My Sister Eileen (1955)

Too much of everything

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A musical remake of the original Broadway play, MY SISTER EILEEN is a little-known gem from Columbia in the mid-'50s, produced in lively Technicolor and starring JANET LEIGH as Eileen and BETTY GARRETT as her writer/sister, both newcomers to the Greenwich Village scene. And naturally, the story and the film are very dated when viewed today.But for light entertainment, it passes inspection beautifully. BOB FOSSE and TOMMY RALL are excellent ingredients as singer/dancers and both of them have more screen time than usual here. JACK LEMMON doesn't have much to do as the publisher in love with Garrett and gets to sing the film's most undistinguished song--unfortunately.The "Conga" number that comes near the end of the film is a treat, the Brazilian soldiers bursting into dance at the drop of the word "Conga," with some imaginative choreography by Bob Fosse. KURT KAZNER is the Greek landlord who actually joins in the number, as do most of their Greenwich Village neighbors.A bright, unpretentious and sunny film, it's long on charm but short on inspired musical numbers. It's a wonder Columbia decided not to use the Comden/Green Broadway score but hired Jule Styne and Leo Robin to write a new one. Watch for DICK YORK as "Wreck," the husky neighbors who looks out for the girls.Passes the time pleasantly, but is easily forgotten.Trivia note: Director Richard Quine was featured in the original MY SISTER EILEEN starring Rosalind Russell in the 1942 film version.

I can't imagine a movie that has been more slandered on this website than "My Sister Eileen"! First of all, invidious comparisons to MGM productions should be flushed down the nearest public facility. Why would Leonard Bernstein/Comden and Green ever want to come near MGM again after what it did to "On The Town"? Wouldn't it be wonderful if they made a movie of "Wonderful Town"? Let's take a look: first of all, MGM casts Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra (or more likely, somebody like Troy Donahue or some other '50's crooner) in the roles of Bob and Frank, respectively. Then the obvious choices for the female roles would be Ann Miller as Ruth and Debbie Reynolds as Eileen, which would mean that most of the songs would be thrown out and replaced with half-arsed imitations by Roger Edens: the great "Conga" number would be replaced with--well, something like the "conga" number in "My Sister Eileen," which, BTW, is a terrific waste of Betty Garrett's talents, but this time, it would feature a lot of high-speed tapping! Gene Kelly wouldn't be right for the "What a Waste" number, so that would be scrapped, and replaced with something more pretentious, with Gene being muscular about magazine editing, and Eileen substituted for Ruth, because there were never two dancers more mismatched than Ann Miller and Gene Kelly. THEN, the Village Vortex numbers (including the "Wrong Note Rag") would have to be scrapped because while Debbie would be great in that number, Ann wouldn't, and neither would Gene; it would be replaced with a "beatnik" specialty starring Gene and Debbie dressed in berets and sweatshirts. Since Gene was to be the male lead, there would have to be a ballet number here, which would have made necessary more additions; perhaps a paste-in of a lesser Gershwin number like the "Second Rhapsody," which would require a giant Gershwin billing at the beginning of the movie--perhaps above the Bernstein/Comden/Green credit. Perhaps this would be the time to stick in a specialty number by some minor French singing star (not Aznavour nor Trenet).By this time, there would be three original numbers left: "Christopher Street," sung by Jules Munshin (or even by Kurt Kasznar!) as Appopolous, "O-hi-o," sung by Debbie and Ann, and "It's Love," sung by Debbie while Gene looks muscular, dancing on various pieces of office furniture. The rest of the score is by Roger Edens. Does this sound far-fetched? Count the Bernstein/Comden/Green numbers in MGM's "On The Town," one of the trashiest renderings of a great musical ever perpetrated on American moviegoers! Compare "on the Town" with the MGM travesty, and ask yourself, "If I were Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden,or Adolf Green, would I want to do this twice?" There is a certain resemblance to the urban courtyard of "Rear Window" to be found in "My Sister Eileen," but this is hardly theft. You might as easily have found it in "The Goldbergs". Yoo-hoo! While "My Sister Eileen" is not Bernstein/Comden/Green, it is also not Styne/Sondheim or Styne/Harnick. Leo Robin, the lyricist, was simply not in the same rank--although he certainly had a workmanlike Hollywood career. Betty Garrett suffered from a hairdo that made her look like a graying Rosemary DeCamp, which detracted from her natural sauciness. Jack Lemmon demonstrates that he could've had a great musical career (try his duets with Judy Holliday, elsewhere); Janet Leigh does what she did so well--being a perky dancer--and Bob Fosse is just what we'd expect him to be--in fact, I like him better as an ingenu. His work is fresh and vibrant.Please don't impose your expectations on this film: it is not an MGM musical (thank God!) and it's not a Hitchcock thriller. It is an ingenuous, unpretentious, delightful Hollywood musical, in the same Columbia tradition that gave us, almost by accident, "You Were Never Lovelier" and "You'll Never Get Rich", and it's a good rendering of the original stories.

Other comments on this site seem to love this 1955 Columbia musical, but I just didn't. I have an LP of the celebrated stage musical Wonderful Town with Rosalind Russell which is the source material for this film. As with ON THE TOWN (also with Betty Garrett) the studio tossed out almost all the songs and wrote new ones. Unfortunately he new ones weren't better than those deleted... in both cases. Wonderful Town has memorable and lively and wistful songs. EILEEN is a wallflower instead... in every way. Whereas ON THE TOWN succeeds by virtue of stellar MGM cast and other dance talent, MY SISTER EILEEN has non musical talent in the leads (Janet Leigh and Jack Lemmon) with superior talent relegated to the second ranks: Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall. As with Columbia's other 1955 musical travesty THREE FOR THE SHOW which slavishly turned every glorious snazzy Fox Marilyn Monroe musical number into a tubby spandex imitation version with Betty Grable (!) EILEEN clearly visually copies a lot of the set decor and costume design Garland enjoyed in A STAR IS BORN from 1954. Some of Garrett's outfits are copies seen in the famous surreal "Born In A Trunk" number. Finally, the apartment block set is right off the same plan as seen in REAR WINDOW... all as if Columbia clumped together ideas gleaned from those other successful films and like a ball of musical plasticine released their second big cinema scope musical called MY SISTER EILEEN. The male dance leads: Fosse and Rall have one truly sensational acrobatic number together, set in an alley... It is really the highlight of the film. ... On the real downside, Betty Garrett and Leigh are just not believable as sisters. Garrett, as wonderful as she is, just looks too old, like her Aunt instead, a generation ahead of perky Debbie-style Leigh. Beyond all that bewilderment, the characters of the girls are just plain dopey. I get naive, but these two are basically whiny and not very smart. MGM's B musicals ATHENA and I LOVE MELVIN and SMALL TOWN GIRL, all produced the year before are far better than this A grade Columbia attempt. And I love Betty Garrett and Jack Lemmon. A proper musical version of WONDERFUL TOWN awaits us all and if ever produced as written and scored will prove my comments to be hopefully more correct than wrong. I wanted to like this film a lot and was ready to, but the obvious plagiarism of production, the wrong casting and the fact I know the source musical to be excellent, makes Eileen fall over. I will avoid commenting on the goofy embarrassment of Dick York, the butch neighbour with the spunky fiancé, a spin on the horny newly weds across the courtyard in Rear Window.

I first saw "My Sister Eileen" years ago as a kid. In the early 90's, I saw the film at a tribute to Betty Garrett at which she was present to answer questions. I found her to be a wonderful person full of humor and warm remembrances of her co-stars and experience in Hollywood. She talked candidly about the blacklist that kept her and husband Larry Parks out of films for several years until she made this film, but did not show any signs of bitterness over the experience. What a wonderful lady!Anyway, the film still holds up 46 years later as a fresh and entertaining remake of the Rosalind Russell film of the 40's which I have yet to see. Russell had done the Broadway musical version, "Wonderful Town", which was also done as a TV special some time during the 50's as well. Since Leonard Bernstein was not willing to let his music go without a huge price, Columbia instead hired Jule Styne to write the music. I have seen the TV version of "Wonderful Town" which is enjoyable, but this film brings the story to life in color and with beautiful location footage of New York's Greenwich Village. Shots of the surrounding area including the famous Washington Square make this a must for lovers of the Big Apple. Having visited Greenwich Village several times in the past couple years, I was amazed by how much it has NOT changed! This aspect alone makes "My Sister Eileen" seem as fresh today as it was during its initial release.As Eileen, Janet Leigh is perky and lovable, but it is Betty Garrett who steals the scene as Ruth with her wonderfully likable personality. The not-so-plain jane, Garrett is a struggling writer who comes to New York from Ohio with her pretty sister (Leigh) whom all the boys go gaga over, making Ruth feel unattractive. Before you know it, Eileen has the attentions of sweet Bob Fosse and scoundral Tommy Rall, while Ruth finds herself attracted to publisher Jack Lemmon. In only his third year in Hollywood films, Lemmon had proved himself to be a versitile actor. This was one of three musical remakes he did at Columbia during the mid 50's. The other two were "Three For the Show" (a remake of "Too Many Husbands") and "You Can't Run Away From It" (a remake of "It Happened One Night"). He sings one song ("It's Bigger Than You or Me"), and doesn't do too badly!Then, there are two other characters who fit into the storyline: shyster landlord Kurt Kasznar, and athlete neighbor Dick York (of "Bewitched" fame). Kasznar, Rall, and Fosse had all appeared together in MGM's "Kiss Me Kate". Rall and Fosse's rival dance shows the potential of the future Broadway legend Fosse who went onto create the dances in such memorable musicals as "Pippin" and "Chicago" (as well as direct several classic musical films). Fosse's creative touch is clearly visible here.The musical highlight is the "Give Me a Band" number with a tipsy Garrett leading Leigh, Rall, and Fosse in a dance number with invisible musical instruments. The other songs are hardly classics, but in this film, that just doesn't matter; the shear magic of New York's Greenwich Village and the wonderful stars make this an all-time classic.In comparing this to "Wonderful Town", I can say listening to the Original Broadway Cast and viewing the video of the TV special, I would like to have seen Bernstein's songs in the film as compared to Jule Styne's. The production number of "Christopher Street" (which is not even mentioned in this film) is ironic considering that 15 years after it was written, Christopher Street would become part of another legend: the Stonewall riots for Gay and Lesbian rights. Then, there are two other production numbers lead by Russell: "Swing" and "Conga", which is done in "My Sister Eileen" as a non-sung dance number. Eileen, as played by Edie Adams, comes off as unknowingly selfish, while Leigh's Eileen is a seemingly goody-goody miss perfect. Russell and Garrett are both perfect as Eileen, and I am glad that Garrett had the chance to play the part which Russell had already done on film the decade before.