Two Sisters from Boston (1946)

Producer: Joe Pasternak. A Henry Koster Production. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. Copyright 26 February 1946 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Capitol: 6 June 1946. U.S. release: April 1946. U.K. release: 24 June 1946. Australian release: 17 October 1946. 10,229 feet. 113 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Two Boston girls go to New York to find song and/or romance. NOTES: One of the top 36 boxoffice attractions in U.S.-Canadian cinemas for 1945-46.COMMENT: Bright and breezy musical especially in its first half before the plot gets too involved with grand opera and the aristocratic Lawfords. Mr Durante is in top form and has some really funny dialogue and made-to-order patter songs. The climax, an imaginary opera Marie Antoinette, obviously designed to utilize Adrian costumes from the Norma Shearer film, does not otherwise impress, especially as it is played straight when earlier on the whole notion of grand opera is gently ridiculed. Miss Grayson's voice as usual is poorly recorded. Melchior is hammy even when playing straight, Miss Allyson is much as usual. It is Mr Durante and the movie's supporting players that are its real joy. Harry Hayden in particular is given some delightfully stinging additional dialogue by James O'Hanlon and Harry Crane. Koster's direction is more lively than usual. Surtees has given it a nice period atmosphere and flavor with unusual-for-a-musical film noir lighting. Dance director Jack Donohue is at his best in the zesty Bowery numbers.

Here's a film that's a pleasure to view and hear. All departments work together, as does the talented cast, to make this a fun-filled experience.Jimmy Durante ties the various comedic elements together with spunk and verve. Katheryn Grayson sings her operatic selections beautifully, yet it's her skill in the honky-tonk numbers that surprises and delights. Likewise June Allyson works smoothly on several levels, as does Peter Lawford.The musical team has skillfully crafted operatic arias and montages for Lauriz Melchoir that shows off his glorious heldentenor marvelously. The entire production is fun-filled and thoroughly pleasant. It may seem like a modest effort, but there's a lot of solid craftsmanship at its core.

This is not the type of movie I would usually tune in to, but with the Turner Classic Movie channel as a new addition to my cable line up, I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a fairly entertaining little number, showcasing Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson as runaways from Boston society and all its' hoity toity poofery. Throw in Jimmy Durante as a saloon owner in the Bowery, and you get a funny, fast paced musical comedy, that throws in a bit of opera just to maintain a proper snob level.In the story, the Boston Chandler's receive dubious word of Abigail in New York City where she's top billed as High 'C' Suzie, a dance hall girl at The Golden Rooster. It's supposed to be a quick job to raise money for opera lessons, but you know how things go. Sister Martha (Allyson) attempts to set Abigail/Suzie on the right path, but all bets are pretty much off when Spike Merango (Durante) weaves his way into various scenarios to protect his headline girl. Spike's forte is feigning past associations with various influential characters in the story, and dismantling their composure with an oft repeated "I don't know nothing'". He gets more results by not knowing anything than anyone I've ever seen.If you're an opera fan, you'll know of Lauritz Melchior, famous Danish opera star who made his mark at the Metropolitan Opera and became a character player for MGM in his later years. He gets to sing quite often in the story, though he manages to get upstaged by his pet dog once, who impersonates the RCA Victor canine in a funny scene. In case you're wondering, he sings quite well for this layman's ear.Peter Lawford provides a bit of a romantic element in the story as he becomes smitten first with Abigail and then Martha. His character isn't fully fleshed out, with most of his time attempting to evade the prim and proper eyes of his upper crust parents (Thurston Hall and Nella Walker). Part of the story's fun comes from the mistaken notion that his father keeps a mistress, though that angle plays out pretty quickly.Besides being entertaining, I found the film to be educational too, or at least I was intrigued enough to follow up on something. When it was mentioned twice that Aunt Harriet ran off with the hurdy gurdy man, I began wondering whether Donovan made that whole thing up or if there really is such a thing. It turns out that a hurdy gurdy is a musical instrument dating back to twelfth century Europe correctly known as a 'vielle'. It's a stringed instrument that also has a keyboard and a wooden wheel to make music, which sounds like a cross between a fiddle and a bagpipe, with a kazoo like sound keeping time.Can you imagine that? And all the while as I watched the movie, I thought the hurdy gurdy man might be somebody like Jimmy Durante.

Being a great fan of Lauritz Melchior, I was extremely delighted to be able to see the few movies he made in 40's last night on TCM. The four times he sings in the picture were, for me, extreme highlights, especially when he sang 'Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigem Schein'.June Allyson was a delight and the act she did in the night club, left me laughing. Alot was based on her innocence and it worked great.Kathryn Grayson was also a delight and the film was very clearly made to showcase her and Melchior. But even so, she did come out in glorious voice and made her and Allyson's characters people to care about.Jimmy Durante was also a great treat as the club manager and hood, using like phraise: 'I don't know nothin' alot to make people do what he wanted.To finalise this comment, for me it was Lauritz Melchior who steeled the show every time he was on the screen, but the story was good with a happy ending where everyone had what they wanted.