Casanova in Burlesque (1944) Poster

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6/10
Fun Movie
howardeisman8 June 2017
This is a low budget movie which had potential: A troupe of burlesque performers putting on a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew in a stuffy college setting. This premise is realized in a mediocre fashion: not much wit nor imagination is put into the buildup or to the performance (which relies on slapstick).

The movie is fun. It has a laugh or two. It is watchable because June Havoc is funny being the character she so often played in the 1940s: a gum chewing, very sexy, wisecracking, shapely, working class woman. She does a couple of songs, too. So does Dale Evans (without Roy Rogers). Her swinging, lively song is the best in the movie. Joe E. Brown is Joe E. Brown, but, playing a college professor, he plays it quite straight for a good part of the movie.

The version I saw had passable sound and visual quality, but it was cut up badly. It seemed that a good part of the movie was missing. I could follow the plot despite the missing parts, but the movie was sufficiently engaging that I found the omissions annoying.

Since I am an amateur movie historian and a fan of Joe E. Brown and June Havoc, I enjoyed it. I do not know how people who know neither of these performers would react to this modest, but interesting flick.
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4/10
A musical version of "Taming of the Shrew"? Was someone nuts?
mark.waltz1 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Big mouthed Joe E. Brown goes from burlesque to the staid drama division of a stuffy university where he tries to liven things up by swinging the Bard by taking on "Kiss Me Kate" long before Cole Porter did. There's an opening very similar to "We Open in Venice" that heads directly into the action with June Havoc ("Baby June") as Kate and Brown an unlikely Petrucchio. Fans of Brown will love this, but hopefully somewhere out there exists the full 70 something minute screen release as opposed to the much shorter streamlined version released for TV.
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