Can-Can

I love this movie. I love the Cole Porter songs The dancing is wonderful Any critic who puts this fun film down shows what a bunch of pills they are.

Cole Porter had a mixed bag with his last group of Broadway musicals after Ethel Merman moved onto Irving Berlin. Only one of them, "Kiss Me Kate", was a smash hit both critically and financially, and two ("Can- Can" and "Silk Stockings") were fairly successful.

Reading through the reviews for "Can-Can" is a strange experience as they are all over the place. Some loved it and give it glowing reviews and just as many hated it.

Set in Paris, France (in the year 1896) - 1960's Can-Can is a 140-minute Technicolor musical-drama that (IMO) really only comes to life during its elaborately staged "song'n'dance" numbers.And, even then Can-Can pushes the viewer's patience and tolerance to the absolute limit when it comes to being a film of any worthwhile entertainment value.

Shirley MacLaine, ,as Simone, is the glue that makes this film sort of work. She is much sexier than Marilyn Monroe, for example, and is a talented dancer.

I am not a student of film, but I enjoyed it. Different people have different tastes, therefore different likes and dislikes.

Another Cole Porter Broadway show makes it Hollywood, but not intact. Can Can retained most of its score, but 20th Century Fox added some other Porter standards like Let's Do It.

This is another film which was often shown on TV (twice on the local channel alone!) but I hadn’t bothered with until now; it’s recently been released as a 2-Disc Set by Fox but, in view of its middling reputation, opted to acquire the film by itself.

Hit Broadway musical about a Parisian judge falling in love with a brass nightclub owner was converted to a vehicle for then Hollywood heavyweight Frank Sinatra by the addition of a second love interest, the club owner's pal and lawyer. Neither Sinatra nor Shirley MacLaine make any attempt to blend into the period or place (just as well, 2 hours of 'The Chairman' faking a France accent would have been exorable) so all the French flavour comes from Gallic pros Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jorden.