Uma Aventura em Balboa

JANE POWELL seems to be enjoying herself in this cheerful little mixture of music and romance. However, the film itself never succeeds in looking much more than a low-budget musical with fake RKO sets that belong in a B-movie rather than a color musical. Despite this, there are pleasant performances by Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, Tommy Noonan, Keith Andes and Kaye Ballard that compensate for a story that's been told before as "Tom, Dick and Harry" with Ginger Rogers back in 1941 (in B&W and without music).

Jane is just as pert and pretty as Ginger Rogers in the role of a girl who can't decide which man puts her on cloud nine until she finally wakes up at the last moment on the basis of the right kiss. It's all strictly fluff meant to entertain and in its own way it succeeds beautifully, thanks to Powell's effortless charm.

She's also in good voice but is given a number of songs by Blaine and Martin that have no lasting appeal. She delivers them all in a lilting and rich vocal style. Cliff Robertson was obviously a bit ill at ease in his musical sequences but provides a hunky presence as one of her smitten suitors. Tommy Noonan provides most of the comedy relief and Keith Andes has a role he can do virtually nothing with.

There's a rather imaginative American Indian song-and-dance routine that is sure to offend some of the politically correct crowd who can't accept the sort of stereotyping that was done in films of the 1950s. A similar number from ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (and one of the highlights of the MGM film) was cut from the latest Broadway version to placate the PC protesters.

It's the last theatrical film directed by Mitchell Leisen who was then near the end of his distinguished career directing a variety of films. This has got to be one of his lesser efforts but it has a certain charm as the last gasp of the musical era. RKO was virtually at a shutdown by the time the film was completed and it was released two years after being made on the lower half of a double bill.