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Good concept, poorly executed.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Jane Powell stars as a 15 year-old who goes to a boarding school and idolizes her sister (Constance Moore). This sister, according to Jane, is a Broadway star and she regales her classmates of stories about the sister. However, her sister is NOT the sort of star she assumed, as she is a Burlesque performer. On a lark, Powell decides to leave school and go to New York to see her perform. When she does, she is indeed shocked--and her illusions are destroyed. Moore would like to show Powell around the city, but her show is about to go on the road. Jumping in to save the day is nice-guy Ralph Bellamy--a Broadway producer who has taken a special interest in Jane. In fact, when Jane first sees her sister on stage, she runs away and looks for Bellamy for help. And, naturally, since he's so gosh-darn swell, he agrees to watch Jane and put her on a train back to the school. Naturally the plan doesn't go as expected--mostly because of Powell's hijinx.To me, this was a very unsettling film. Powell looked to be about 15 and when Bellamy jumps in to help, you can't help but feel creeped out--and wonder if he might be a child molester--especially when he practically begs her sister to let him help! Maybe it didn't seem so creepy back in 1945, but with today's sensibilities you can't help but find the plot very worrisome. Now back then, they did NOT put characters in films who were into pedophilia--so it was all pretty innocent. But would you let a strange man you barely know hang out with your teen and be responsible for her?!?! Creepy indeed--and the title doesn't help at all to dispel this feeling! Interestingly, however, I seem to be the only reviewer so far that was bothered by all this--perhaps it's because I am a father with a teenage daughter! If you can manage to look beyond this, the film is a pleasant piece of fluff. How much you'll like it will depend a lot on whether you like the style of singing in the movie, as Powell's voice was almost operatic and not the sort of voice that the average person would enjoy. It's at best a fair musical--and one mostly for die-hard musical fans and non-fathers!

It's a treat to see the majestic, golden-haired, golden-voiced Constance Moore, but what a shame she is in something so cheap and lame. From the first shots we know this movie isn't going to bother with coherence. We see an orchestra leader conducting a symphony, then Jane Powell in her boarding-school bedroom. She falls asleep and we see her dream of joining the orchestra at Carnegie Hall and singing with them. Huh? Who is she? Why should we care about her? Why show us a character's DREAM before showing us anything about who they ARE? The whole thing is slipshod like that. Moore is supposed to be the love interest for Ralph Bellamy, but we never see them do anything but argue. Then, near the end, they are reconciled, but nothing more romantic happens. No love words, no kiss. Then, right at the end, Moore whispers to Powell that Bellamy has asked her to marry him and she will say yes! It's as if the movie makers suddenly woke up and realised, uh-oh, we forgot the love stuff! The movie also has its distasteful aspects--the 15-year-old character (Powell's real age at the time) puts her hair up, wears lots of makeup and a sexy dress to show that she can pass for eighteen and be in a Broadway show. As a result, dozens of soldiers and sailors flock to her eagerly, and she encourages them. It gives the viewer an uncomfortable feeling that she is being taken advantage of.There is also the weird elevation to star status of the mediocrity Morton Gould. He is the conductor at the beginning, playing Carnegie Hall, and throughout the film we are told, ooh, they are putting on an original Morton Gould show, ooh, that's Morton Gould!, ooh, Morton Gould wants me for his radio show! Gould himself, as we see from his appearance in the movie, is as dull as his unmemorable music.And the burlesque! The typical embarrassment of Hays-code burlesque theatre, with men roaring and stamping at girls who wear more clothes than real girls of the time did at the beach. The little sister burns with shame at seeing Moore display a leg (horrors!) to the audience, but in the Broadway show at the end, in which they both star, Moore is wearing a costume that shows BOTH her legs! Ridiculous.It is very nice to see such likable performers as Arthur Treacher and Louise Beavers (there is a sweet moment when he stops making ice-cream sundaes for Powell and instead makes one for himself and one for Beavers, and they dig in). But both have been much, much funnier with better material.

This is only Jane Powell's second movie and she can more than hold her own. She plays the little sister of Constance Moore, who is a big star in New York. Ralph Bellamy plays a Broadway producer and really gives a great performance. Jane wants to follow her big sister to New York and she won't let her go. Jane talks with Ralph about her sister and he tells everyone what a big star she is on Broadway. Jane goes to New York to see her anyway. She is crushed when her sister is the star of a burlesque show. She runs into Ralph and he calms her down and calls for her sister. He explains to the sister why he lied to Jane about her. Jane is noticed and hired to do a show until they find out what her sister does. Jane finds out Ralph needs talent for his show and she secretly records her sister. He hears it and hires her. She does a great job and Jane also gets to sing in the play. This was a nice movie with a good pace to it. The three leads were perfectly cast and I recommend watching this film. The DVD releases are cheaply produced, but it's still worth watching.

In the '30s and '50s the Hollywood musical did mostly Broadway-style material, but during the WW2 period there was a craze for the vaudeville era: "For Me and My Gal", "Lady of Burlesque", "Ziegfeld Girl", and many more. These musicals were always best when they cast real ex-vaudevillians (Judy Garland) or Broadway dancers (Barbara Stanwyck). This one doesn't have either but it's not too bad. As usual with no-budget musicals there isn't a lot of music in it, and though it's got some burlesque sequences of course there are no authentic burlesque (i.e., stripper) numbers. (The censorship period in Hollywood was a bad time to get nostalgic for burlesque.) There is one clever dance number, with the dancers are got up as marionettes at a fair.Ralph Bellamy is an impresario and Powell is the cute girl who dreams of Carnegie Hall and discovers (it is never a secret to us) that her "theatrical" sister (Moore) is really a burlesque queen. Powell dreams up a way to redeem the sister. Never mind that Powell and Moore look nothing alike and don't appear to like one another. Moore, who made only Z movies, seems to sense that Powell was on to bigger and better things (she was but not for very long). Powell is a bit annoying in the early scenes, but she gets rather funny later once she's swathed in mink and pretending to be a diva. All in all, this is kind of a fun period piece. It's more typical of 1940s musicals than the big classics everyone knows about.