No one much likes the last few Deanna Durbin films. This one has a big budget, was based on a popular Broadway musical, and has a strong cast on paper.
I got used to Albert Sharpe's blarney as Deanna's Irish dad, and Vincent Price was fun as Boss Tweed. Dick Haymes is annoying as the reporter going after Tweed - his singing, his face, his crappy attempts at dancing. I am not a fan.
It doesn't help that Durbin is just "the girl". The story is about Price being crook and Haymes trying to bust him. If Universal had given Durbin Haymes' role maybe she would have stayed - or maybe not she'd been doing it since she was 13, but she wouldn't have ragged on the film so much.
The production values feel over the top - every set stuffed with props. For a musical there's not much singing or dancing - there's too much book.
I did like the theme of Durbin and Sharpe discovering that corruption was bad and America was a country where you shouldn't do this.
Durbin is lively and seems to be having a good time despite her Irish accent - which is ironic since she was getting sick of movie making. But there's too much Haymes. Ugh. I hate Haymes.
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