Broadway hoofer and former scarecrow Ray Bolger had his signature role as aging Oxford student Charley in this musical adaption of the famous farce that truly wasn't a drag, being filmed over half a dozen times! This version is altered for songs to make Charley one of the two students requiring a chaperon to meet their lady loves. This adds on many comic possibilities (how can Charley squire his gentle amour and be a chaperon at the same time?) and gave Bolger a song to sing regarding his beloved Amy. Thanks to a fascinated little girl in the audience, Bolger's eleven o'clock number became a sing-a-long, and even in revivals since then (including New York's City Center Encores in 2011), the song is always reprized as an audience participation. I saw that well-staged production, and everybody did indeed sing along.
Frank Loesser's score is his least known among his hit Broadway shows, but also includes a wonderful duet ("My Darling, My Darling") and some brassy dance numbers for Bolger. A Brazilian ("Where the Nuts Come From!") set ballet slows the comedy down just a tad (it doesn't move the plot along anywhere), but that's insignificant considering the film's closeness to its Broadway original. This element makes some of the film a bit stagy in content, but that surely beats no film version of the musical.
A mostly British cast surrounds Bolger and his Broadway co-star (Allyn Ann McLearie), and Horace Cooper is particularly hysterical as the money-hungry uncle and guardian of the two young ladies. The chase sequence between Bolger and Cooper is straight out of a Keystone Cops silent farce. It should also be noted how much Bolger looks like his "Wizard of Oz" co-star Margaret Hamilton while in drag.
Frank Loesser's score is his least known among his hit Broadway shows, but also includes a wonderful duet ("My Darling, My Darling") and some brassy dance numbers for Bolger. A Brazilian ("Where the Nuts Come From!") set ballet slows the comedy down just a tad (it doesn't move the plot along anywhere), but that's insignificant considering the film's closeness to its Broadway original. This element makes some of the film a bit stagy in content, but that surely beats no film version of the musical.
A mostly British cast surrounds Bolger and his Broadway co-star (Allyn Ann McLearie), and Horace Cooper is particularly hysterical as the money-hungry uncle and guardian of the two young ladies. The chase sequence between Bolger and Cooper is straight out of a Keystone Cops silent farce. It should also be noted how much Bolger looks like his "Wizard of Oz" co-star Margaret Hamilton while in drag.