Anything Goes

Loved this film. I never saw the original Cole Porter musical, which is perhaps why I like it much more than other people seem to- nothing to compare it to. Taken on its own merits, Anything Goes is a charming film. It follows a typical romantic comedy plotline, but the true strength is the talent of the four leads. I’m the first to admit that Mitzi isn’t the strongest singer, but her vivacious and engaging screen presence and her dancing still make her fun to watch. I’d never seen Zizi Jeanmaire, but her dancing is fantastic, and Bing is as romantic a crooner as always. Best of all is the criminally underrated Donald O’Connor, whose talents as a singer, dancer, and acrobatic comedian are well showcased here. Overall, I think it’s a great, fun, entertaining film- incidentally, with a stellar finale.

ANYTHING GOES was Bing Crosby's final film with Paramount, and was perhaps an attempt to capatalise on the huge success of WHITE CHRISTMAS (but more about that later). Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and lithsome ballet star Zizi Jeanmaire appear alongside.The film really bears no similarity to the Broadway "Anything Goes" save for the wonderful Cole Porter score (and even that has been somewhat ransacked with several inferior additions from Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen). The original production of "Anything Goes" was written by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, with later revisions by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The film ditches the entire original story in favour of a Sidney Sheldon-penned screenplay.The story concerns a suave Broadway star (Bing Crosby) who is paired with a brash TV personality (Donald O'Connor) in a new Broadway show. Whilst on separate vacations, they each hire who they believe is the ideal leading-lady for the upcoming show: a pretty blonde American showgirl (Gaynor) and a dramatic Parisian cabaret star (Jeanmaire). They all board the luxury liner headed back to New York, trying their best to decide on which girl they will have to drop...but of course, love wins the day.With the huge success of WHITE CHRISTMAS, Paramount hoped to capatilise on it's success by having Bing star in another 4-hander "catalogue" musical, built around the Cole Porter-"Anything Goes" score. What emerged was hardly a hit, but ANYTHING GOES is a charming afternoon of entertainment.Zizi Jeanmaire is ideally-showcased in 2 routines staged by her husband Roland Petit: a rousing "I Get a Kick Out of You" and a striking "Dream Ballet". Her acting is well-judged and she offers an all-round accomplished performance in her second feature film (following HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN). Mitzi Gaynor and her bubbly screen energy is in fine form here, performing the Title Number as well as "It's De-Lovely" with O'Connor.Capable character actors Phil Harris and Kurt Kasznar are featured in good supporting roles. Look closely for Bess Flowers, the legendary "featured extra", in the ship dining-room sequences.Paramount's DVD offers a pristine 16:9 image, though sadly no extra features whatsoever. But ANYTHING GOES was never even released on videocassette, so a DVD release of this film has been a nice surprise.

It's easy to understand why they took their time getting around to releasing a DVD of this one. As can be seen from other comments, the 1956 film version of "Anything Goes" will generally disappoint those who love the stage version. Other than some of Cole Porter's songs and a setting on a cruise ship there is no similarity between the two productions. The very entertaining (and still frequently performed) Cole Porter musical has been transformed into a pretty lame film, and three songs by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn have been inexplicably added to the production. Even worse is the loss of most of P.G. Wodehouse's clever script, which was rewritten by a Hollywood hack into this dumbed-down version.This doesn't make "Anything Goes" unwatchable. The choreography is mostly first rate. Most of the musical numbers are entertaining and several are excellent. The performances are typical of each cast members material (both good and bad) and the film has some interesting film history aspects.You know almost immediately that this will not be a rousing bit of entertainment, instead of a high-energy opening number the film begins with a back stage party scene that is about as lively as an abandoned railroad track.Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor play Broadway co-stars who go to Europe to recruit a leading lady for their upcoming show. Each brings their discovery aboard a cruise ship for a transatlantic voyage. Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire play the girls. Since there is only one role the remainder of the film is about determining which one will be featured and keeping it secret that both were already promised the role. There are two romances, with the two actors falling for each other's girl during the ocean crossing. Suspense and comedy are in short supply.Gaynor manages a pretty good performance; she gets one very hot feature number (the title song-although Porter's original four letter word lyrics are toned down) and duets with O'Connor in the film's best number "It's De-lovely". O'Connor is also featured in a very original dance routine with children and a lot of bouncing balls. In this he dances to Van Heusen's "Bounce Right Back," not much of a song but a good excuse for using him in another unique routine.Jeanmaire was a French ballet star ("Carmen") who briefly tried her stuff in mid-50's Hollywood. She was a Leslie Caron clone complete with the same hairstyle. Her two solo numbers "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "Dream Ballet" are surprisingly good, at least the dancing portions.Bing Crosby of course is well known to old movie buffs but others will be somewhat puzzled by his popularity. Nothing he does in "Anything Goes" sheds light on this question. He was a "popular" extremely bland singer and a horrible actor with some comic ability. In "Anything Goes" even his comedy stuff is pretty awful. Paired with Bing, O'Connor has about the same chance for success as going through a balloon shop wearing a porcupine overcoat.The Technicolor and VistaVision completely overpower the cheap production design as well as Sidney Sheldon's (the hack writer mentioned above) weak adaptation.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

When I came across this movie title, It peaked my interest, especially seeing its Broadway version. I find it very interesting to compare different interpretations of classical works like this one whether it’s printed, live on stage or in television.

The only part of this movie that was in the stage show is the music. Otherwise it had a totally different story about two performers that dreamed of putting on a spectacular Broadway show. It is a romantic comedy and the performers showed their dance talents. One part that featured Mr. O'Connor did not have any relation to the story.

I have been very sorry . It is maybe my fault ,I though then I could reade it in France ,région 2 , hopping my dvd reader would do it ,, no it does not So , I will not be able to give any comments , very bad it is not !

Malgré la présence de ce dvd sur le site Amazon, quelque jours après la commande on m'aenvoyé un avis qu'il n'était plus disponible. Morale: Amazon ferait bien de garder son site à jour plus régulièrement afin d'éviter ce genre de couacs et de pertes de temps mutuelles.

One of the minor but still nagging questions of the 1950s is, why Mitzi Gaynor? As an actress she might pass muster in the High School play, she can't dance very much, the voice is - well, not unpleasant, I suppose you might say. She is beautiful in a doll-like way from the front, but this is undermined by her Pinocchio-like profile. But worst of all, she is a charisma-free-zone; not only that, she is a black hole who sucks in the talent of all around her. Think what she does to poor Gene Kelly in "Les Girls"; here she does it to the energetic Donald O'Connor. In this she is almost the epitome of the 1950s, which casts its stifling blanket of "niceness" and good taste over all but the most cantankerous of material. Worst of all, she stopped the part of Nellie Forbush going to Doris Day."Anything Goes" is a predictable story of two song-and-dance men double-booking the leading lady (Gaynor and Jeanmaire) and then each going through contortions to avoid sacking the one he falls in love with. A potentially promising plot line of the clash of egos between the Stage Star (Crosby) and the brash new TV star (O'Connor) fizzles out almost immediately.Crosby, in his last film for Paramount after 25 years, is more energetic than usual, although his presence in two dance numbers emphasises the two left feet. He is way too old to be doing the romancing stuff, an uncomfortable fact overemphasised by the constant references to "Pop".The two good performers are Zizi Jeanmaire and Donald O'Connor, both of whom have verve, style and talent, but who are dragged down in their duet numbers. They don't really have a decent number together, and O'Connor's solo goes for the "Gene-Kelly-cute-with-kids" schlock rather than letting his considerable talent rip. But at least the director Robert Lewis has the sense to film the numbers in long takes, and keep the whole dancer's body in frame.Apart from three dispiriting new numbers by Cahn and Van Heusen, the music and most of the lyrics are by Cole Porter. I say "most of", because there is a bizarre attempt to turn the title number into a topical song of the 50s, with references that sound much more dated now than the 1930 original. Or maybe they were scared of Porter's risque wit - "Good authors too who once knew better words/Now only use four-letter words/Writing prose" becomes "now only use THREE-letter words". I'd say Porter's been not so much bowdlerised, as Gaynorised.