You won't be disappointed!

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Give a Girl a Break (1953) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A Broadway show is about to open but the main star walks out over a disagreement. The producers go into a panic but decide to hold an open audition. Ted Sturgis (Gower Champion) wants his ex-wife (Marge Champion) to get the part. Leo Belney (Kurt Kasznar) wants his discovery Joanna Moss (Helen Ross) to get the role while Bob Dowdy (Bob Fosse) wants his amateur (Debbie Reynolds) to get the part.GIVE A GIRL A BREAK isn't going to be mistaken for a masterpiece but if you're a fan of the Musical genre then it's certainly worth watching and especially since you've got some famous faces before they were well-known. This here was meant to be a showcase for the Champion team but the film ended up bombing and the two of them were pretty much done with the movies. Of course, when viewing this today the main focus will be on the Reynolds-Fosse connection.In my opinion those two legends are the main reason to watch this as they actually make for a pretty cute couple and both of them turn in fine performances. This is especially true for Fosse who really delivers a believable performance and I thought he was extremely entertaining int he role of the producer who is often pushed around. Reynolds is as beautiful and charming as ever and there's no question that very few couple pull off that small town girl better. The rest of the cast members were okay in their parts but there's no question that they take a back seat.The biggest problem with this film is that there's really not that much of a story. We basically have the competition thrown in so that we can get various dream sequences, which usually lead to a variety of dance numbers. In all honesty, I thought the dance numbers were decent but there's certainly nothing great here. I'd also argue that there weren't any great musical numbers either. It seems MGM was wanting to show off what talent they had on hand without giving away any great moments or musical numbers.

After costarring in the now recognized classic musical "Singing in the Rain", cute, bubbly, Debbie Reynolds costarred in several more MGM musicals over the next few years, most of which, including this one, are little remembered, undeservedly so in most cases. Fortunately, all are still currently available on DVDs, hence we can see and hear what we have been missing. This film and the prior "I Love Melvin" were released just the year after "Singing in the Rain". The prior film starred the versatile Don O'Connor who was the supporting male actor to Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain". Both that film(at a mere 76 min) and this film (at 82 min) were shorter than most musical comedies, but manage to pack quite a few musical numbers into their limited run time, and are worth a look. The plot of this film features 3 buddies and the 3 girls they took a fancy to, thus somewhat resembling the setup in the prior "On the Town". The 3 girls are competing for a musical play lead role. The song and dance team of Gower and Marge Champion is first billed. However, Debbie and her admirer/sometimes dance partner: Bob Fosse, are featured as prominently, and Debbie, by default, wins the coveted lead role, with Gower.The film begins with the need to quickly find a replacement for the lead female in the musical "Give a Girl a Break". An ad is put in a newspaper, to attract many applicants with dancing talent. We see snippets of various girls practicing, including the 3 finalists: played by Debbie, Marge and brunet Helen Woods, who strangely are seen doing exercises together at a gym. The theater is swamped by applicants, who are thinned to 3, after announcing that they must be good singers, as well dancers. Fosse , Gower, and Kurt Kasznar, who all work for the theater, each promote one of the 3, each promising that she will almost certainly be chosen. The 3 men then talk, then sing "Nothing is Impossible", and dance a bit with each other. The song lyrics mostly recount various amazing accomplishments in history, against odds, to give them some confidence: a fun production. After the girls tell their husband, boyfriend, or mother about their probable success, often with a negative response, Debbie agrees to a date with Fosse, despite her mother's vehement objection. Fosse starts a song and dance, which Debbie eventually joins in. Included are some clear imitations of Gene Kelly, including his vaudeville dance with Sinatra in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", and bits of his famous "Singing in the Rain" dance. Like Kelly, Fosse ends up drenched when he falls into the pond. The song is titled "In Our United State", with clever Gershwin lyrics that liken their proposed(already!) union to that of the US. You will probably consider this production to be the highlight of the film. Gower then forces Marge(his ex-wife in the story)to dance with him on their rooftop("The Challenge") to help regain her confidence in competing for the part.Each of the 3 men then imagine an audition dance featuring their sponsored girl, with or without themselves included. In the first, Fosse again dances with Debbie, in a scene with artificial snow(confetti?)falling the whole time and balloons to pop, although they are dressed in summer wear. Helen Woods then does a solo ballet to "The Puppet Master", followed by a change into a nearly all black outfit, in which she does a slinky athletic dance, later joined by stout Kurt, who mostly offers support for some of her movements, with a feeble attempt to join in, at times(he was no dancer!). Lastly,the Champions dance among a forest of poles, which sometimes function as supports. Toward the end on this scene, Gower briefly dances with a series of other women, including Debbie and Helen, but ends up again with Marge, signifying that he still favors her as the best of the bunch.The men still can't agree who is the best of the 3. Thus, they decide to draw a name from a hat. Helen wins, and the others are very disappointed. But, Helen is upset by the reaction of her husband and decides to bow out and follow him. We then have some drama in deciding who will replace her. Debbie gets the part, again by default, as the disappointed Marge has vanished. This time, she dances with Gower, rather than Fosse, in the big production finale to "Applause, Applause", which has a circus background theme, as the two mostly prance back and forth across the stage. Although the Champions were first billed, they only get 2 dances together, whereas Debbie gets 3 dances without the other women, including the finale. Actually, the Champions, as a dance team, seemed more dominating in the prior "Lovely to Look At", in which they got 3 dances together. I think Marge will rather remind you of Vera-Ellen.Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin composed all the songs, except for "The challenge". It's generally concluded that the songs were mediocre. However, as I previously stated, I found that lyrics in "Nothing is Impossible" and "Our United State" fun or imaginative. Besides, this is clearly a dance, rather than a song-dominated production... The choice of Kurt Kaszner, who neither sang nor danced, as one of the 3 lead men, may seem strange, but I thought he was personable.

This movie was a great and pleasant surprise. Besides being very entertaining, one can see the future styles of these 2 legendary Broadway giants. Champion's numbers are tight, synchronized, and beautifully realized . And strong . Fosse- what can I say- what a delight !! While Fosse often spoke of his limitations as a dancer, the reality is he was a brilliant one , and in his dance numbers here he already is exhibiting a unique and original style that is athletic, jazzy, sexy and charming . He was an American original . The music in this movie is very good , and serves to show off the talents of its stars. Debbie Reynolds is quite good. This movie is for Broadway and dance fans.

'Give a Girl a Break' deserves to be better known; it's certainly not one of MGM's greatest musicals, but it has many bright spots and some pleasant tunes by Burton Lane with excellent lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Modern viewers will probably be most interested in Bob Fosse's excellent performance, in a supporting role.Some aspects of this movie are clearly derived from earlier and better musicals. At one point, Gower Champion's character (a Broadway director) is besieged by struggling chorus dancers who want parts in his new musical. To escape them, he climbs up the wall of his theatre. This is apparently meant to show us how virile and athletic Champion is ... but it reminded me of the scene in 'Singin' in the Rain' when Gene Kelly escapes his fans by climbing up the side of a bus. The fact that 'Give a Girl a Break' is directed by Stanley Donen (co-director of 'Singin' in the Rain') only makes the link more obvious.Gower Champion plays Ted Sturgis, the big-shot director of a new Broadway musical still in rehearsal. Bob Fosse plays Bobby, his assistant and dance captain, although Sturgis usually keeps Bobby busy fetching coffee. (Prophetically, Champion later became a major director of Broadway musicals... as did Fosse.) Kurt Kasznar plays Leo Belney, the show's musical director: a role that should have been played by Oscar Levant. Sturgis's ex-wife (played by Gower Champion's real wife Marge) is Madelyn Corlane, a former star whose popularity has faded, but who is hopeful of a comeback.When Sturgis's leading lady throws a tantrum and walks out (not likely!), he needs a new leading lady in a hurry. Whoever he chooses for the role is destined to become a star. Will Madelyn get the job? Meanwhile, Bobby has become enamoured of Suzie Doolittle (the excellent Debbie Reynolds), a talented newcomer. The more classically-minded Leo wants the leading role to go to Joanna Moss (Helen Wood), a ballet dancer he secretly hopes to romance.There's some genuine suspense as we try to guess which of these three women will get the big break. Unfortunately, the three candidates aren't equal: it's extremely obvious that highbrow ballerina Joanna hasn't got a chance against the more conventional chorines Madelyn and Suzie.The best number in the movie is 'In Our United State' performed by Fosse and Reynolds. On a couple of other occasions ('Kiss Me Kate', 'My Sister Eileen'), Bob Fosse demonstrated his ability to do a backward aerial somersault, with astonishingly good amplitude. Here, he does it while facing the camera, in medium close shot, and it's extremely impressive. Unfortunately, Donen ruins the number with some gimmicky trick photography, speeding up the action and running it in reverse. After Debbie and Bob pop some brightly-coloured balloons, it's very weird to see the balloons unpopping themselves in reverse motion.Another number, called 'Applause', is pleasant. I also enjoyed 'Nothing Is Impossible', performed by the three men, which features a strange bit in which Gower Champion does a rapid tap dance with one foot while he keeps his other foot balanced on top of Bob Fosse's upright heel. The tubby actor Kurt Kasznar, who can't dance and can barely sing, shows some courage by performing a musical number with the athletic Champion and Fosse.There's a clever three-way dream sequence, in which each man envisions his own favoured lady's name appearing in lights above the theatre. But there's some clumsy dialogue involving the word 'palaver'. At the end of the movie, Marge Champion does a really ludicrous bit, in which she runs down the theatre gangway with her lips and her bosom thrust forward and her arms and her head thrown back. Corny!This is a good place to correct a misconception about Gower Champion: after a long career as a director of Broadway musicals, he supposedly died on the opening night of '42nd Street', his biggest hit. This was, of course, an extremely ironic death. ('42nd Street' is about a Broadway director who risks his own health in rehearsals while trying to make his biggest show a hit.) The truth is a bit less neat: Gower Champion actually died several days before his show opened, but producer David Merrick (recognising the publicity value of Champion's death) claimed on opening night that Champion had died earlier that day.I'll rate 'Give a Girl a Break' 6 out of 10, and I recommend it to you.