From 1946, "Two Sisters from Boston" stars Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson as -- well, two sisters from Boston at the turn of the century. Grayson is Abigail Chandler, who wants to make it as an opera singer in New York, but winds up singing with Spike (Jimmy Durante) in a burlesque house. When Martha (Allyson) comes to visit with their parents, Abigail claims that she's singing at the opera house, and they buy tickets.
Spike is an old hand at getting into places. He intimates to the staff that she is the girlfriend of a big patron, Patterson, and gets her into the chorus. Abigail incurs Olstrum's wrath when she keeps interpolating high notes during his aria.
Peter Lawford is Patterson's son Lawrence and is terribly upset when he thinks his father is having an affair with Abigail. That's straightened out, and Lawrence becomes interested in Martha. Now, how to keep his upper crust family from knowing that Abigail is High C Susie in a Burlesque house?
Sweet film, heartwarming, with Jimmy Durante hilarious as he pretends past scandalous associations with well-known people to get into places and get favors. June Allyson is delightful with her relaxed comedy that came out of her character. Peter Lawford - I can never get over how handsome he was. Kathryn Grayson had a very pretty voice though a screechy top and was charming as Abigail.
I just don't understand how anyone hired her for roles that absolutely, positively did not fit that fluttery light soprano: Apparently she performed La Boheme, La Traviata, and Madama Butterfly on the opera stage. No idea what they were thinking. She should have been singing Don Pasquale, Daughter of the Regiment, Mignon. As bad as Jeanette McDonald singing Tosca.
In this film, the studio took concertos for violin, etc., and turned them into classical music rather than having actual operas. The exception was in some of Lauritz Melchior's music. With the end of World War II before this movie began filming, he was able to sing Wagner once again. He was one of the greatest heldentenors who ever lived, and his specialty was in Wagnerian roles. Here he knocks your socks off with a sequence from Lohengrin and Preislied from Der Meistersinger. Magnificent.
The best sequence was Melchior's recording session where his dog sat in front of the megaphone-shaped phonograph in an exact replication of the RCA logo, and someone said, "His master's voice." Fabulous.
Fun movie. I wish they'd used some real operas, though, instead of "Marie Antoinette" which was really Violin Concerto in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
