Good News

Neglected MGM musical has some great things going for it.

For one thing, it has an amusing Adolph & Green script, some dazzling dance numbers choreographed to perfection, and a simple plot (two gals in love with the same fellow) that never gets in the way of the well staged song-and-dance numbers. It gives a charming look at college life in the 1920s--in non-realistic fashion, of course!

June Allyson's singing voice never impressed me but she's a good dancer and here she proves it in the "Varsity Drag" number. Peter Lawford is surprisingly good considering he's miscast as the football player (where was Van Johnson?) Joan McCracken almost steals the show with her frantic dancing amid talented chorus boys in the "Pass That Peace Pipe" number in a drugstore, a highlight among the dance routines. Allyson and Lawford are terrific on "The French Lesson" and she is properly wistful in her rendition of "The Best Things In Life Are Free". Patricia Marshall does well as "the other girl" in a role originally offered to Gloria de Haven who rejected it as too similar to her other "spoiled girl" roles. Some of the humor falls flat and dates the picture badly, particularly the overdone scene with Connie Gilchrist repeating words June has written for her.

All in all, a fun-filled, tuneful college comedy about academics and football with an early glimpse of Mel Torme. Lighthearted plot with a solid score!

Trivia note: It's amazing how far JUNE ALLYSON went on virtually no singing voice to speak of, and a modest talent for kicking up her heels. But she and Lawford are charming here.

There are definitely better musicals than 'Good News' made before, during and since. That doesn't matter, because although it has imperfections it is still a delight in so many ways.

Starting with 'Good News' problems, it is agreed that the scene with Connie Gilchrist is overwritten and overacted (in fact, some of the humour is tiresomely flat) and that the football scene is overlong and drags. It is also a shame that Mel Torme, by far the best singer in the cast, has very little to do, a singer of his calibre deserves better than that.

On the other hand, 'Good News' is very lavishly produced. It is true that the costumes and hair-styles are more 1940s than 1920s, but they do look lovely, and numbers like "Pass that Peace Pipe" and "Varsity Drag" are filmed beautifully. The music is wonderful, especially "Pass that Peace Pipe", "Varsity Drag", the title number, "Imagine" and the most famous song "The Best Things in Life are Free". "The French Lesson" is very funny as well. The choreography similarly dazzles, especially in "Pass that Peace Pipe" and "Varsity Drag", which are two of the energetic musical numbers of the 40s.

Charles Walters directs excellently, hard to believe that this was his directorial debut. The script is mostly very amusing and fills the heart with warmth, the film crackles with energy and while the story is fluffy and predictable admittedly it is also light-hearted, heart-warming and charming with solid pacing, also not being as contrived or corny as some musicals' stories were.

June Allyson has a role that fits her to the bone and it shows off her personality and strengths so well. She sings "Imagine" touchingly wistfully. Am not usually a fan of Peter Lawford, but while his singing is only adequate if even that he does give some charm to a rather caddish character and his dancing looks more comfortable than in other musicals he participated in. He and Allyson sparkle together, especially in "The French Lesson", even if they are too old to pass for college students. Joan McCracken is crackling fun that it beggars belief that her career wasn't bigger.

In conclusion, has flaws but 'Good News' is a delight on the most part. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Pleasant light entertainment with a rather nostalgic feel, "Good News" works fine as long as you aren't expecting too much substance. The plot, characters, and setting are all pretty familiar, but the cast gives it an upbeat tone and a good energy level. As the two leads, Peter Lawford and June Allyson keep their characters likable and sympathetic with solid performances.

The setting is a 1940s conception of what a 1920s college campus was like, and it is thus something of a mythical world that never actually existed. Yet it's a setting that lends itself well to the story and to the musical numbers, and the cast all seem at home in it. Lawford plays the football star whose academic and romantic difficulties threaten his place on the team, and Allyson plays a bookish girl designed to win the audience's sympathy. Patricia Marshall plays a rather innocent version of a campus vamp.

The musical numbers fit well with the story, and while neither contains anything particularly memorable, they are entertaining. The movie maintains pretty much the same pace and tone for the whole running time, and it's a good way to pass an hour and a half or so when you just want to see something light and positive.

Good News was the best musical from the Roaring Twenties from the premier songwriting team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson. It ran on Broadway for 557 performances in the 1927-29 season and gave the team a number of song hits identified with them like the title song, Just Imagine, Lucky In Love, and The Best Things In Life Are Free. All of those songs made it as well as one of the great dance numbers of the Roaring Twenties, The Varsity Drag.

The musicals of that era had the lightweight nonsensical plots which also was taken from the Broadway show. Big man on campus, Peter Lawford, has to get a passing grade in French to stay eligible for the football squad. He gets mousy student librarian June Allyson assigned as a tutor and the inevitable happens as it does in these films. After that Lawford has to choose between mercenary coed Patricia Marshall and Allyson. It's a struggle, but you guess who he winds up with.

This film is strictly about the music and dance numbers and it offers a rare opportunity to see Joan McCracken singing and dancing which she mostly did on the Broadway stage. She introduces a song especially written for the film Pass That Peace Pipe which was a big hit in 1947 and won for Good News its only Academy Award nomination. Pass That Peace Pipe lost to Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah for Best Song. But the number is one of the best dance numbers ever to come from an Arthur Freed produced MGM musical. Joan McCracken died way too young as oddly enough her dancing partner Ray McDonald.

Good News presents an idealized version of the Roaring Twenties and is the quintessential college musical which flooded Hollywood mostly in the years before World War II. It holds up well as entertainment and the songs are still fabulous.

Football is in the fall, at least nowadays it is. Prom is in the spring. So is graduation, at small colleges (I think).

This movie had football, prom, and graduation, all in the spring. Then, to top it all off, Tommy said he was getting a degree in French LOL. Tommy came off as such a dunce, and I never really picked up on what his major was, anyway.

I expected the women's hairstyles to be short bobs of the 1920s, and more Charleston dancing. These two points became lost when I decided to let myself get lost in the escapism and pure entertainment.

All in all, I still like this movie, very much. I really like the singing of June and Peter, and feel that they had very nice voices. Hope they were not dubbed. At any rate, they were honest and heartfelt vocal renderings.

June Allyson passed away several days ago (today is July 16, 2006), at age 88. In 'Good News', which I saw today for the third time, I figured I would melt in tears when she & Peter Lawford did the scene of 'The French Lesson'. That happened a little when I saw June in 'Little Women', shown 2 hours or so earlier, where Jo meets Laurie (June & Peter) late in the movie (I just saw the last part of it). I knew that I would be watching them again in 'Good News' a little later, because today was the June Allyson special presentation on TCM (7 of her movies).

I do like the 'Varsity Drag' in 'Good News', and wish June had danced more in this movie. I did enjoy how she and Peter led all the other dancers in the huge finale, each leading their group in a large tight triangle. It was so neat.

RIP June and Peter. We love you so. I am still melting in tears.

12/10