Follow the Boys * (1963, Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Janis Paige, Dany Robin) – Classic Movie Review 11,194

‘America’s No. 1 recording star belts out 4 big new songs… in the hilarious inside story of the gals who follow their gobs… from port to Riviera port!’

Why was this very American comedy musical set on the French Riviera made at MGM’s Borehamwood studio near London?

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1963 film Follow the Boys is appealingly performed but fairly tedious fluff about four American gals, Bonnie, Toni, Liz and Michelle (Connie Francis, Paula Prentiss, Janis Paige and Dany Robin) whizzing around the South of France in pursuit of romantic reunions with US Navy sailors, among whom are lieutenants Russ Tamblyn and Richard Long, radarman Roger Perry and commander Ron Randell. This very American comedy musical is also made on location on the French and Italian Riviera.

It is a kind of follow-up to Where the Boys Are (also with Francis and Prentiss) but with Francis promoted to the central role, playing Bonnie Pulaski, a newly-wed travelling the Riviera and visiting various ports-of-call in the hopes of a rendezvous with her sailor husband (Roger Perry) on active duty after their honeymoon.

Songs: ‘Follow the Boys’, ‘Tonight’s My Night’, ‘Intrigue’, ‘Sleepyland’, ‘Waiting for Billy’ and ‘Italian Lullabye’.

The eight stars and their roles are Connie Francis as Bonnie Pulaski, Paula Prentiss as Toni Denham, Janis Paige as veteran navy wife Liz Bradville, Dany Robin as Michele Perrier, Russ Tamblyn as Lt(JG) ‘Smitty’ Smith, Richard Long as Lt(JG) Pete Langley, Ron Randell as Lt. Cmdr. Ben Bradville, and Roger Perry as Radarman 3rd Class Billy Pulaski.

Also in the cast are Robert Nichols, Paul Maxwell, Eric Pohlmann, David Sumner, Sean Kelly, John McLaren, Roger Snowdon.

It is the first instance of Prentiss and her husband Richard Benjamin acting in the same film but Benjamin’s part as an aide to the admiral was cut.

MGM producer-writer Lawrence P Bachmann had the idea for the story while staying at his holiday home in the south of France, where he met several US Navy wives who lived in Villefranche and spent a lot of their time following their husbands from port to port.

Connie Francis released an LP called Follow the Boys, but only six of the 12 tracks on the album are used in the film, and some of the tracks are instrumental.

Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosemarie Franconero on 12 December 1937 in Newark, New Jersey.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,194

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