I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.
View MoreThis movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
View MoreExcellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
View MoreA film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
View MoreFrom 1946, "Two Sisters from Boston" stars Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson as -- well, two sisters from Boston at the turn of the century. Grayson is Abigail Chandler, who wants to make it as an opera singer in New York, but winds up singing with Spike (Jimmy Durante) in a burlesque house. When Martha (Allyson) comes to visit with their parents, Abigail claims that she's singing at the opera house, and they buy tickets.Spike is an old hand at getting into places. He intimates to the staff that she is the girlfriend of a big patron, Patterson, and gets her into the chorus. Abigail incurs Olstrum's wrath when she keeps interpolating high notes during his aria.Peter Lawford is Patterson's son Lawrence and is terribly upset when he thinks his father is having an affair with Abigail. That's straightened out, and Lawrence becomes interested in Martha. Now, how to keep his upper crust family from knowing that Abigail is High C Susie in a Burlesque house?Sweet film, heartwarming, with Jimmy Durante hilarious as he pretends past scandalous associations with well-known people to get into places and get favors. June Allyson is delightful with her relaxed comedy that came out of her character. Peter Lawford - I can never get over how handsome he was. Kathryn Grayson had a very pretty voice though a screechy top and was charming as Abigail. I just don't understand how anyone hired her for roles that absolutely, positively did not fit that fluttery light soprano: Apparently she performed La Boheme, La Traviata, and Madama Butterfly on the opera stage. No idea what they were thinking. She should have been singing Don Pasquale, Daughter of the Regiment, Mignon. As bad as Jeanette McDonald singing Tosca.In this film, the studio took concertos for violin, etc., and turned them into classical music rather than having actual operas. The exception was in some of Lauritz Melchior's music. With the end of World War II before this movie began filming, he was able to sing Wagner once again. He was one of the greatest heldentenors who ever lived, and his specialty was in Wagnerian roles. Here he knocks your socks off with a sequence from Lohengrin and Preislied from Der Meistersinger. Magnificent.The best sequence was Melchior's recording session where his dog sat in front of the megaphone-shaped phonograph in an exact replication of the RCA logo, and someone said, "His master's voice." Fabulous.Fun movie. I wish they'd used some real operas, though, instead of "Marie Antoinette" which was really Violin Concerto in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
View MoreI saw this movie for the first time about 40 years ago and loved it. It came on TCM today and I was afraid I was going to be disappointed. NOT AT ALL!!! If anything it is even better than I remembered. The script is really tight; no loose ends. Silly? Of course, but what wonderful silliness. And there is some pretty clever humor. Some serious laughs. The songs for it are pretty bad, but how much fun it was when MGM took classical music and used it as opera arias. Melchior is astounding in that the voice is so huge and so sweet and his diction in English, impeccable. Durante is lovable even when he gets a bit annoying. And Grayson really had a beauty that is unlike anyone else's; her singing style is a matter of taste. But as is often the case, June Allyson steals the show just by being herself. Her soubrette number near the end is adorable and in its own way very, very sweet! This is what they used to call a family musical. Thank God for Turner Classic Movies.
View MoreA little on the predictable side but a lot of fun. Lots of misunderstandings and confusion but it all works out in the end. Kathryn Grayson shows a side of herself (no pun intended) that is not seen in her other films. She has a flair for comedy and does a good job as a Bowery singer as well as an Opera star. June Allyson shows that she can handle anything they throw at her as well. No really memorable songs (though I did like "G'wan Home Yer Mudder's Callin'"). Lauritz Melchior is in full voice and Jimmy Durante seemed to be having a lot of fun with his role. I just watched it again on TCM and it was as much fun as when I originally saw it.
View MoreNice turn of the century film where Kathryn Grayson comes to N.Y. to sing in a joint. Her presence there threatens a scandal in her native Boston as her uncle is the Republican candidate for mayor of the town.He comes with his wife to investigate and the fun starts. June Allyson is her sister and Jimmy Durante, the owner of the place where Grayson is singing. To save Grayson, Durante arranges for her to sing at the opera with the established Lauritz Melchior.Peter Lawford, falls for Allyson but thinks that Grayson is having an affair with his father.The picture becomes funny at times but needed technicolor to brighten it up.Ben Blue is funny as a drunken waiter and Melchior shows some comedic gift here.A pleasant film capturing the turn of the century musical traditions in America.
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