Small Town Girl

DVD works great!

A great little musical staring Jane Powell,good family fun. I especially love the scenes with Bobby Van dancing along the streets,Ann Millers dancing is just great and of course Janes beautifull voice, in all a great film.The tranfer is very good.So far the Warners Archive films, I have purchased have been excellents prints. Arrived ahead of time.if only the price was a little cheaper,as I am a pensioner and have to wait so I have enough to buy these great classics.How about it warners can we have Three Daring Daughters on DVD,also the Nelson Eddy and Jeannete Mcdonald fims along with the rest of the Esther Williams Films.When are we going to see The Swan with Grace Kelly,and the Howard Keel version of Rose Marie.I am wrapped that so much is becoming available.Amazon please make available Lovely To Look at.I always check when this is going to happen.Also please release the Great Caruso, the Student Prince,and Serenade staring Mario Lanza.Well done Warners.Ken Barrett.Mooroolbark .Australia.

“Small Town Girl” is not one of the best known Jane Powell movies, and in fact is known now primarily for co-stars Bobby Van’s unique hopping dance and Ann Miller’s “I’ve Gotta Hear That Beat”, both great numbers. One reason for this is that Jane herself was not given very strong material to sing by composers Nicholas Brodszky and Leo Robin. There’s no “It’s a Most Unusual Day” here, just the kinds of songs that are okay within the film but often forgotten afterward. Jane had an operetta soprano’s voice, a style almost totally unknown today. This is why she often sang repertoire associated with Jeanette MacDonald, who actually befriended and helped her after they did “Three Daring Daughters” together. Her films often included her singing opera arias.“Fine, Fine, Fine”,a song-and-dance number with Bobby Van is her only uptempo song here. Her two ballads are operetta-tinged and while nice, are no show-stoppers. In fact, all of Jane’s songs are rather subdued, including the two religious pieces that open and close the film. Add to this a plot so lightweight and rather unbelievable - to put it mildly, even for a musical of this period - that you forget trying to make sense of it. It’s this lack of a really strong presence by Jane that makes it less than one of her hits like “A Date With Judy”. Powell herself said she did not remember much about making the film because she was pregnant and sick most of the time.Still, the film has many things to recommend it. MGM gave it a good cast. Farley Grainger is a spoiled rich boy from New York (Richard Belrow Livingston III). He works perfectly because he stands out so much from the wholesome small town folk. (In the film, he’s sentenced to 30 days in the town jail for speeding and contempt of court). It’s actually interesting to see him in a light comedy, not his usual venue. S.Z. Sakall does his usual Hungarian grandfather routine as Papa Eric Schlemmer, something I always enjoy. He was most often in Warner Brothers films including “Casablanca”, “Christmas In Connecticut” and three of Doris Day’s early musicals. He’s funny here scheming to make sure his grandson Ludwig ( Bobby Van) marries Cindy Kimball (Powell).Cindy’s parents are played by Robert Keith (Doris Day’s father in “Young At Heart”) and Fay Wray (immortal as Ann Darrow in the original “King Kong). Their roles are small but effective. Keith gets to do more as a stern, no-nonsense judge, while Wray’s role is little more than to be sweet, mostly because the film required a mother’s presence. Grainger’s mother is played by Billie Burke, who adds her usual airy and slightly balmy presence and in a party scene, gets to wear a pink and lavender gown that could have come out of the Good Witch Glinda’s closet.The film’s stars in terms of the musical numbers are Ann Miller and Bobby Van. Miller was an established star with over thirty films by this time including “On the Town”. She is ideally cast as a vain Broadway dancer, which enables the film to showcase her in big production numbers. In the early fifties it was the vogue to have some kind of tropical dance number and here it’s “My Gaucho”, in an Argentine rather than the usual Caribbean setting. But her real showstopper is “I’ve Gotta Hear That Beat”, in which she dances with a surrealistic orchestra made up of only instruments and hands. The choreography in the film was all by Busby Berkeley, who was a natural for coming up with ideas like that.Finally there’s young Bobby Van, who was just breaking out in this, his third film. He’s very personable here as a likeable small town boy who can really dance. He should have been born a little earlier and could have been the equal of Ray McDonald in the forties. Both had their careers cut short by changing times. He has two solo dance numbers. The first, “Take Me To Broadway” is exuberant and athletic, with him dancing on virtually every surface in the general store where he works.. It is a fantastic dance in its own right and would be better known if it wasn’t for his second dance. This dance is often misidentified as “Take Me To Broadway”. Indeed, he does sing that phrase at the very end as a callback, but it has entirely different, almost cartoon-like music. Often referred to as “the pogo stick dance” or some variation, he simply jumps for joy around town interacting with various groups of people. There’s nothing I know of like it and i’m glad it got a significant boost in “That’s Entertainment II” (1976).There’s so much to enjoy here that the film’s pluses outweigh its minuses, and if you like this sort of thing, you’ll have a good time watching it.

Granted this is a typical MGM plot to set the tone for the movie, but this film is very special. I contend that Ann Miller's dance routine in "I've Got To Hear That Beat" is the finest tap routine ever put on film! I would challenge any of the all time great dancers to duplicate it. Eleanor Powell in her prime maybe; but who else? Jane Powell shows her versatility in that she has a tap routine also. Nonetheless, we get to hear her great voice in a few songs. Throw in a cameo by a 29 year old Nat King Cole; what a great film. I give it 5 stars.

This movie takes me back to the era I grew up in. I love Jane Powell and Farley Granger was at his handsome best. When I saw the "Tony Awards " and Hugh Jackman started hopping to the tune "Take Me To Broadway", I knew immediately what it was from. Bobby Van was so good, too.That's when I ordered the movie. One for me and one for my sister. Jane's voice and her dancing were absolutely great. I love, love, love this movie. It's such a happy uplifting little movie. I love the old musicals. It was a nicer time then .

Film joyeusement suranné, introuvable en édition française (ici les sous-titres proposés sont espagnols et portugais). Un délice.

Copia bastante buena en vo subtitulada en español.

Absolute joy to view - recommended for all agesLove it!

SMALL TOWN GIRL EIN TOP MGM MUSICAL, DAS EINACH NUR HINREIßEND UND WUNDERSCHÖN IST, MIT TOLLEN MUSIK- ABER AUCH TANZEINLAGEN, EIN EINMALIGES MUSICAL DAS SPITZEN ENTERTAINMENT VOM FEINSTEN BIETET, DARUM VOLLE 5 STERNE UND EINE KAUFEMPFEHLUNG VON MIR !

歌えて踊れる正統派のミュージカル女優ジェーン・パウエルの素晴らしい歌声とダンスが十分に楽しめる作品であり、適正価格でWarner正規版の高画質DVDなので、とても満足しています。ダンスシーンでは、ジェーン・パウエルとボビー・ヴァンのデュエットによる「Fine, Fine, Fine」に、ボビー・ヴァンの「Take Me To Broadway」、アン・ミラーの「I've Gotta Hear That Beat」など、軽やかステップでのダンスが満載です。ジェーン・パウエルによる歌では、「Small Towns Are Smile Towns」「The Fellow I'd Follow」の歌唱力に魅了されるなど、高画質の映像で観れて楽しめる時間は、とても幸せな気持ちになれます。絶対に、お買い得ですし、楽しんで観れる作品であると思います。