Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The musical Anything Goes was a superb Cole Porter Broadway show when it opened in the 1930s. Since its 1934 debut at the Neil Simon Theatre (at the time known as the Alvin) on Broadway, the musical has been revived several times in the United States and Britain and has been filmed twice. The musical had a tryout in Boston, before opening on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on November 21, 1934. It ran for 420 performances, becoming the fourth longest-running musical of the 1930s, despite the impact of the Great Depression on Broadway patrons' disposable income.The movie was first filmed in 1936 with Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman, but it bared little resemblance to the Broadway show. Twenty years later, Bing was ending his contract with Paramount Studios after twenty four years with the studio. His last movie for Paramount would be an updated version of Anything Goes in 1956. Though this film again starred Bing Crosby (whose character was once more renamed), Donald O'Connor, and comedian Phil Harris in a cameo, the new film almost completely excised the rest of the characters in favor of a totally new plot. The film features almost no similarities to the play or 1936 film, apart from some songs and the title.I have always enjoyed this 1956 swan song Bing made for Paramount. However, this movie could have been a great movie and not just a good or fair movie. I think my biggest problem with the film was Bing's co-star Zizi Jeanmaire. She was a popular French ballet dancer, who was married to the choreographer of the movie Roland Petit. Whether she got him his job on the film or visa versa, I don't know. However, she was totally wrong as Bing's love interest. Bing and Jeanmaire just did not have the chemistry. She was a fine dancer, but the Cole Porter song "I Get A Kick Out Of You" was wasted on her limited vocal ability.Speaking of the Cole Porter score, Paramount did a grave injustice by tearing apart the great Broadway score. The primary musical numbers ("Anything Goes", "You're the Top", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "It's De-Lovely" and "Blow, Gabriel, Blow") with updated arrangements appear in the film, while the lesser-known Porter songs were cut completely, and new songs, written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, were substituted. I enjoy the music of Cahn and Van Heusen, and they wrote some of the great songs in Frank Sinatra's songbook. However, when they wrote for Bing in the 1950s, the songs sounded tired and corny. The two songs they wrote for Bing were "Ya Gotta Give the People Hoke" and "A Second Hand Turbin". Bing deserved better songs than this.One more thing I would have done differently with the film is the use of Phil Harris. Harris not only was a great personality and singer but also a personal friend of Bing. In the movie he played the father of Mitzi Gaynor. He had a good role in the film, but Harris did not have much interaction with Bing. I think that was a wasted opportunity for a musical number between the two. It would have made for some great cinema.Again, while the 1956 version of Anything Goes is no Singin' In The Rain, it is not a bad movie. It was one of the first Bing movies I remember watching and despite what I would change, I think the pairing of Bing and Donald O'Connor was great. Also the finale of "Blow Gabriel Blow" is a fitting end to Bing's association with Paramount. He helped to save the studio from bankruptcy in 1932, and Bing was one of the studio's biggest stars for the next two decades...

Sorry, we are watching this one on TCM Thanksgiving evening. Both of us have played in the pit orchestra of the stage play. Sadly, this is so far removed from the original that it should definitely NOT be called "Anything Goes." This "new" story with some of the original songs plugged in with other non-Porter songs added, is a pretty lame rehash of the worn out "Let's put on a show" theme. There are some entertaining moments but don't expect the Broadway Show. We say "Arf-Arf." Especially the crystal ball routine is more like the Three (two) Stooges! There are some of the original Cole Porter songs from the musical but they are taken out of their original context. The vocal performances also don't have the high level of Broadway intensity one expects from better film adaptations. Some of the dance routines are fun, but, again, this is NOT Cole Porter's "Anything Goes!"

It's easy to understand why they took their time getting around to releasing a DVD of this one. As can be seen from other comments, the 1956 film version of "Anything Goes" will generally disappoint those who love the stage version. Other than some of Cole Porter's songs and a setting on a cruise ship there is no similarity between the two productions. The very entertaining (and still frequently performed) Cole Porter musical has been transformed into a pretty lame film, and three songs by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn have been inexplicably added to the production. Even worse is the loss of most of P.G. Wodehouse's clever script, which was rewritten by a Hollywood hack into this dumbed-down version. This doesn't make "Anything Goes" unwatchable. The choreography is mostly first rate. Most of the musical numbers are entertaining and several are excellent. The performances are typical of each cast members career work (both good and bad) and the film has some interesting Hollywood cinema history aspects. You know almost immediately that this will not be a rousing bit of entertainment, instead of a high-energy opening number the film begins with a back stage party scene that is about as lively as an abandoned railroad track. Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor play Broadway co-stars who go to Europe to recruit a leading lady for their upcoming show. Each brings their discovery aboard a cruise ship for a transatlantic voyage. Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmaire play the girls. Since there is only one role the remainder of the film is about determining which one will be featured and keeping it secret that both were already promised the role. There are two romances, with the two actors falling for each other's girl during the ocean crossing. Suspense and comedy are in short supply. Gaynor manages a pretty good performance; she gets one very hot feature number (the title song-although Porter's original four letter word lyrics are toned down) and duets with O'Connor in the film's best number "It's De-lovely". O'Connor is also featured in a very original dance routine with children and a lot of bouncing balls. In this he dances to Van Heusen's "Bounce Right Back," not much of a song but a good excuse for using him in another unique routine. Jeanmaire was a French ballet star ("Carmen") who briefly tried her stuff in mid-50's Hollywood. She was a Leslie Caron clone complete with the same hairstyle. Her two solo numbers "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "Dream Ballet" are surprisingly good, at least the dancing portions. Bing Crosby of course is well known to old movie buffs but others will be somewhat puzzled by his popularity. Nothing he does in "Anything Goes" sheds light on this question. He was a "popular" extremely bland singer and a horrible actor with some comic ability. In "Anything Goes" even his comedy stuff is pretty awful. Paired with Bing, O'Connor has about the same chance for success as someone trying to sneak through a balloon shop wearing a porcupine overcoat. The Technicolor and VistaVision completely overpower the cheap production design as well as Sidney Sheldon's (the hack writer mentioned above) weak adaptation. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

As far as the golden age of musicals were concerned, the back trackers were always Paramount and Warner Brothers, who never quite achieved the magic that MGM created, despite their most valiant efforts to produce MGM-esquire musicals.One such film that could have been a great deal more magical had MGM been at the helm is Anything Goes.Bing Crosby stars in his second big screen version of the Cole Porter Broadway smash, although this plot has been modified slightly and brought up to date 50' style..it therefore tells a completely different story to Crosby's first version twenty years earlier.Donald O'Conner, who in my humble opinion was one of the most underrated performers Hollywood ever had, provides the dances and comic turns whilst he romances the beautiful Mitzi Gaynor.O'Conner was a natural at almost everything he did. He was a superb comic, a gifted actor and a dancer of extraordinary talent on par I think with Fred Astaire and his 'Singing in the Rain' co-star Gene Kelly, yet his contributions to film, have on the whole been overlooked. He was therefore demoted to 'B' movie comedies like the god awful "Francis" films.Bing sings his way through Porters songs in his usual effortless way, as he tries to discard, appease and finally woo a French Ballet star played by ZiZi Jeanmaire, billed here simply as 'Jeanmaire' Another pleasant appearance is made by 40's band leader Phil 'Balloo in Jungle Book' Harris, and he is a welcome addition although regrettably he is not given an opportunity to perform some of those comic southern songs like 'Woodman, Spare that Tree' or 'The Dark Town Poker Club' with which he made his name.The plot is scratchy too with Crosby and O'Conner forming an effortless partnership whilst collaborating on a new Broadway show.The clash of styles and the obvious comparisons of youth and novice against age and experience are hinted at in the beginning, leaving you wanting more of the same, but alas these differences trail off into nothing and they are not exploited to full effect. It would have made this film a lot more enjoyable to see the two male leads spar more together and therefore classic entertainment is unfortunately denied us.One of the previous reviewers said that there was something missing from this film that they couldn't put their finger on....I think that this was it.But despite the bad script and leaky predictable plot, the performances are great and the songs as ever are timeless. Porter, Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen were three of the best song-smiths in the business.Watch this one when you can, but don't cancel anything important in order to do so.