I Love Melvin (1953)

Excellent adaptation.

Crappy film

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Yes, "I Love Melvin" is formula, but sometimes formula provides nutrition. If indeed that is true, then the cast of this pleasing musical comedy is overdosing on nutrients. Donald O'Connor plays a Look Magazine Employee, assistant to photographer Jim Backus, who longs to make the grade and cease running errands for his boss. He takes pictures of rising Broadway ingénue Debbie Reynolds whom he slowly falls in love with in spite of the fact that her father (Allyn Joslyn) is trying to push her together with the boringly handsome Richard Anderson. But O'Connor tries to win over pop Joslyn and mama Una Merkel's affections by presenting a fake cover of "Look" with Reynolds on the cover. How will he explain when "Philly of the Month" ends up being a prizefighter? There are more musical numbers in this that actually seem to be moving the plot along than "drop-ins" or on-stage numbers, although Reynolds humorously portrays a football in one, her Broadway show which appears to be the "Good News" of its day. She also has two dream sequences where she's a movie star (I guess a Broadway one isn't big enough in MGM's eyes) including one where she resembles Ginger Rogers while dancing with several men in hideous Fred Astaire masks. They are delightful spoofs of the Hollywood image, and the over-the-top grotesqueness is appropriate. Impish Donna Corcoran playfully sings a delightful ditty, "Life Has Its Funny Little Ups and Down", which O'Connor does a roller skate dance to that just about equals his "Make Em' Laugh" in the previous year's "Singin' in the Rain". Then, he has his big solo, "I Wanna Wander", during which you'll expect him to pass out from due to exhaustion. In typical MGM fashion, all ends happy (as MGM musicals should) and smiles are guaranteed.

With a little better screenplay this would have been a musical to rival any turned out by MGM. Quickly re-teaming Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds after Singin' In The Rain and wisely jettisoning both Gene Kelly and Comden and Green the studio came up with a plot that fit where it touched then adorned it with some really great numbers by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon which are light years fresher, wittier and more sophisticated than the stale Freed-Brown numbers in Singin' In The Rain, which veer more towards sentiment than style. The movie gets off to a flying start with the standout A Lady Loves which kills two birds with one stone by establishing Reynolds as a dreamer aspiring wistfully to a career in movies. Donald O'Connor never really attained the stardom which was the rightful due of his talent and charm and he displays both to full advantage here. If ever anything came under the heading 'forgotten gem' this one surely does.

This movie really lets you know that back in the 50's, they really knew how to make an excellent musical! The cast includes Donald O'Connor as Melvin, a small-time photographer working for "Look" Magazine. He turns his attention and camera to Judy LeRoy, a beautiful dancer who dreams of making it big one day, played by Debbie Reynolds. The songs in this film are wonderfully written and performed, including a very charming outdoor song and dance routine performed by O'Connor and the film's youngest actress, 9 year old Noreen Corcoran, who brightens the many scenes she's in, playing Judy's sister, Clarabelle, who seems to like to be involved in everything. (The songs have very clever lyrics as well!) Melvin seeks to win the hand of Judy, but her usual date, Harry Black (Richard Anderson), who's pretty much a square, is about to pop the question to the delight of Judy's dad, while her dad dislikes Melvin. O'Connnor and Reynolds are brilliant. Jim Backus adds some laughs also. The whole cast comes together to make this a delightful film, which is yet another great one that was overlooked by video & DVD companies! A MUST SEE! Try your favorite movie channels.

This film is an absolute delight from the pre-credit sequence where Debbie Reynolds writes the title of the film in lipstick on a mirror to the hilarious chase through Central Park at the end. In between Debbie dreams of becoming a Hollywood star in some magnificently staged dream sequences, thanks to the genius of Cedric Gibbons, in one of which she meets Robert Taylor as Robert Taylor! In another sequence she dances with three dancers in Fred Astaire masks and three in Gene Kelly masks - before winning an Oscar! Great stuff.Debbie is perfect as both great movie star and girl next door. Her Broadway performance as a football is a riot. Equally good is Donald O'Connor as her lover and aspiring photographer. His roller-skate sequence is brilliant, as is a dance sequence in which he travels the world and plays numerous characters (again thanks to Gibbons). There is great support from Allyn Joslyn, as Debbie's exasperated father, and from Jim Backus as a crabby photographer. And the little girl has a good song too.The score is jazzy and upbeat, and it's great to see the real Central Park and other New York locations, shot in gorgeous technicolor. I think this terrific musical is very under-rated.