Good News

Pleasant light entertainment with a rather nostalgic feel, "Good News" works fine as long as you aren't expecting too much substance. The plot, characters, and setting are all pretty familiar, but the cast gives it an upbeat tone and a good energy level. As the two leads, Peter Lawford and June Allyson keep their characters likable and sympathetic with solid performances.

The setting is a 1940s conception of what a 1920s college campus was like, and it is thus something of a mythical world that never actually existed. Yet it's a setting that lends itself well to the story and to the musical numbers, and the cast all seem at home in it. Lawford plays the football star whose academic and romantic difficulties threaten his place on the team, and Allyson plays a bookish girl designed to win the audience's sympathy. Patricia Marshall plays a rather innocent version of a campus vamp.

The musical numbers fit well with the story, and while neither contains anything particularly memorable, they are entertaining. The movie maintains pretty much the same pace and tone for the whole running time, and it's a good way to pass an hour and a half or so when you just want to see something light and positive.

The chance of waking up at six AM in a semi semiconscious state, flipping on my T.V. and seeing the 1947 film GOOD NEWS, well was such a wonderful surprise. The film of a fantasy life on a college campus sparked me into awaking on a happy positive note. Zany,yes Colorful,yes Lighthearted,yes ESCAPE,yes into a world that seem be be removed from our modern day world. Why shouldn't a Film, Broadway play allow you to slide back into a more comfortable Time and Place? Look theater and the film industry's job is to give us all a place to regenerate our joys and outlook of life. Some how the current films main purpose seems too be,to hang a dark cloud over the populous, retreat into the sanctuary of our home. Times are a changing! and bad in now good. Someone with Intelligence and Knowledge should pick up the script of GOOD NEWS! and run like deer to Broadway in good old N.Y.C. and get this gem on stage. The American public is ripe for some good,happy toe taping fun. I want to leave a theater and feel there is still hope for the human race.....Isn't that what entertaining is all about? But of course the non talented producers seem to not understand the needs of a American Renaissance. Is there something wrong leaving a theater with a smile on your face and a song in your heart". Or is that too plebeian? Lou Sisbarro

Neglected MGM musical has some great things going for it.

For one thing, it has an amusing Adolph & Green script, some dazzling dance numbers choreographed to perfection, and a simple plot (two gals in love with the same fellow) that never gets in the way of the well staged song-and-dance numbers. It gives a charming look at college life in the 1920s--in non-realistic fashion, of course!

June Allyson's singing voice never impressed me but she's a good dancer and here she proves it in the "Varsity Drag" number. Peter Lawford is surprisingly good considering he's miscast as the football player (where was Van Johnson?) Joan McCracken almost steals the show with her frantic dancing amid talented chorus boys in the "Pass That Peace Pipe" number in a drugstore, a highlight among the dance routines. Allyson and Lawford are terrific on "The French Lesson" and she is properly wistful in her rendition of "The Best Things In Life Are Free". Patricia Marshall does well as "the other girl" in a role originally offered to Gloria de Haven who rejected it as too similar to her other "spoiled girl" roles. Some of the humor falls flat and dates the picture badly, particularly the overdone scene with Connie Gilchrist repeating words June has written for her.

All in all, a fun-filled, tuneful college comedy about academics and football with an early glimpse of Mel Torme. Lighthearted plot with a solid score!

Trivia note: It's amazing how far JUNE ALLYSON went on virtually no singing voice to speak of, and a modest talent for kicking up her heels. But she and Lawford are charming here.

There are definitely better musicals than 'Good News' made before, during and since. That doesn't matter, because although it has imperfections it is still a delight in so many ways.

Starting with 'Good News' problems, it is agreed that the scene with Connie Gilchrist is overwritten and overacted (in fact, some of the humour is tiresomely flat) and that the football scene is overlong and drags. It is also a shame that Mel Torme, by far the best singer in the cast, has very little to do, a singer of his calibre deserves better than that.

On the other hand, 'Good News' is very lavishly produced. It is true that the costumes and hair-styles are more 1940s than 1920s, but they do look lovely, and numbers like "Pass that Peace Pipe" and "Varsity Drag" are filmed beautifully. The music is wonderful, especially "Pass that Peace Pipe", "Varsity Drag", the title number, "Imagine" and the most famous song "The Best Things in Life are Free". "The French Lesson" is very funny as well. The choreography similarly dazzles, especially in "Pass that Peace Pipe" and "Varsity Drag", which are two of the energetic musical numbers of the 40s.

Charles Walters directs excellently, hard to believe that this was his directorial debut. The script is mostly very amusing and fills the heart with warmth, the film crackles with energy and while the story is fluffy and predictable admittedly it is also light-hearted, heart-warming and charming with solid pacing, also not being as contrived or corny as some musicals' stories were.

June Allyson has a role that fits her to the bone and it shows off her personality and strengths so well. She sings "Imagine" touchingly wistfully. Am not usually a fan of Peter Lawford, but while his singing is only adequate if even that he does give some charm to a rather caddish character and his dancing looks more comfortable than in other musicals he participated in. He and Allyson sparkle together, especially in "The French Lesson", even if they are too old to pass for college students. Joan McCracken is crackling fun that it beggars belief that her career wasn't bigger.

In conclusion, has flaws but 'Good News' is a delight on the most part. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This movie and other MGM musicals in particular should be viewed by anyone who thinks they want to produce a film musical today. Watch the Pass That Piece Pipe number and the Varsity drag. Pretend you are the camera and take note of the long uninterrupted takes and the fluid motion of the dancing in concert with the camera. Then look at the musical numbers from Chicago . . . where all they did was cheat and all the action was produced in the cutting room . . the skill is gone. It is a lost art, along with dancing which has been replaced by callesthenics.

Also, if you look closely to the left of the screen in the early part of The Varsity Drag, you will see one of the dancers hold her head and drop to the floor. She does not reappear in the remainder of the shot. June and Peter are the perfect couple and he is totally light on his feet unlike Richard Gere who was so lauded for being a non-dancer who was now "dancing" . . . ha! Now Peter was actually a non-dancer who was dancing and doing a good job of it without cheating, just as Frank Sinatra did in Take Me Out to the Ballgame.