I was excited going into this film. A Rogers & Hammerstein musical dealing with one of my favorite subjects – the circus. Boy was I disappointed.
The story starts out with alpha male carousel barker Billy Bigelow (Gordon MacRae, OKLAHOMA!) in heaven hearing that there is trouble with his family back on Earth. After which, we flashback in time to when Billy met his wife Julie Jordon (Shirley Jones, ELMER GANTRY). Both end up losing their jobs over the meeting, but it doesn’t matter because they fall instantly in love with each other. After they're married, they live off Julie’s cousin Nettie (Claramae Turner). Then Billy gets caught up with shady Jigger Craigin (Cameron Mitchell, MY FAVORITE YEAR), which leads to Billy ending up in heaven where he asks to go back down to Earth to help his daughter Louise (Susan Luckey, THE MUSIC MAN).
First off, the rendition of heaven in this film is really lame. Really lame. I know the film was made in the 1950s, but come on CABIN IN THE SKY was made in the 1940s and had a more original and convincing heaven location. The story sets up Billy’s travel back to Earth, but then spends most of its running time dealing with events that lead up to his death. Once he returns, it’s not that big of a deal that he’s there and nothing really tragic is going on.
The plot is just a clothesline for various song and dance numbers. And the songs aren’t all that great. A couple songs seem like filler at best. Take note to the clam bake tune – I thought I was transported into an Elvis flick. Nonetheless, the dance numbers in the flick are great, especially Louise’s ballet number toward the end of the film. That one number without any dialogue develops Lousie’s character better than the whole rest of the film does for any other character.
The cinematography is solid as would be expected from a grand musical. Yet, there is one shot during Billy’s number on the beach, which has some of the worst lighting I’ve ever seen. MacRae and Jones are amazing singers so if you want to see them on screen singing together then I suggest you rent OKLAHOMA! instead of this overrated dud.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
