Music composed by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics written by Lorenz Hart and Roger
Edens.
Listen to "Over and Over Again"
During the 1930s and 40s, MGM's output of musicals was
vast. Warner Brothers was not far behind, but clearly MGM was the studio
that was known for having the greatest musical stars in films, from Judy
Garland, Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly to Fred Astaire, Ann Miller and
Jane Powell. Not until 1948 did Warner Brothers produce a star on
par with the MGM superstars. They hit paydirt with a brand new personality,
big band singer, Doris Day, after borrowed Metro star, Judy Garland could
not fulfil the obligation to star in "Romance on the High Seas".
Day tested and was then cast in the lead role and the rest, as they say,
is history.
Years later, after playing Ruth Etting in MGM's spectacular "Love
Me or Leave Me" in '55, Doris returned to the lot to make "Julie" in
1956, "The Tunnel of Love" in 1958 and "Please Don't Eat
the Daisies" in 1960. She seemingly found a semi-permanent home
at Universal, but returned to MGM again in 1962 to film a big, splashy
circus musical, "Billy Rose's Jumbo".
Listen to "This Can't Be Love"
"Jumbo" is a wonderful film, artistically and
technically. Miss Day was the perfect choice to play the lovely Kitty Wonder,
co-owner of the Wonder Circus. The circus is near bankruptcy, due to the
compulsive gambling by her father, Pop Wonder and a threatened takeover
by the rival Noble Circus is planned. Owner, John Noble, plants his son,
Sam, among the Wonder clan to obtain inside information in order to hasten
the proposed coup. He reluctantly falls in love with the beautiful young
co-owner, later feels guilty about his dad's underhanded tactics and decides
to break with the Noble plan.
Listen to "My
Romance"
Noble (Dean Jaggar) is successful in his efforts
and the Wonder Circus is shutdown with all of its assets, including
it's star attraction, the incredible elephant, Jumbo, confiscated. Heartbroken
and defeated, Kitty, her father and his fiancée, Lulu, decide
to rebuild the business from the ground level starting with two sticks
and a blanket which is equivalent to dancing for pennies on a street
corner. They receive an unexpected visit from Sam who miraculously
produces Jumbo and together, the four performers, with renewed confidence
and ambition, roll up their sleeves and embark on a new journey.
From the opening "Circus is on Parade" number,
this musical is magical. Doris Day is in great voice throughout the film
and performs the majority of the Rogers and Hart standards. Busby Berkeley,
the genius behind MGM's greatest '30s musicals, acted as Second Unit Director
on the movie, which was to become his last screen effort. His choreography
on "Over and Over Again" brought back the marvel of his mathematically
complex, extravagant musical routines of yore.
Listen to "Little Girl Blue"
After a rainstorm in which
Kitty, an aerialist, is almost killed, but rescued by Sam, she sings
the lovely ballad, "My Romance" to
him. The camera lingers lovingly on Doris' face, which is partly shadowed
by the dark. As she and Sam turn and start to walk, she continues to
sing as she rests her head on his shoulder. They stop and she finishes
the song just in time to kiss her lover passionately. Very beautiful.
Listen to "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (Stephen
Boyd)
Sam (Stephen Boyd) gets to sing as well. After Kitty dresses
in her Sunday best to impress him, he sings "The Most Beautiful Girl
in the World". The song is later reprised by Pop (Jimmy Durante) as
he prepares to marry Lulu (Martha Raye) in a comical, but touching bit.
Miss Raye duets with Doris on the lamentable "Why Can't I?" and
Day gets to sing two Rogers and Hart classics, "This Can't Be Love" and "Little
Girl Blue". The latter is a dramatic presentation performed among
the deserted tents after the loss of the circus and the beloved, Jumbo.
This is more of a scene than a musical number. It is set in shadows of
blue with varied dramatic camera angles, which add to the impact of the
song's lyrics. Doris sings with moving conviction and ends the song fighting
back her tears.
Listen to "Why Can't I?" (Doris Day and Marta Raye)
With Day, Durante and Raye, one would expect some comedy
and slapstick. Ever resourceful, Durante attempts to shoot Raye out of
a cannon, Day ends up in a puddle of mud ruining her 'Sunday best' and
Durante, trying to hide Jumbo during the takeover ("Where are you
going with that elephant?" Durante: "what elephant?"). Doris
has a great scene in a pool hall during a crap game when she tries to win
back the circus payroll her father has gambled away. The film ends with
a spectacular production number, "Sawdust, Spangles and Dreams" in
which the foursome don clown outfits and perform some traditional slaphappy
routines. Raye and Day are especially deft.
Unfortunately, "Billy Rose's Jumbo" opened in New
York at Radio City Music Hall during a newspaper strike and did not get
reviewed by the all-important critics. As a result, the film did not do
as well as it was projected. This failure was the only sour note during
the spectacular run that Miss Day had at the box-office between 1959-66.
Today, "Jumbo" is counted among the great circus
films like "The Greatest Show on Earth", "Trapeze", "Carnival
Story" and "Circus World". Charles Walters directed the
picture with Joe Pasternak and Martin Melcher producing. Doris Day was
nominated as "best actress in a musical or comedy" at the Hollywood
Foreign Press Awards but lost to Rosalind Russell for "Gypsy".
She did, however, walk away with the evening's coveted "World's Most
Popular Film Actress" accolade again. Ralph McKnight, New York, 2000
Listen to "Stardust and Spangles and Dreams"
"A wonderfully warm-hearted MGM musical about circus
rivalries, based on showman Billy Rose's Broadway extravaganza that actually
featured an elephant on stage. Star Doris Day delivers the lovely Rodgers
and Hart songs superbly, especially the sublime My Romance".
Unlikely co-star Stephen Boyd, still hot from Ben-Hur, also
acquits himself surprisingly well, but then he does get to sing a lilting
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. However, the real joys are veterans
Martha Raye and Jimmy Durante, whose "What elephant?" line
from this movie has rightly become classic: watch to find out why."
THE
CO-STARS - FACTFILE
STEPHEN BOYD From"All
About Stephen Boyd:
"Stephen Boyd was born William "Billy" Millar 4 July 1931
in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His great passion for the art of acting often
times got him into trouble with the executives in the movie industry.
In the mid-seventies, towards the end of his life he was quoted as saying: "I
am sick and tired of acting. I want to make decisions at production level.
I have tried to fight the system and do things my way, but I haven't been
able to. Now I feel that whatever talent I may have had is gone. The time
has come to move on."
Stephen Boyd died of a heart attack while playing
golf at the Porter Valley country club, one of his favorite past-times.
He is buried at Oakwood Memorial Park in Tarzana, California. Stephen
Boyd once said: "They tried to make me a star,
a leading man. Well, I'm not a star even though they thought I looked
like one. I'm a character actor. When I've had the choice I've always opted
for the character role. I'd rather be the pillar that holds up the star
than the star himself." http://www.allaboutstephenboyd.com/biography.htm
Listen to "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (Jimmy
Durante)
Jimmy Durante was born James Francis Durante on 10
February 1893 in New York. His first wife Jeanne died in 1943. Rather
like his Pop Wonder role in "Jumbo" he married his second wife,
Marjorie Little after a 16-year courtship when she was 39 and he was 67.
He died in January 1980 in Santa Monica, California.
Martha Raye was born Margaret Teresa Yvonne Reed on
27 August 1916 in Butte, Montana and died after a prolonged illness in
October 1994. Martha Raye received a well-deserved Women's International
Centre (WIC) Living Legacy Award.
Source: IMDB
