Anything Goes ** (1956, Bing Crosby, Donald O’Connor, Zizi Jeanmaire, Mitzi Gaynor, Phil Harris) – Classic Movie Review 9277

Anything goes certainly here in director Robert Lewis’s 1956 Paramount Pictures remake of Anything Goes, and the first thing that went in Sidney Sheldon’s script is the plot of the great Broadway show by Guy Bolton and P G Wodehouse.

Some of the original Cole Porter songs stay, and a below-par Bing Crosby is back from the 1936 movie version of Anything Goes. But this is a surprisingly dull, low-sheen musical, with tepid new tunes by Jimmy Van Heusen.

Travelling to Paris, show partners Bill Benson and Ted Adams (Crosby and Donald O’Connor) both sign a leading lady (Zizi Jeanmaire, Mitzi Gaynor) for their latest Broadway show, but it all comes out in the wash aboard an ocean liner heading back across the Atlantic from France.

However, appealing O’Connor, Jeanmaire and Gaynor perform some very cute hoofing and, with the 1936 version in black and white, the Technicolor is a big asset this time, along with the VistaVision.

Songs: ‘Anything Goes’, ‘You’re the Top’, ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’ plus ‘All Through the Night’, ‘You Can Bounce Right Back’ and ‘It’s De Lovely’.

Also in the cast are Phil Harris, Kurt Kasznar, Richard Erdman, Walter Sande, James Griffith, Archer MacDonald, Argentina Brunetti, Alma Macrorie, Dorothy Neumann, Marcel Dalio, Lucille Knox, Nancy Kulp, Ruta Lee, Doris Packer, Dee Pollock, Betty Jane Rhodes, Autumn Russell, Paul Wexler, Jean Del Val, Bess Flowers, Torben Meyer and Buzz Miller.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9277

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