GOOD NEWS
US, 1947, 93 minutes, Colour.
June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Mel Torme.
Directed by Charles Waters
A short, bright and breezy musical produced by Arthur Freed, the song writer who produced so many of the excellent M.G.M. musicals of the forties and fifties culminating in On The Town and Singin' In The Rain. The film was written by the team of Betty Comden and Adolf Green from an old twenties' musical play by De Sylva, Brown and Henderson with some amusing twenties' songs. Direction is by Charles Waters, early in his career. A choreographer, he was to make a number of fine musicals including Easter Parade, Lili and High Society. June Allyson was popular at the time and Peter Lawford was a pleasant leading man. It's the old-fashioned college romance, football game, school rivalry, etc. It seems very much out of date after the forties - although there were films like this in the fifties with Tammy and other characters. Grease is also in this vein.
1. The popularity of M.G.M. musicals in the forties, now? Their quality? Arthur Freed's production?
2. The relative unimportance of plot, characterisation? The conventions of characters, situations? Songs and dances?
3. The atmosphere of the twenties: college, sport, romance, success, studying and non-studying types? The conventions and the way these were presented?
4. The atmosphere of Tait College, spirit? The songs, classes, library, the college houses, football? The atmosphere of America in the twenties?
5. Peter Lawford as hero - at sport, his friendship with Connie, the infatuation with Pat, learning French, the pleasant sequences with Connie in the library, etc., leaving her in the lurch? The engagement, its failure? The final exams and failure, sitting again for the exam? The football match? The collegiate songs, romantic songs?
6. Connie and June Allyson's presence, style, husky voice? The practical girl at college, her work in the library, the French lesson? Her being hurt, the charade with Connie Gilchrist? The happy ending?
7. The humour with Pat and her snobbery, her French, the dance, the sport and her following the successful student and player? The trick played on her by Connie and her giving herself away?
8. The supporting group - college kids, verve, dance, romance?
9. The adults - the college authorities, the lecturers, the French lecturer, the maid? The discussions about football and permissions?
10. The songs - the atmosphere of the twenties? The times, cars, dates, sport, psychological language, romance, dances? The lyrical innocence in the way that the twenties were remembered and dramatised?
