Higher and Higher (1943)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

The Age of Commercialism

Just what I expected

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The Rodgers and Hart musical opened on Broadway in 1940. In 1943 it became the film which launched Frank Sinatra albeit only one song from the play and only one performer, Jack Haley from the play. Its cinematic delights include torch song icon Helen Morgan not singing a torch song as the genre's doyenne, merely listening in silence to Frank Sinatra making his successful launch film debut singing the type of song she was responsible for popularizing. Tne film opens with not the first portrayal in a grand house a la UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAINS and DOWNTON ABBEY of the upstairs and downstairs residents but as a musical to stir thought and concept. Agreed the plot is familiar. Familiar names from Jack Haley as the main lead to Mary Wickes, Victor Borge, Mel Torme and Barbara Hale in supporting parts provide cinematic historic reference as filmed younger and fresher as we recall them in the millennium. Despite some repetitive forties movie rut the glorious editing and black and white cinematography and the exciting flameproof exploration as the two aforementioned certainly worth an 8.

OK, so this wasn't his first film; He appears in bit singing parts in a slew of films made prior to this, usually singing with a band or performing in a nightclub sequence. But here, he has his first acting role, even if his character is named Frank Sinatra. The character of Frankie here is as fictional as you can get, considering the revelations of his private life revealed decades later. In this film, he is the neighbor of wealthy Leon Errol who through bad investments has lost his fortune. Realizing that he is in danger of loosing his mansion, he enlists the pretty scullery maid (Michelle Morgan) to pose as his daughter. However a suspicious society matron (Errol's "Mexican Spitfire" spouse Elisabeth Risdon) questions Morgan's identity, wanting to see her own daughter married off to the European nobility (Victor Borge, of all people!). But with Errol's staff (which includes butler Jack Haley, social secretary Mary Wickes, chauffeur Dooley Wilson and maid Marcy McGuire) sticking up for Morgan, you know that the snobs are going to be disappointed when things don't turn out their way.Based upon a flop 1940 Broadway musical with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, only one song from that show ended up in the movie. The new songs, however, by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson are really good, one of them "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" now a standard and nominated for an Oscar.The other songs actually have a Broadway feel to them, utilizing the ensemble cast to its fullest. McGuire, a perky teen, is a typical bobby-soxer, the type you'd probably see jumping outside the Paramount Theatre where Sinatra wooed thousands of like girls. She gets a great duet with Sinatra, "I Saw You First", representing all the fans all over the country. This film, however, is unpredictable, and does not end the way you think it would. In spite of the silly premise, it is for the most part a truly entertaining film, one where the ensemble all get moments to shine.

Mel Torme and Victor Borge, in their younger years, serve to make this film interesting - and especially viewing a young Sinatra, on the sunny side of 30, and definitely conveying that this was his "yes, I'm a popular singer, but hardly an actor yet" stage. Michele Morgan is an annoying, inane presence, and Jack Haley is an actor whose appeal has always been totally lost on me. Leon Erroll is silly, as always, but overall pretty funny. 7 stars of a potential 10 is about the right "grade," because with the combination of its positive aspects, along with the lack of much of a story, and a silly one at that, and the fore-mentioned annoyances - it is overall average at best. Most of the fascination is from the viewing of the three entertainment icons in their early years.

Paul & Grace Hartman are my husbands grandparents. They were both deceased when we met so watching old movies is a good way to see them and their work. I have always enjoyed old movies and was very happy to discover that this was also a very good one.