- Description
Tap Dance America is a reference work of bibliographic information and does not point to digitized versions of the items described. The Library of Congress may or may not own a copy of a particular film or video. To request additional information Ask a Librarian.
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From:
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Lovely to Look At / Ann Miller [film]
- Title
- Lovely to Look At [Film]
- Performers
- Miller, Ann
- Champion, Gower
- Champion, Marge
- Published/Created
- 1952-06-02
- Genre
- Film
- Note
- MGM
- Abstract
- MGM. Music by Jerome Kern with additional lyrics by Dorothy Fields. With Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Marge and Gower Champion, Red Skeleton. Based on the musical comedy "Roberta", three would-be Broadway producers (Champion, Skeleton, Keel) without backers find hope of raising money for their show when one of the three (Skeleton) finds out he has inherited a half a fortune by an aunt who owns a fashionable boutique in Paris. This provides the conceit for these three "On the Town" in Paris where they find their mates. This is the musical that made famous "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and that repeats many of Kerns songs made famous in Astaire and Rogers films with less panache here.
Ann Miller provides the main of the tap dancing in this movie musical, again playing the role of upbeat and chatty girlfriend to male lead; sexy but never marryable (the sizzle is in her taps and its seem as if they are so darn hot she is unapproachably too strong for all the men).
1. Miller's "I'll Be Hard to Handle" challenges Astaire's and Rogers version (in Roberta): in purple-spangled strapless bathing suit with half the bodice of a dress cut in half and attached as a train to her back (her costumes always formed around those million dollar legs MGM has insured), she quick taps before an all-male masked chorus; it's when she goes into half time that rhythms outplay her becoming sexuality. While she arranges her own tap choreography and dubs her own taps, the dubbing quality sound is fake and takes away from her quick-fire phrases.
2. "I Won't Dance" for Marge and Gower Champion, is a "jazz" ballet, beautiful dancing in the body rather than in the tap feet, though both featured in this number.
3. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" another soft-shoe ballroom dance without taps
4. "Yesterdays" a dream ballet for the Champions features them in a jazz apache. - Source
- Billman, Larry: Film Choreographers and Dance Directors: An Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia, 1893-1955. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland (1997).
Last Updated: 12-16-2015