"Singin' in the Rain" seems to be everyone's favorite musical and I can understand why. It's undemanding, funny, has great songs, a fine book, and superlative dancing. But "My Sister Eileen" must be right up there in the second rank.
Bob Fosse has never been better, and Tommy Ralls gets a lot of screen time. Fosse was a great dancer. The "airplane" number that Gene Kelly does in "An American in Paris" is done here by Fosse but at a furious rate, as if he were a jet compared to Kelly's propeller-drive C 47. Not to put Kelly down. He oozed charm and I love the guy, but his terpsichorean accomplishments were a shade below those of dancers like Fosse and Astaire.
In this movie -- whose plot is out-dated, a couple of young girls come to the Village to be stars and run into odd characters -- Fosse has never been better on screen. He had a good number in "Kiss Me Kate," but there wasn't enough of him. Here he does a "competition ballet" with Tommy Ralls that boggles the mind. I won't even try to describe it. At the end, both do a back flip, something Fosse always had trouble with. And it's all done to music that has no tune. It's just an ongoing riff.
That's one of the problems with the film itself. The numbers aren't that good. "Singin' in the Rain" had songs that had passed the threshold and become standards. Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. The songs in "My Sister Eileen" are tied closely to events in the plot but they aren't memorable. The story itself is dated. Greenwich Village is not what it was in 1954, when people left their windows open and you could sleep on the benches in Washington Square, as I know all too well.
But, plot aside, back to Fosse's choreography. Nothing that Kelly or Astaire did -- with the very notable exception of Donald O'Connor's famous "Make 'em Laugh" -- is as hilarious as Fosse's choreography on the band stand. It would take too long to describe it so I'll not try to do it.
Neither Janet Leigh nor Betty Garrett had much in the way of musical training but they hold up their end of the deal quite well. The dialog isn't as keen as it seems to think it is but it has its felicities. Betty Garret is trying to talk Fosse out of being so shy in his pursuit of Eileen. Garret: "Faint heart never won fair lady." Fosse: "You mean I should just take the bit in my teeth?" Garret: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Fosse (in a discouraged tone): "That's easier said than done."
If you like musical comedies, and especially if you appreciate Bob Fosse, you will enjoy this. Poor Fosse. One of his girlfriends mentioned him in the same breath as Michael Baryshnikov, and Fosse looked down and blushed with humiliation. I don't know why.
Bob Fosse has never been better, and Tommy Ralls gets a lot of screen time. Fosse was a great dancer. The "airplane" number that Gene Kelly does in "An American in Paris" is done here by Fosse but at a furious rate, as if he were a jet compared to Kelly's propeller-drive C 47. Not to put Kelly down. He oozed charm and I love the guy, but his terpsichorean accomplishments were a shade below those of dancers like Fosse and Astaire.
In this movie -- whose plot is out-dated, a couple of young girls come to the Village to be stars and run into odd characters -- Fosse has never been better on screen. He had a good number in "Kiss Me Kate," but there wasn't enough of him. Here he does a "competition ballet" with Tommy Ralls that boggles the mind. I won't even try to describe it. At the end, both do a back flip, something Fosse always had trouble with. And it's all done to music that has no tune. It's just an ongoing riff.
That's one of the problems with the film itself. The numbers aren't that good. "Singin' in the Rain" had songs that had passed the threshold and become standards. Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. The songs in "My Sister Eileen" are tied closely to events in the plot but they aren't memorable. The story itself is dated. Greenwich Village is not what it was in 1954, when people left their windows open and you could sleep on the benches in Washington Square, as I know all too well.
But, plot aside, back to Fosse's choreography. Nothing that Kelly or Astaire did -- with the very notable exception of Donald O'Connor's famous "Make 'em Laugh" -- is as hilarious as Fosse's choreography on the band stand. It would take too long to describe it so I'll not try to do it.
Neither Janet Leigh nor Betty Garrett had much in the way of musical training but they hold up their end of the deal quite well. The dialog isn't as keen as it seems to think it is but it has its felicities. Betty Garret is trying to talk Fosse out of being so shy in his pursuit of Eileen. Garret: "Faint heart never won fair lady." Fosse: "You mean I should just take the bit in my teeth?" Garret: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Fosse (in a discouraged tone): "That's easier said than done."
If you like musical comedies, and especially if you appreciate Bob Fosse, you will enjoy this. Poor Fosse. One of his girlfriends mentioned him in the same breath as Michael Baryshnikov, and Fosse looked down and blushed with humiliation. I don't know why.