Classic Film Review: Kismet (1955)

Kismet tells the story of Hajj (Howard Keel), a beggar poet who finds himself in favour with the Wazir (Sebastian Cabot) whilst unwittingly scuppering his beloved daughter Marsinah's (Ann Blyth) romance with the Caliph (Vic Damone). Complicating matters further is the fact that Hajj is himself attracted to the Wazir's wife Lalume (Dolores Gray). How will he get out of this situation alive?

On the surface, this film has everything: a brilliant cast, luscious costume, vivid sets, Vincente Minnelli at the helm with help from Stanley Donen and it came out of the illustrious Freed Unit at MGM. However, there's something missing. Perhaps the problem is that the film meanders and, while it has a few amusing moments, there's a lot of dross included. Howard Keel is at the height of his powers but it doesn't translate to a brilliant film. The two songs that have endured from this score - 'Stranger in Paradise' and 'Baubles, Bangles and Beads' - are easily the best of the bunch. Some of the dance sequences are over-long and add very little to the plot and Vic Damone is no prize-winning actor. I would say, that Ann Blyth and Dolores Gray make up for these deficiencies to some extent. In my time-honoured fashion of finding actresses who only made a handful of films the most engrossing, Dolores Gray captured my heart and all of my favourite scenes contained the character of Lalume.

Maybe it's me. Maybe to others Kismet is a brilliant film. However, I just got the sense that it was made by numbers, with all of Minnelli's artistic flair but without the love that you need to make that work. I wanted very much to like this film but I just couldn't.

Classic Film Review: Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)

This musical stars Jimmy Durante and Doris Day as father and daughter team Pop and Kitty Wonder alongside Martha Raye and Stephen Boyd as their respective love interests. Pop Wonder runs a circus, the prime attraction of which is Jumbo the elephant. But Pop's got a gambling habit and another circus has been trying to get hold of Jumbo for some time. When new circus-hand Sam Rawlins (Boyd) arrives, it seems they could be about to lose everything quicker than they anticipated.

There are some good numbers in this, particularly 'Why Can't I?' (a plea from Day and Raye) and 'Little Girl Blue' (Day). The final number 'Sawdust and Spangles and Dreams' (the four stars) drags on a little too long for my liking but this was MGM's last real musical extravaganza so I can forgive it. 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World', originally sung by Boyd is reprised by Durante and is probably my favourite song of the film. The dances are as spectacular as a circus setting necessitates, especially the opening number 'Over and Over Again', and there are some decent stunts throughout. It really does have all the hallmarks of a classic MGM musical, although it slips up on occasion.

Although Day, Durante and Raye worked perfectly in their roles, there were moments when Stephen Boyd seemed to suffer from a combination of hackneyed dialogue and a lack of comfort in his role. This wasn't helped by the fact that the character had to consistently hide his real intentions from his love interest. It made their romance a little more unbelievable than most musical romances.

Day, though, was remarkably comfortable as Kitty Wonder, both long-suffering daughter and enthusiastic performer. Her rapport with an elephant is something to behold and I don't think I can fault her in this film. Though the script falters at times, she brings charm to this film. My favourite moment, though, has to be a Durante/Raye one: Pop decides to try and shoot Lulu (Raye) out of a cannon to give the circus a new act. It doesn't quite work!

My Favourite Judy Garland Story

This extract is taken from the wonderful biography of Judy, Get Happy by Gerald Clarke. I reviewed it last month and I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to any fan. This extract takes place during one of her hospital stays prior to her final fracture with MGM. Judy has been going regularly to visit children at their hospital next door and has been most drawn to a frightened girl who hasn't spoken for two days because her family has been so cruel to her. Judy spends a lot of time with her, talking about her life to the girl and not minding that she didn't answer back.

By the end of August Judy had recovered her weight and energy, and it was time to say good-bye. On her last day in Boston, she paid her final visit to the children's hospital, where each of the patients, scrubbed and smiling, held a tiny bouquet of flowers in her honour. "Well, my friend, I'm going now," she said to the girl who refused to speak, "and I want to thank you for all you've done for me. I'm going to miss you." As Judy leaned over to kiss her, the girl reached out and clasped her as tightly as she could, and all the words she had not uttered for so many months poured out in a seemingly endless torrent. "Judy!" she screamed. "I love you! I love you! Don't leave! Don't leave!"

Watching that poignant drama, the rest of the ward was all but awash in tears: the nurses cried, the other children cried, Alsop cried and so, of course, did Judy. When Alsop warned her that they would miss their train, Judy waved him away. "Well, we'll just have to miss it," she said. "I'm not going to leave this child right now while she's talking." And there she remained for the next two hours, listening to her little friend's excited babble and bringing the nurses over, one by one, so that the girl would continue to speak even after Judy herself had returned to California. There had been other gratifying moments in her life, Judy later said, but nothing approached that one. "I didn't give a goddamn how many pictures I'd been fired from. I had done a human being some good. She had helped to make me well, and I had helped her."