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Good start, but then it gets ruined

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I imagine that Top Banana was a Broadway show that was difficult to adapt to the big screen. The producers decided to eschew reality and settle for a photographed stage play. Not unlike the early musicals made when the talkies arrived. Guys And Dolls did that also, but it was a much better show.Fans who liked old time burlesque flocked to see Top Banana on Broadway which ran for 350 performances. Phil Silvers, Rose Marie, Jack Albertson and a whole bunch of the cast repeated their roles. For all the other talent Top Banana is essentially a showcase for Phil Silvers. You'd better be a big fan of his otherwise you will not enjoy this film.Silvers was a guy who scored his biggest success on the small screen as Sergeant Ernie Bilko. For me he's fine in small doses, but I've often wondered what he was like in private life, was he always 'on' as he is here.The plot such as it is has Silvers unwittingly playing cupid for the singer in his show Danny Scholl with Judy Lynn whom he likes. In the meantime Rose Marie likes Silvers, but he can't see her. Do I need to go any further.Johnny Mercer one of the most talented men of music ever, mostly wrote lyrics to other's melodies, but occasionally did music as well. Here he wrote the music and lyrics for the whole score, but you'll find nothing here that especially stands out.For fans of Phil Silvers and others curious to see what his comedy style was about this film is recommended.

I believe the only current way to truely appreciate this movie is to get the soundtrack of the stage play on disc or CD and listen to it. It will certainly fill in a lot of the gaps and lessen the confusion when the VHS video is viewed. Somewhere I read that "A Word A Day" was never filmed; too bad, as it's a great number. Based on the soundtrack, which has surprisingly good fidelity (especially after listening to the video), one can envision the play, and possibly uncut movie, as having been very enjoyable. So after watching the video, close your eyes and listen to all the outstanding musical numbers on the soundtrack and envision the stage play as it was and movie as it should have been. Let's hope an full length print someday surfaces.

Turner Classic Movies just aired it this past weekend. I was aware of the show because the cast album is (I think) in release on CD, and was pleasantly suprised to learn of this "rendering" of the property. A joyfully disappointing "non-adaptation".There are two or three redeeming features of the film. The vaudeville-derived visual-physical comedy is vintage. The "long takes" are engrossing and reminiscent, strangely, of live TV. The polished performances of Silvers and his entourage as they command the stage are as thrilling to watch as vintage Marx Brothers. The portions of the play not ruined by cuts are a great demonstration of the way musicals were engineered for continuous flow, as first pioneered by R & H's "South Pacific" a few years earlier.Only worth it for aficionados of Silvers, 50s Broadway, and rabid film buffs. Not recommended for general family entertainment; go rent "The Music Man" instead.

As a record of a type of Broadway entertainment we see very little of nowadays, plus a documentation of classic Vaudeville material presented by the people who actually performed it, this movie should be a little gem.Should be, but it ain't. The version foisted on us by MGM/UA Home Video is a total travesty and completely unrepresentative of the original film. "Top Banana" as released in 1953, had at least 2 more musical numbers, a number of Vaudeville acts (hello, Hogan the Talking Dog), and 3-D sequences(!).There's got to be a complete print of this film out there for us to appreciate the genius of Phil Silvers. The version of this movie put out on VHS is an abomination.To understand why, you have to realize the what was going on at the time of the creation of "Top Banana:" This was a low-budget exploitation flick capitalizing on Phil Silvers' surge in popularity on TV following his winning a Tony award for the original Broadway version of Top Banana. 1950's Hollywood, in it's paranoid fear of television, loves another chance to sneer at cheesy variety programs that seem to be recycling Vaudeville material ad nauseum.OK, it looks like virtually no money is spent on production values: they apparently transported the play, sets, costumes, and all to an L.A. theater and set up a couple of cameras. Sound recording of dialogue is done with little or no technical enhancement, unless we are hearing playback of songs. And yes, the director apparently never heard of a closeup, let alone anything but straight-ahead shots of the cast moving right to left across the screen.But look at what it purports to be: Basically a filmed record of a Broadway musical comedy. Jeez, PBS does it and everyone thinks it's brilliant. Somebody at the studio apparently tried to dress it up by inserting shots of a live audience..."Hey, I get it, Mabel! We are watching a PLAY!" But within the little universe of the movie, it makes no sense, since the audience does not make one peep during the most of the show. Actually with the butchered print, it's hard to follow what was going on. The long takes where Silvers and cast perform straight-ahead old-time comedy are interesting, and make you wish the whole movie was intact.