THE STARS ARE SINGING

US, 1952, 99 minutes, Colour.
Anna Maria Alberghetti, Lauritz Melchior, Rosemary Clooney, Fred Clark.
Directed by Norman Taurog.

The Stars are Singing is a pleasant Paramount musical. It introduced Anna Maria Alberghetti to stardom. She had appeared with Bing Crosby in Here Comes the Groom, but she was to make only a few films. She had a charming personality but did not make the impact of such stars as Deanna Durbin or Jane Powell.

The film also introduced Rosemary Clooney, who had a very lively film personality, sang and satirised her hit 'Come on a My House' in this film. She was to appear in the musical western spoof Red Garters and with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas, with Bob Hope in Here Come the Girls and with her then husband Jose Ferrer in the Sigmund Romberg biography Deep In My Heart. They are joined by opera singer Lauritz Melchior who had been in a number of M.G.M. musicals. The story is light - Anna Maria is a Polish migrant who causes some trouble in New York. Rosemary is the leader of a group who want to make it in show business, who decide to help her with record and television promotion. There are clashes with Polish authorities and with the American Immigration Department. Needless to say, there is a happy ending.

There is some incidental comedy with Bob Williams and his dog Red Dust. All in all, pleasant escapist entertainment directed by Norman Taurog, a veteran of so many films from the '30s to the '60s, from The Champ in 1931 through some M.G.M. musicals and comedies to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis vehicles and Elvis Presley musicals.

The film echoes the atmosphere of the cold war at the time with the antagonism of the United States towards eastern bloc countries and communism and the way of life behind the Iron Curtain. It is a film highlighting the image of American freedom in the '50s.