Small Town Girl (1953)

Simply A Masterpiece

Pretty Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The small Connecticut town "Duck Creek" is shaken by the arrival of handsome Farley Granger (as Rick Livingston). The wealthy young man was caught "driving like a maniac" (at 85 MPH) and sentenced to 30 days in the pokey. Duck Creek's young women practically camp out at the jail, due to Mr. Granger's extreme handsomeness and wealth. The "Small Town Girl" to watch, though, is bubbly blonde Jane Powell (as Cindy Kimbell). The judge's daughter, Ms. Powell sings soprano in the church choir (and elsewhere). She wants to reform Granger, who was all set to marry sophisticated Broadway musical star Ann Miller (as Lisa Bellmount)..."Small Town Girl" would have you believe Powell and Granger are an exciting young couple. They are not. Watching the dull duo's courtship would be insufferable, if not for the movie's musical numbers performed by Ms. Miller and aspiring young Bobby Van (as Ludwig Schlemmer). Granger has no chemistry with Powell, but Miller makes his kissing scenes simmer. And Powell is a fool to pass on Mr. Van, who looks like he'd be a fun and devoted lover. Miller's highlight is her sizzling "I've Gotta Hear that Beat" and Van's energetic jumping "Street Dance" must be seen. Even better is Van's earlier store-stopper "Take Me to Broadway".***** Small Town Girl (1953-04-10) Leslie Kardos ~ Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Bobby Van, Ann Miller

There's nothing wrong about a small town and those living the small-town lifestyle. That's what city boy Farley Granger finds out, when he's stopped for going 85 in a 25 mile zone. When the sheriff's daughter, played by Jane Powell and who is the "Small Town Girl," sees him, she instantly takes a liking to him. Who wouldn't? But she doesn't admit it. When her father gives him 30 days in the clinker to prove a point, Farley becomes adamant that he isn't staying the full term, because it's ludicrous to stay that long. He even goes so far to withstand the food given him, at least the food made by deputy Chill Wills. (Other small town girls sneak in hamburgers through the window.) Farley was incidentally going to be married to Ann Miller, but with his incarceration, it's obviously postponed. But will it be altogether dropped? This lightweight musical comedy may not be that important, but I have not been so entertained and left feeling so good in a long time. Its energy and upbeat musical numbers are infectious, especially Ann Miller's two dance numbers and Bobby Van's hopping number. And, Jane Powell has never looked lovelier. Costarring S.Z. Sakall, Billie Burke, Fay Wray, and Robert Keith as Jane's father and the voice of reason, who wants to eat his dinner in peace, this is one small town story that's sure to please even the crankiest of city people.

Jane Powell gets to try a role first done by Janet Gaynor in a musical remake of Small Town Girl. Though she has top billing the best numbers in the film are given to Bobby Van and Ann Miller.Playboy Farley Granger goes whizzing through Jane's small town and interrupts the church service. The cops clock Farley at 85 miles an hour and he's arrested and hauled before Judge Robert Keith. Farley's passenger is fiancé and musical comedy star Ann Miller. They're in a big rush to elope. As it turns out the Judge is Jane's father and Farley's attitude earns him 30 days in the joint. Jane also has a boyfriend in Bobby Van, the son of the local department store owner, S.Z. Sakall. Of course she takes one look at handsome Farley and she shifts her romantic gears.The big number that everyone remembers from Small Town Girl is Take Me to Broadway where Bobby Van acts like a human pogo going through the entire town or at least one very big MGM soundstage. The original film had James Stewart in Van's part and was considerably smaller.Robert Taylor was in Farley Granger's part and wasn't quite as haughty or arrogant as Granger plays it here. Yet in both cases you can see why the small town girl thought Prince Charming arrived.Small Town Girl is not the best MGM musical done, nor is it the best of Jane Powell's films for MGM. But it's entertaining enough.

The tagline I quote above was prominently featured on the posters outside the Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades, California, where I saw this film in mid-summer of the year of its release. I hadn't yet entered my teens and, up to that point, had only seen "Singin' in the Rain" from among the treasure trove of M-G-M's greatest musicals. So with my admittedly undeveloped critical tastes, this amiable pastiche seemed pretty good. And Busby Berkeley's showstopping inventions - Ann Miller's tap dance among all those disembodied instrumentalists and Bobby Van's seemingly endless pogo dance through the small town of M-G-M's backlot (One can only imagine Berkeley slave-driving Mr. Van to achieve that amazing feat of energy and agility!) - are still moments I can distinctly remember from that first viewing.Even when M-G-M wasn't adding a Midas touch to one of their musicals, the studio assembled some talented professionals both before and behind the cameras, and this one has its share. And for fans of Nat King Cole, one of the all-time greats, there's even a brief song in a nightclub (the sort of thing that M-G-M could easily excise to spare the sensitivities of white Southerners, as they did with Lena Horne's solos in previous Technicolor memories, although by the mid-Fifties, Mr. Cole's appearance was probably not removed for bookings below the Mason-Dixon line.)