Greenwich Village *** (1944, Carmen Miranda, Don Ameche, William Bendix, Vivian Blaine, Felix Bressart) – Classic Movie Review 11,315

‘HIT OF HITS!!! IN TECHNICOLOR! ‘

Director Walter Lang’s 1944 Technicolor film Greenwich Village is a colourful and campy 20th Century Fox 1920s backstage musical with Don Ameche as a composer who plays piano for New York speakeasy boss William Bendix.

Kansas novice composer Kenneth Harvey (Ameche) arrives in New York in 1922, meets the star songbird Bonnie Watson (Vivian Blaine) and lets speakeasy owner Danny O’Mara (Bendix) use his concerto in his Broadway musical, which includes jolly comic tunes from the vivacious Carmen Miranda as Princess Querida O’Toole and spectacular dancing from The Four Step Brothers and Tony De Marco and Sally De Marco.

Plus Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and Judy Holliday as The Revuers.

It is the film debut of Judy Holliday, aged 23.

Screenplay by Earl Baldwin and Walter Bullock, based on a story by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan.

Also in the cast are Felix Bressart, B S Pully, Emil Rameau, Frank Orth, Torben Meyer, Tom Dugan, Paul Hurst, Billy Wayne, Hal K Dawson, William H Davidson, Herbert Evers, Eddie Dunn, Sherry Hall, Charles Arnt, and Charles Williams.

Other than the stars and the hits, the Technicolor was the big attraction, but they had cinematographer troubles. Leon Shamroy had to leave because he was contracted to start Wilson (1944) and was replaced by Harry Jackson, who, when unavailable, was replaced by Charles G Clarke.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,315

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