Stars: Frank Sinatra Jr., George Murphy, Adolphe Menjou, Anne Jeffreys, Michael Morgan, Jack Haley Jr., Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire

Director: Tim Whelan

Summary: Features the musicals STEP LIVELY and HIGHER AND HIGHER.

Features the Frank Sinatra musicals STEP LIVELY and HIGHER AND HIGHER. STEP LIVELY is a musical remake of ROOM SERVICE, which finds a Broadway producer down on his luck. In HIGHER AND HIGHER, the servants of a large household plan on restoring the family fortune.

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Step Lively

Step Lively is based on the hit Broadway farce Room Service, which had already served as a Marx Brothers vehicle by the time it got this 1944 re-do. The breathless plot is about a theater producer trying to close a deal while staying ahead of some hand-wringing hotel managers, who would understandably like to be paid for putting up his entourage while rehearsals are in session. A variety of songs and dances are crammed into this laboured structure, some of delivered in the sweet youthful tones of Frank Sinatra (as a playwright who also happens to sing like an angel). The impresario is played by George Murphy, a light-footed dancer at his most obnoxious here (he was a future U.S. Senator from California), and the impatient hotel managers are Adolphe Menjou and a deadpan Walter Slezak. The songs are by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, and Sinatra gets to croon "As Long as There's Music," but by the time the show-stoppers from the stage musical take over, the movie has gone way, way over the top. The early look at skinny Frankie is worth it, but you have to have a high tolerance for noise to endure the rest. --Robert Horton

Higher and Higher

Madcap movies don't come much madder than Higher and Higher, a 1943 musical best known as the feature debut of Frank Sinatra. In fact, he plays a character called "Frank Sinatra," an aspiring singer drawn into the zany doings at the mansion next door. Seems the patriarch of the place is flat busted, and needs to invent a blueblood daughter to marry off to the nearest eligible millionaire. Manservant (and former Wizard of Oz Tin Man) Jack Haley is in charge of the shenanigans, and scullery maid Michele Morgan is drafted as the daughter (but can't Haley see she's really in love with him?). This is the kind of wacky movie universe in which the blue-collar maid has a French accent and the English nobleman has a Danish accent (it's piano comedian Victor Borge). The songs include "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" and one Rodgers and Hart number, "Disgustingly Rich." The cast is a hoot: here's Mel Tormé in his first movie, here's horse-faced wisecracker Mary Wickes, here's Casablanca crooner Dooley Wilson. And of course Sinatra at his skinniest, sounding very dulcet of voice. The well-traveled Tim Whelan directed, and he must've done something to make Sinatra feel comfortable--the kid looks like a natural. --Robert Horton

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive menu
Release Date:	May 7, 2007
Runtime:	171 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8247787
Keywords:	Music, English, Films, Higher, Step, Performing, Musicals, Lively, Arts
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts