Good News

I know of no other movie musical that feels so much like I am watching a Broadway show. Just one great number right after another and they all have something to do with the story or characters. And just think of all the history behind those actors. June? Well, there never was a role she was better suited for and she gives it an enthusiasm no one else could have. Peter? Miscast? Yup, but this isn't Shakespeare and he is so sweet. McCracken? What a shame there is so little of this talent on screen. I remember first seeing this movie when I was a teenager. 40 years later it is better. Now I can appreciate the broad comedy and it is amazing to see how tender it can be. Why they didn't extend the design into 1920s hairstyles for the women I can't understand,but the movie looks great. The DVD I just saw must have been remastered; the colors were brilliant. For some of us this is MGM's best. Certainly its most honest and least pretentious. What a peek into a world that is gone and will never come back. Such innocence.

Good News was the best musical from the Roaring Twenties from the premier songwriting team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson. It ran on Broadway for 557 performances in the 1927-29 season and gave the team a number of song hits identified with them like the title song, Just Imagine, Lucky In Love, and The Best Things In Life Are Free. All of those songs made it as well as one of the great dance numbers of the Roaring Twenties, The Varsity Drag.

The musicals of that era had the lightweight nonsensical plots which also was taken from the Broadway show. Big man on campus, Peter Lawford, has to get a passing grade in French to stay eligible for the football squad. He gets mousy student librarian June Allyson assigned as a tutor and the inevitable happens as it does in these films. After that Lawford has to choose between mercenary coed Patricia Marshall and Allyson. It's a struggle, but you guess who he winds up with.

This film is strictly about the music and dance numbers and it offers a rare opportunity to see Joan McCracken singing and dancing which she mostly did on the Broadway stage. She introduces a song especially written for the film Pass That Peace Pipe which was a big hit in 1947 and won for Good News its only Academy Award nomination. Pass That Peace Pipe lost to Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah for Best Song. But the number is one of the best dance numbers ever to come from an Arthur Freed produced MGM musical. Joan McCracken died way too young as oddly enough her dancing partner Ray McDonald.

Good News presents an idealized version of the Roaring Twenties and is the quintessential college musical which flooded Hollywood mostly in the years before World War II. It holds up well as entertainment and the songs are still fabulous.

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.

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