Expected more

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's not hard to imagine why this picture bombed in 1955: the "sailors on leave" theme must have seemed incredibly tired 10 years after the end of WWII, especially since the premise is similar to several earlier and better films. On the plus side, if you have a good quality television, the film looks terrific, with vibrant, sharp color. There are plenty of songs and dance sequences to keep us from dwelling on the lackluster plot. There is also an unfortunate lack of comic relief. The female leads do a credible job, though they are not matched with male stars of equal stature (with the possible exception of Vic Damone.) Walter Pigeon doesn't show up until late until late in the picture, so I don't count him. Not a great musical, but not terrible either.

Movie musicals like this rise or fall - or, to stick with this movie's theme, sink or swim - as a function of the quality of the music and the performances of it. This music is largely unremarkable, as are the performances of it.Case in point: one of the other reviewers praises Kay Armen's performance as Vic Damone's mother. It's fine, but not outstanding. Like the performance she leads of "Ciriciribin." If you want to see the performance that make this a hit tune, and see the difference, watch Grace Moore's performance in *One Night of Love*, which you'll find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_-6QrL26gw The picture is bad, and she sang it even better later, after more practice. But this is life. Kay Armen's performance is just nice.

which doesn't mean 'gaudy and dated' can't be fun! But there's the tiresome part: this thing misfires, badly. There is a lot of talent involved, some big names from the 50's, Ann Miller doing one of her eye popping tap numbers, a few vaguely familiar songs, an interesting dance number set in a carnival haunted house. Nevertheless, it just doesn't gel. It's one of those musicals with a hundred military men marching in rhythm, three sailors on the town, and the Ultra Perky Debbie Reynolds as the focal point. There she is, all energetic, peppy, and pony- tailed, singing and dancing her heart out. The kind of numbers with the adorable Girl getting tossed to and fro by a bunch of Boy Dancers - as seen on the old Carol Burnett Show! Frankly, these people were a bit too old for the plot line. I found it was (too) corny, dated, and derivative of other similar musicals. In fact, more tiresome and annoying than enchanting and memorable!

While not a huge fan of old-time musicals, I have sure come to appreciate the classics, including many from Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and of course Fred Astaire. "Top Hat," "On The Town," "Anchors Aweigh" and "Singin' In The Rain" are some of my favorites. I watched this on TCM because it featured the great Ann Miller and Debbie Reynolds, and I had never seen Jane Powell before. These three fine ladies' talents were wasted on a film with very weak writing and pedestrian direction. Vic Damone's acting was terrible, and Russ Tamblyn was going through an awkward stage, but did provide some fine acrobatic dancing. But Tony Martin, who I'd never seen before, was unbelievably, embarrassingly bad in every possible way. Who remembers this guy today? His singing was melodramatically pseudo-operatic, he wasn't good-looking, and appears to have had no acting talent whatsoever. What was he doing in front of a movie camera? I honestly believe it's possible that Martin, in this film, KILLED the MGM movie musical. I probably shouldn't say this is the worst musical ever made---didn't Monogram pictures make one once? Or maybe Edward D. Wood Jr. directed one?