Perfectly Frank is a delightful stroll through the tunes of Frank Loesser, composer of songs for stage and screen. Cloris Leachman does a marvelous job here, as does Jonelle Allen and the rest of the cast, but be prepared also to be stunned by the smoldering and smart Vicki Frederick doing a fantastic take on The Boys in the Back Room, the tune made famous by Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. A must see for musical theatre fans!
Category: Musical
After she enters the United States illegally, 15-year-old Polish singer Katri Walenska finds herself under the wing of aspiring singer Terry Brennan. Soon Terry has Katri booked on a TV talent show — but her immigration status may cause a problem. This musical classic boasts a host of famous performers, including Metropolitan Opera star Lauritz Melchior.
Shot in his butcher shop by a rival clan during the Mafia wars of 1988, the Palermo Mobster Tano Guarrasi is mourned by his wife, four unmarried sisters and his daughter. But in truth, his death represents a kind of liberation for the women.
Dr. Bill Remsen, a fashionable New York singing physician, poses as a policeman to save to save his best friend’s job Officer Lawrence O’Roon. He quickly finds out that a policeman’s lot is not a happy one when he finds his assignment is to serve as the personal bodyguard of the quirky socialite Mrs. Lorelei Dodge-Blodgett. But duty blends pleasantly with love when Mrs. Dodge-Blodgett orders him to guard Judy Marlowe, her pretty niece who wants to runaway with a gangster. But music has charm, even for a spoiled rich girl, and after a few inoculations of Dr. Remsen’s crooning, Judy decides to engage her bodyguard on a lifetime contract.
Montmartre, 1896: the Can-Can, the dance in which the women lift their skirts, is forbidden. Nevertheless, Simone has it performed every day in her nightclub. Her employees use their female charms to let the representatives of law enforcement look the other way – and even attend the shows. Then the young ambitious judge Philippe Forrestier decides to bring this to an end. Will Simone manage to twist him round her little finger too? Her boyfriend, Francois, certainly doesn’t like to watch her trying.
Jacqueline, a London gutter-snipe is “befriended” by Marius Andreani, a diplomat known for being a rounder with the ladies, but he goes pure with Jacqueline, resolved to help her to the heights of Terpsichore, for which she has a talent. But the friend of his, an elderly benefactor who secretly advanced the funds, through a priest, makes a play for her while she is climbing the ladder to success. He also has Marius appointed to a diplomatic post in Shanghai.
A varied group of immigrants head for the USA aboard S.S. Mauronia, including Russians Sascha, Mischa, Toscha, and Olga. Sascha has fallen for Scots lassie Heather; Olga is courted by Chris Jansen, valet of first class passenger Larry Beaumont. Heather catches Larry’s eye, to the discomfiture of Larry’s other flame Diana. On arrival, Heather has immigration trouble, and a variety of complications ensue…
Set during the Golden Age of Jazz circa 1917, Arturo De Cordova stars as Nick, the proprietor of a Bourbon Street gambling joint, an artistic haven for black musicians who gather to jam from dusk ’til dawn. When he falls in love with an opera-singing socialite, Nick realizes that only through music will he gain respectability, and launches a campaign to thrust the disreputable music known as jazz onto the highbrow American stage.