Reviews
"Brimming with music and boasting a parade of
legendary movie personalities, Thousands Cheer features Gene Kelly in one
of
his best early roles as a circus aerialist who
reluctantly becomes an army private. Complications ensue when he falls
in love with the colonel's beautiful daughter
(Kathryn Grayson), but there's always plenty of time for singing and dancing
- highlighted by
Gene Kelly's dance with a mop in an army canteen
- and when the colonel's daughter decides to put on a mammoth show for
the servicemen, she succeeds in bringing together
an array of dazzling guest stars, including Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney,
Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Eleanor Powell."
[MGM/UA
Home Video]
Cast
| ACTOR/ACTRESS | ROLE |
| Kathryn Grayson | Kathryn Jones |
| Gene Kelly | Eddie Marsh |
| Mary Astor | Hyllary Jones |
| John Boles | Colonel Jones |
| Ben Blue | Chuck |
| Frances Rafferty | Marie |
| Mary Elliott | Helen |
| Frank Jenks | Sergeant Koslack |
| Dick Simmons | Captain Avery |
| Ben Lessy | Monk |
| Wally Cassell | Jack |
| Jose Iturbi | Himself |
| Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Lucille Ball, Ann Sothern, Virginia O'Brien, Frank Morgan, Lena Horne, Marsha Hunt, Marilyn Maxwell, Donna Reed, Margaret O'Brien, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, John Conte, Sara Haden, Don Loper, Maxine Barrat, Kay Kyser and His Orchestra, Bob Crosby and His Orchestra, Benny Carter and His Band | Guest Stars |
RUNNING TIME
126m's
MONTH OF RELEASE
October 1943
STUDIO
MGM
COLOR/B&W
Technicolor
DIRECTOR
George Sidney
WRITERS
Richard Collins
Paul Jarrico
CINEMATOGRAPHER
George J. Folsey
FILM EDITING
George Boemler
ART DIRECTION
Daniel B. Cathcart
Cedric Gibbons
MUSIC DIRECTION
Herbert Stothart
PRODUCER
Joe Pasternak
Songs
"
Notes
Harry Cohn -- head of Columbia Pictures -- had been the first mogul to bid for the screen rights to Best Foot Forward. He planned to star Shirley Temple as the unhappy girlfriend of the boy who invited movie queen Rita Hayworth to the prom. Glenn Miller's orchestra would have provided the music. In exchange for the rights, Gene Kelly was loaned to Columbia for Cover Girl.
Arthur Freed had originally planned Best Foot Forward as a starring role for Lana Turner. However, Lana had become pregnant (she would give birth to a daughter, Cheryl), and therefore had to pass up the film. Freed offered the role to Lucy, who accepted.
Best Foot Forward had originated as a Broadway success a year or so filming, and Freed had such faith in the cast that -- like Too Many Girls (1940), and the Doris Day film The Pajama Game (1957), both originally George Abbott-directed Broadway productions -- many members of the stage cast were imported. Among them were June Allyson, Nancy Walker, Tommy Dix, Gil Stratton, Kenny Bowers and Jack Jordan.
Edward ("Eddie") Buzzell, the director of Best Foot Forward, had previously directed the Marx Brothers in At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940), and Red Skelton in Ship Ahoy (1942). He would later reteam with Lucy for Easy to Wed (1946), her last MGM film.
Best Foot Forward was filmed early in 1943, on a similar shooting schedule to Dore Schary and Irving Starr's war drama Bataan, which featured Desi Arnaz as a young soldier who would die of malaria.
A special engagement of Best Foot Forward opened June 29, 1943, and received much praise from critics. Lucy's other recent film, DuBarry Was a Lady (filmed prior to Best), opened nationally a little over a month later, to similar raves. This film went into national release in October. It cost $1,125,502 and grossed more than twice that much.
Best Foot Forward is available on
videotape from MGM/UA Home Video. You can buy the video online from
Ted's
Lucille Ball Bookstore (in association with Amazon.com).
Click here
to order.
"Eddie [Buzzell] gave me the best chance at Metro. He understood
my comedy and let me go all out and be my uninhibited self." [Love,
Lucy]
Reviews
"
.
Entertaining film of Broadway musical... score includes 'Buckle Down Winsockie.'
Harry James and his band do definitive 'Two O'Clock Jump,' Walker is dynamic
plain Jane." [Leonard Maltin]
"No one who saw it is likely to have forgotten 'Buckle Down Winsocki'—the best of all the school songs in all the cheery-silly, hip-hip-hoorah musicals. The women excel in this one..." [Pauline Kael]
"A rollicking musical film which pops with hilarious situations, sparkling dialogue and the fresh spirit of youth." [Bosley Crowther, New York Times]
"George Abbott's smash Broadway musical Best Foot Forward came
to the screen in Technicolor, compliments of MGM,
with most of its youthful exuberance intact, but laboring under a screenplay
dogged with longeur." [Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood
Musical]