I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

"Step Lively" from 1944 is a fun, energetic musical, based on the play Room Service. It's the story of a broke producer, Gordon Miller (George Murphy) housing his actors in a hotel. The actors sign for everything to the consternation of the manager (Walter Slezak), who has to answer to the owner (Adolphe Menjou). Miller has an investor on the line but with no money yet, he has to keep making promises he can't keep.Along comes Glenn Russell (Frank Sinatra), a serious playwright who sent Miller his script and $1500 so it could be produced. Miller hasn't produced the play, and he doesn't have the $1500. He is charmed by Miller's girlfriend and star of Miller's show, Christine (Gloria de Haven). And at dinner that evening, after watching Christine's show at the hotel, guess what, Glenn Russell sings like Sinatra! The next day, Miller stages a fake rehearsal of what is an awful play, and the man representing the potential backer (Eugene Palette) sees that rehearsal with the benefactor's girlfriend, a Miss Abbott (Anne Jeffries) and is not impressed. As a diversion, Christine has Glenn sing through a song. Abbott falls in love, and it at last looks like Miller will get his investor.This is a charming musical with a great young cast. It's easy to see why girls were mad over Sinatra - skinny, his suits just a little too big, those huge eyes, gentle manner and romantic singing voice - he is captivating. He sings "Where Does Love Begin," "As Long as There's Music," "Some Other Time," and "Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You are," some with the pretty De Haven, who does a lovely job. Walter Slezak is a scream as the put-upon Gribble, and Menjou is appropriately grumpy as the owner of the hotel.Anne Jeffries is stunning, as she remains today, but I'm curious if her age could possibly be correct. She was supposedly born in 1923 to De Haven's 1925; that makes De Haven 19 in this film and Jeffries 21. I doubt it. The woman defies gravity, age, and everything else and if she's even older than 87 - wow! Lots of fun and nice to see the immature, sweet version of "Frankie."

An obvious remake of the Marx Brothers with Lucille Ball in 1937's "Room Service."Song and dance man George Murphy is adequate here in the role made famous of Groucho Marx. The part required to be zany and Murphy tries to even play it straight.Sinatra is good as the crooner involved in all the mayhem, but Walter Slezak and A. Menjou as hotel honchos really steal the show.The zany tale involving play investments, a hotel being used to stage a show, a wily Murphy concocting Sinatra to be ill at the hotel to avoid conviction,they all over-shadow the nice singing and dancing.

STEP LIVELY is a vast improvement over Sinatra's HIGHER AND HIGHER at RKO, but that's hardly a big compliment. Nevertheless, it's a more enjoyable romp with some good work from others in the cast, including GEORGE MURPHY and GLORIA DeHAVEN, but much of the comedy is played so broadly that it seems forced at times.Based on "Room Service", a comedy starring the Marx Bros. and based on a stage play, it's about a nervous hyperactive producer (Murphy) who wants to put on a show and is encouraged when he finds a talented writer/singer (Sinatra). The trouble is he can't pay his hotel bill and is constantly being badgered for money by WALTER SLEZAK and ADOLPHE MENJOU who don't want him to hold rehearsals for a new show in a penthouse suite.It's a broad farce and is played for non-stop zaniness by the entire cast, but the constant shouting by Murphy and Menjou becomes tiresome after the first half-hour. ANNE JEFFREYS has a thankless role as a young lady who is only interested in having EUGENE Palette back the show because she's got a crush on Sinatra once she hears him sing.The songs themselves don't make much of an impression, but are handled suitably by Sinatra and GLORIA DeHAVEN. It's no more then a B-musical with some A-sets for the hotel settings and production numbers.Sinatra is his casual self in a role that makes no great demands of him except to sing on cue, but everyone else is given to extravagant bits of overacting. His best number is "As Long As There's Music", but it's a good thing he was soon grabbed by MGM for ANCHORS AWEIGH.

Step Lively is simply Room Service with a musical score by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. It was Frank Sinatra's second feature film role and it marked the first time he worked with that team of songwriters. There would be others, especially with Cahn who has the distinction of putting more words in Frank Sinatra's mouth than any other lyricist.The original Room Service took place in the hotel suite of Gordon Miller, fast talking producer/conman and was originated by Sam Levene on stage and Groucho Marx on screen. George Murphy is certainly a lighter, gentler version of both of them. But he's passable enough in the part because we wouldn't want too much attention taken from Frank Sinatra.Sinatra's role as the naive singer/playwright from Oswego was built up considerably from the original play. It was because of him that this film version was taken out of the one room setting of the original. His role was first played by Eddie Albert on Broadway and Frank Albertson with the Marx Brothers. One song stands out in the score, As Long As There's Music which Sinatra really aces. Yet while Step Lively was being filmed at RKO and while it was out the recording industry was being struck by the musicians union. Additionally shellac which was needed to make those 78 RPMS was in short supply because of World War II. Sinatra never recorded the songs from Step Lively even after the strike was over. Yet As Long AS There's Music still became a hit. I have a version by Eddie Fisher on one of my record albums. Yet it's never identified with Sinatra.Playing the roles that Chico and Harpo did are the comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's attempted answer to Abbott and Costello. RKO also got Adolphe Menjou and Walter Slezak to play the exasperated hotel managers and Eugene Palette had a memorable bit as the representative of Murphy's secret show backer who wants discretion in all things.The female roles are from a pair of lovely RKO starlets who had substantial careers, Gloria DeHaven and Anne Jeffreys. So you can't say they didn't do all right by Old Blue Eyes.On the strength of this film which did very well at the box office, MGM bought half of Sinatra's contract from RKO and he went on to make some great musicals in the Forties with them. But that's coming very soon.Step Lively is both funny and contains some great singing by The Voice.