Give a Girl a Break (1953)

Director:

Stanley Donen

Writers:

Vera Caspary (story)
Frances Goodrich (writer)

Release Date:

3 December 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Plot:

The star of an upcoming Broadway production, Janet Hallson, walks out during rehersals. The producers of the show...

Plot Keywords:

Reverse Footage | Audition | Broadway

Cast

Marge Champion	...	Madelyn Corlane
Gower Champion	...	Ted Sturgis
Debbie Reynolds	...	Suzie Doolittle
Helen Wood	...	Joanna Moss
Bob Fosse	...	Bob Dowdy
Kurt Kasznar	...	Leo Belney
Richard Anderson	...	Burton Bradshaw
William Ching	...	Anson Prichett
Lurene Tuttle	...	Mrs. Doolittle
Larry Keating	...	Felix Jordan
Donna Martell	...	Janet Hallson

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #16339)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The project was originally conceived to star Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, and Ann Miller. When none of them was available and the actual cast was set, the script had to be modified to suit their personalities.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Flea Circus (1954)

Soundtrack:

It Happens Every Time

Give a movie a break

Another movie I had never heard of before I saw it on TCM. Robert Osborne pointed out afterwards the amusing anecdote about Mrs. Ira Gershwin saying to her husband after seeing the rushes of this film: "If you've got any MGM stock sell it!" He also said that MGM too had no faith in this movie and underdistributed it shamefully. That's probably why I never heard of it before. But this is scandalous! It's a brilliant and iconic and wonderful movie and needs to be talked about whenever the good old days of MGM musicals are discussed. Imagine all those talented dancers, choreographers and directors all there together in one movie: The Champions, Fosse, Reynolds, Donen, Burton Lane, Ira Gershwin, etc. (Brilliant lyrics! "Our united state,""house full of cute representatives" etc, etc: brother George would have been proud!) Helen Wood's brilliant dancing made we wonder whatever became of her. A movie which combined venerable genres (the inside Broadway genre: 42nd Street, Lullaby of Broadway; the psychoanalytic dream sequence/vignette genre: Lady in the Dark, Oklahoma, Tales of Manhattan, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, etc; career vs family genres: The Red Shoes) with things yet to come (The Turning Point). But the bottom line is: such dancing! To the Astaire and Kelly movies should be added the Champion/Fosse/Donen movies. So sad there weren't more of them!