Kiss the Boys Goodbye **½ (1941, Don Ameche, Mary Martin, Oscar Levant) – Classic Movie Review 13,252

The 1941 musical comedy film Kiss the Boys Goodbye stars Don Ameche and Oscar Levant as a Broadway director and composer who search for talent in the US South and discover sweet and sexy singer Mary Martin.

‘1941’S BIGGEST, GAYEST MUSICAL TRIUMPH!’

Director Victor Schertzinger’s 1941 Paramount Pictures black and white American musical comedy film Kiss the Boys Goodbye stars Don Ameche and Oscar Levant as a Broadway director and composer who search for talent in the US South and discover sweet and sexy singer Mary Martin.

New York show director Lloyd Lloyd (Don Ameche) succumbs to the charms of chorus girl Cindy Lou Bethany (Mary Martin) in this familiarly plotted but still pretty jolly romantic-comedy musical.

The two charming, exuberant stars, plus Oscar Levant as Ameche’s show partner Dick Rayburn, and the half-dozen sprightly songs (music by the director and lyrics by Frank Loesser) keep it sparky. The score, under the musical direction of Victor Young, notably includes the title song, ‘I’ll Never Let a Day Pass By’ and ‘Sand in My Shoes’.

Harry Tugend and Dwight Taylor come up with an amusing, fairly witty script based on Clare Booth’s 1938 play, inspired by the search for the actress to play Scarlett O’Hara for Gone with the Wind.

It was intended for Jean Arthur, who had tested as Scarlett O’Hara, but had to drop out because of a scheduling conflict making The Devil and Miss Jones.

Connee Boswell sings the best number, ‘Sand in My Shoes’.

The cast are Mary Martin as Cindy Lou Bethany, Don Ameche as Lloyd Lloyd, Oscar Levant as Dick Rayburn, Virginia Dale as Gwen Abbott, Raymond Walburn as Top Rumson, Barbara Jo Allen [Vera Vague] as Myra Stanhope, Minor Watson as Uncle Jeff, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Lily Lou, Jerome Cowan as Bert Fisher, Connee Boswell as Polly, Emory Parnell as Deputy, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson as George, John Scott Trotter, Minor Watson, Harry Barris as Fisher’s Publicity Agent, George Reed, Thelma Long, and Tom Fadden.

Kiss the Boys Goodbye is directed by Victor Schertzinger, runs 85 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Harry Tugend and Dwight Taylor, based on the play by Clare Booth [Clare Boothe Luce], is shot in black and white by Ted Tetzlaff, is produced by Paul Jones and William LeBaron, and is scored by Victor Young.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,252

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