I LOVE MELVIN

US, 1953, 77 minutes, Colour.
Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel, Allyn Joslyn.
Directed by Don Weis.

I Love Melvin is a pleasant but minor M.G.M. musical produced at a time when M.G.M. was making An American In Paris, Singin' In The Rain, The Bandwagon and other more spectacular musicals. It was directed by Don Weis, a director of smaller comedies and musicals, whose main contribution was in television.

However, the film boasts the presence of Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. With Gene Kelly, they had made their mark in the excellent Singin' In The Rain. Donald O'Connor had a long career as a young singer and dancer, especially energetic and comic dancer. Debbie Reynolds was at the beginning of her career as singer and dancer and later actress. The plot is typical show business - the aspirations of the small-town girl to be a star, her partly achieving it as a football in a musical number and her clash with a photographer who wants to promote her to the public. Needless to say, it all happens in the end, but after a lot of clashes, comedy routines, song and dance routines and falling in love. There is a pleasant supporting cast with Una Merkel as Debbie's mother and Richard Anderson as her boyfriend. Robert Taylor even appears in one of Debbie's dreams.

The film shows M.G.M.'s ability to put on a musical show, to give class and vitality to slight plots and to exploit for audience entertainment the strong talents of their stars. I Love Melvin, though a supporting film, is above average of its kind.