Description:
Gordon Miller (George Murphy) has a hit in the works, especially since he latched onto a playwright whose real talent is his singing voice. Now all that flimflamming Miller must do is put his musical revue on stage before the rubber check underwriting it bounces his troupe from Broadway to the Bowery. As the typewriter-toting crooner, Frank Sinatra steps into his first top billing in this antic backstage musical based on the Broadway/Marx Brothers movie hit Room Service. With a nimble cast (including Gloria DeHaven, Adolphe Menjou and Walter Slezak) and buoyant Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne songs to go with farce, footlights and Frank,
Gordon Miller (George Murphy) has a hit in the works, especially since he latched onto a playwright whose real talent is his singing voice. Now all that flimflamming Miller must do is put his musical revue on stage before the rubber check underwriting it bounces his troupe from Broadway to the Bowery. As the typewriter-toting crooner, Frank Sinatra steps into his first top billing in this antic backstage musical based on the Broadway/Marx Brothers movie hit Room Service. With a nimble cast (including Gloria DeHaven, Adolphe Menjou and Walter Slezak) and buoyant Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne songs to go with farce, footlights and Frank, what else can a movie do but Step Lively?
Step Lively is based on the hit Broadway farce Room Service, which had already served as a Marx Brothers vehicle by the time it got this 1944 re-do. The breathless plot is about a theater producer trying to close a deal while staying ahead of some hand-wringing hotel managers, who would understandably like to be paid for putting up his entourage while rehearsals are in session. A variety of songs and dances are crammed into this labored structure, some of delivered in the sweet youthful tones of Frank Sinatra (as a playwright who also happens to sing like an angel). The impresario is played by George Murphy, a light-footed dancer at his most obnoxious here (he was a future U.S. Senator from California), and the impatient hotel managers are Adolphe Menjou and a deadpan Walter Slezak. The songs are by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, and Sinatra gets to croon "As Long as There's Music," but by the time the show-stoppers from the stage musical take over, the movie has gone way, way over the top. The early look at skinny Frankie is worth it, but you have to have a high tolerance for noise to endure the rest. --Robert Horton
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Release date: 13 May 2008
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0883929010295 UPC: 883929010295
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