Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Blistering performances.

I just watched this film today. I have it on a disc called June Allyson & Peter Lawford. I love- love-love this film.I have read comments about the way the hair was styled and the types of clothes the main characters wore-- complaints they were too 'modern.' But what I thought was more of an anachronism was that the songs seemed to have a very 40s feel to them-- like they would be songs that one would have heard on the radio at that time. The music did not seem to be in the style of compositions from the late 20s.I can overlook this and even the hairstyles and clothing, because the rest of the picture is sublime.I think the only way around these minor problems is if they had framed it with an opening sequence where kids in 1947 were looking at yearbooks from twenty years earlier and decided to put on a show about 1927. So it would have been a story within a story, and their using modern day fashions and music would have been forgivable.

I loved this movie when I was 4 years old. My parents bought me the records so that I could sing all the songs. I must have seen it at least 4 to 5 times during the year I was 4. I memorized all the songs and dance routines. I have seen it every once in while since then. I agree with all the reviewers who think it is underrated as a musical. The varsity drag number was great...I still can do it myself, even now. It made me fall in love with musical comedies. There is so much to like about this movie as a musical that it is a shame that it is not better known. It also made me want to go to college. I could not wait... Every parent who wants their child to go to university should let their child see this at the age of 3 or 4 years of age.... ie when the silliness of the plot is lost, but the pull of the university life seems magical.

Honestly, I do not see why this film is so highly rated.Apart from "The Best Things in Life Are Free" and the final Varsity ensemble number, the songs are real duds. The singers are not great either. There is one guy who croons rather well, but he is only a minor character. The two leads are not the greatest singers in the world. June Allyson sings in tune but her voice is so metallic, you rush for your ear muffs each time she opened her mouth to "sing".Peter Lawford is appalling. He looks OK, but he can neither really sing or dance. In fact most of the big song and dance production numbers are embarrassingly sub-standard for screen musicals of the time, especially the opening number. The last number, choreographed and danced well, is not enough to redeem the rest of the rubbish one has to endure to get to this point.PS. at one point when June Allyson is giving Lawford his first French Lesson (actually one of the clever moments in an otherwise BORING musical) she mispronounces the word "BAISER" pretty badly. No wonder we worry for the hero who later on in the film has to pass a French Exam.Peter Lawford's character is such a DUMB CAD that any self-respecting intelligent female college student would NEVER bother with anyone so stupid.

The death of June Allyson this past week is reason enough to revisit one of her most important starring vehicles, this wholesome 1947 MGM college musical from the golly-gee-whiz school of entertainment. Based on a pre-Depression-era stage hit, it's all pretty ridiculous but very sincere with random moments of clever comedy thanks to the formidable team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green with their first screenplay effort. The thin plot involves exuberant co-eds at Tait College and two in particular, conscientious good girl Connie Lane and football hero Tommy Marlowe. The closest thing the film comes to drama is the risk Tommy faces in not being able to play in the big game if he cannot pass his French class, and you can guess who is the only who can tutor him. There is inevitably a snooty gold-digger out to steal Tommy from Connie under the assumption that he is an heir to a pickle fortune. And naturally, there are hijinks galore among the co-eds who have a more vested interest in the big game than their own studies.The trivial nature of the film is offset primarily by two things. First, there is Allyson, who exudes cornbelt, girl-next-door appeal effortlessly. With her froggy voice and twinkly smile, she shines as Connie despite the fact that she is not inordinately talented as either singer or dancer. As Tommy, Lawford is actually a better dancer than you would expect, but his character is such a flighty dullard that he comes across as rather silly. The second notable factor is a wonderful bouncing ball of a dancer named Joan McCracken, a Broadway performer who plays Connie's comic sidekick Babe Doolittle. Shamefully an obscure footnote now, she is the dynamic center of the energetic if somewhat politically incorrect "Pass the Peace Pipe" production number, a dazzling example of finely coordinated MGM choreography at its best. Another example of that craftsmanship is the final "Varsity Drag" number where dozens of dancers impressively replicate the moves of Allyson and Lawford in synchronized lockstep. This will definitely not suit everyone's taste, even lovers of MGM musicals, but it is a worthy tribute to Allyson's appeal and the kind of musical that would never be made again without some hint of cynicism.