| | This is the second film titled Anything Goes to star Bing Crosby (the first was a 1936 film). Both films change a lot of the original Cole Porter stage musical, but at least the later version keeps a few more Porter songs. Still, there is something odd about a Cole Porter film filled with "additional songs" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen (perhaps Porter's work was not warm and cuddly enough for 1956 America, although it seemed to work well at MGM with High Society, released the same year). Crosby plays a Broadway star teamed up with young TV hotshot Donald O'Connor. Vacationing separately in Europe and needing a leading lady for their upcoming show, each signs a prospect--Crosby snaps up Mitzi Gaynor (at her perkiest) and O'Connor finds Jeanmaire, a French dancer. The show can only have one female star, so when the quartet crosses paths on the ocean liner back to the U.S., sparks will fly. Or not--this Paramount musical lacks any definable zip, from the sleepy dialogue to the listless camera. The capable Nick Castle staged the musical sequences, although Jeanmaire's numbers were choreographed by Roland Petit (also her husband). The Porter songs are half-heartedly rendered, although O'Connor and Gaynor get some oomph into "It's De-Lovely." Der Bingle was born to burble "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," but it's too little, too late. --Robert Horton More...
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