A once famous musical now barely revived - I've listened to a couple of radio adaptations of it. The show had Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and Gershwin plus Victor Mature, Danny Kaye, Macdonald Carey and Gertrude Lawrence. This junks most of the score and has new stars - Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan, Warner Baxter. It does have colour Director Mitchell Leisen gets a photograph in the opening credits. Gail Russell pops up at the end as the object of affection of the guy Rogers had a crush on in high school.
It hasn't aged well. Rogers is a strong, beautiful, successful career woman, scolded by her all-wise all-knowing shrink for not wanting love and romance. She's put in a position of never wanting to be hurt again... Secretly wanting a man who dominates her. Ugh.
You know, you could alter this and update it. Make the shrink a woman. Keep having a career be important, make it about fear of being hurt.
It's of interest. There are elaborate dream sequences, which while they can't escape the feeling of theatricality, are still impressive, and lovingly shot by Leisen and his team. There's a few songs. Rogers is very good.
Paramount were pushing Sullivan as a star - didn't work out. He's really annoying. In fairness it's his character. Milland is charming in a rather stock leading man role but at least they got someone with a bit of star power for Rogers. Baxter is just old. Hall is... well, I didn't buy him as a big time star, and he's not that much better looking than Milland. I'm guessing he was cast because they could afford him. But it is good that they got a leading man for this part.
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