Good News

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.

Great MGM color musical from 1947 that boasts terrific performances from June Allyson and Peter Lawford as the stars and Joan McCracken, Ray McDonald, Patricia Marshall, Connie Gilchrist, Donald McBride, Mel Torme, Tom Dugan, Clint Sundberg, and Jane Green in support.

"Pass That Peacepipe" is one of the best production numbers I've ever seen, and McCracken and McDonald are super in it. It seems to have only 3 cuts in it and it's an amazing production numbers full of color and energy.

Allyson and Lawford have so much fun in the "Varsity Drag" number on a huge stage that it's infectious (but watch for the female dancer in pink who falls). Good songs throughout from the 20s stage show like the title song as well as "Lucky in Love," "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Lady's Man," "Good News," "The French Lesson," and the sad song "Just Imagine" Allyson sings. Lively, colorful, and totally fun, this is an grossly underrated musical from MGM's golden years.

The 40s riff on 20s songs works thanks to Kay Thompson, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Great fun from the opening sequence til the end. Joan McCracken, by the way, was married to Bob Fosse.

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.

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.

Good News is one of the most underrated MGM musicals from the '40s I've ever seen from that era. While leads June Allyson and Peter Lawford are no Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (who ironically, were the original considered leads for this movie version years ago), they sing and dance entertainingly enough for one to not notice after a while. Another underrated talent showcased here is one Joan McCracken who shines in the opening number and the later made-for-film specialty "Pass That Peace Pipe", which was eventually nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. And dig the "Velvet Fog" Mel Torme in his younger days crooning here! Excellent debut for director Charles Walters and screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green makes this one of the most spectacular musical comedies I've seen yet! P.S. Among the extras on the DVD are two numbers from the 1930 film version of Good News, the title number and "The Varsity Drag", both performed energetically and athletically by a young woman named Dorothy McNulty, later to be known as Penny Singleton from the Blondie movies. All of the above are well worth checking out!