Mitzi Gaynor plays a charming fish-out-of-the-Hudson country bumpkin with a heart of gold, plopped into the guys-and-molls world of Damon Runyon's Bloodhounds of Broadway. The film showcases the splendid talents, often underrated, of Gaynor as actress, singer, and, most importantly, dancer--high-stepping, tapping, and even contra-dancing her way across the screen with a winsome smile.
The script is pure Runyon, following some numbers-runners on the lam (one is even named "Numbers"), who end up in rural Georgia bewitched by the sweet innocence of Gaynor's character, Emily Ann Stackerlee, bedecked in Dorothy Gale calico and curly pigtails. The dialogue around her is whizzing with Runyon-isms that pass blissfully over her naive head ("Madison Square Garden!" she exclaims, being told by the hustlers of the joys of Manhattan. "Do they grow beautiful things there?" "Yeah," deadpans Numbers' sidekick, "cauliflowers."). A great throwaway line early in the film has a sweating con worrying about being "subpeeniya'd." The appeal of the film is part wise-guy Runyon, and part captivating Gaynor, who doesn't really belong in the underbelly world she's drawn into, but shines nonetheless. Several song-and-dance bits will appeal to musicals fans, including the old-timey "Cindy," and "Eighty Miles Outside of Atlanta."
Extras are well worth the price of the DVD. There's an informative documentary on Runyon, his newspaper career, and his self-invention as the chronicler of the side-of-the-mouth mutts of Times Square. And a latter-day interview with Gaynor is radiant; clearly having spent her life as a dancer has left its mark on her in her golden years, absolutely lovely and charming with great anecdotes and self-effacing yarns. There are also miniature versions of the original lobby cards. All are guaranteed to put you in a New York state of mind. --A.T. Hurley More...
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