blonde," is so obviously an Alice Faye stand-in, doing her best to establish herself in the Fox Pantheon along with Faye and Grable; there is lots of dense color saturation in many scenes, making this a visual candy-colored treat, even if the material is lightweight wartime fluff. I never found it dull, and was always entertained; I gave it an "7" not because it's a deep or particularly thoughtful film, but because it accomplishes what it sets out to do perfectly. Entertain. Sometimes you just need a break

If you are looking for some light entertainment with a few pleasant musical numbers, this is the film for you. The story is silly, but Don Ameche is good in his role as the would-be composer. Unfortunately, the ending is abrupt and unbelievable.

It amazes me that other postings about films are so critical of movies intended to be entertaining fluff, for being fluff.

And trite? What movie today isn't a rehash of something already done over and over again?

Musicals of the time weren't intended to be "South Pacific" or "Oklahoma". The plots were devised to be excuses to have music or dance performances or comedy bits. You probably noticed that the plots are mostly "backstage" stories and the characters portrayed are singers or dancers.

Technicolor is always pleasing to the eye, and so are the performances of Vivian Blaine and Carmen Miranda in this film.

So just sit back and enjoy.