Affectionately remembered musical, in part because of Ann Margaret but also because it’s so often performed by high school. This big screen version is pretty hideous though. I thought George Sidney did a good job on Viva Las Vegas but here he allows all the actors to ham it up and project to the back row – Maureen Stapleton in particular chews the scenery, when she’s not looking far too young to play Dick Van Dyke’s mother. I can’t imagine a musical where so many of the men are emasculated – momma’s boy Van Dyke, pussy whipped Bobby Rydell, camp Paul Lynde (Ann Margaret’s dad), even Ed Sullivan gets badgered into using a Van Dyke song by Janet Leigh.
The script makes some really stupid changes from the original book; instead of Van Dyke playing the singer’s manager, he is a chemist and struggling songwriter – which means it makes no sense he’d be hanging around the small town, or would have the pull to get his song on air for such an important occasion. It also makes him a loser.
Janet Leigh tries her best as his girlfriend but changing her into an Anglo robs that character of a lot of her point (Van Dyke’s mother’s opposition to her is no longer motivated by racial bigotry) and there’s this horrible sequence where she gets drunk and allows herself to be pawed by Shriners (to be fair this was in the stage show); and an unbelievable bit where she tells Ann Margret she’s still a good girl.
Ann-Margret is very sexy, exploited, and allowed to over-act – she was much better in Viva Las Vegas. You don’t believe for a second she’d want to go back to whimpy Bobby Rydell, but rather would be on the first bus out of town. (There’s no reason the piece couldn’t have worked as more of an Ann Margret vehicle but they needed to strengthen the Rydell character too).
Jesse Pearson mugs as Conrad, and the satirical possibilities in this role as missed. (I started fantasy casting and wished Elvis had played both the Rydell and Pearson role – it would have made the attractiveness of the hometown boy a lot more fathomable).
It’s all colourful, garish, often in bad taste with some strong numbers, like the title tune and ‘The Telephone Hour’.
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