This Can't Be Love At the end of 1962, the last musical film in the career of Doris Day - "Jumbo Billy Rose" was released. The film was an adaptation of the 1935 musical of the same name, although in the film only the title remained, five of the twelve sounding songs in the stage production and the performer of one of the leading roles - Jimmy Durante, although in the film he, of course, has another role.
The idea of making the film was hatched for many years. In 1947, Charles Walters wanted to make a film as his directorial debut, but failed. Then, in 1952, Stanley Donen was thinking of making a film (at that moment he had just finished shooting Singing in the Rain), but this idea failed. As a result, the film was shot by Charles Walters, for whom it became the penultimate musical in his directorial career.
The plot of the film has changed, in comparison with the original musical, of course. But I will not paint it, because in the abstract on this site it is painted very briefly, and, most importantly, precisely. I'll go straight to the cast of the film.
Doris Day, as it is not sad, but is already too old for such roles in movies. No, she sings and dances, as always, beautifully. But, like, and, in the previous role of an actress, here she plays a girl slightly over twenty, although in fact the actress is almost forty. It is not surprising that the first candidate for this role was long considered Debbie Reynolds.
Stephen Boyd was only 31 at the time of filming - that is, he was 7 years younger than his partner in the film. In the film between their characters, this age difference, at times, alas, is noticeable. His singing in the film is duplicated by James Joyce.
The actor starred in this film on the wave of phenomenal success in peplum 'Ben-Hur' - the main box office hit of 1959. But his further career was overshadowed by the failure of another "peplum" - "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964), after which his career slowly went down.
Jimmy Durante shines as the father of the main character. For him, this is also one of the last roles in the movie along with the comedy "This crazy, crazy, crazy world". Martha Ray also fervently plays the role of the bride of the hero Durante, making a beautiful duet with him in the film.
The musical numbers in the film are closely intertwined with the circus component, but at certain moments the circus becomes too much, and it even begins to seem that you are watching a musical version of the film.
Among the songs in the film are "Over and Over Again", "This Can't Be Love", "My Romance", "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and "Little Girl Blue". The songwriters, by the way, are Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the film starred Doris Day - one of the highest-grossing actresses in Hollywood early 60s, the musical failed at the box office, bringing about 4 million dollars losses, and almost completed the era of musicals studio MGM.
The film also became the last musical in the career of Doris Day, although her career was not affected by the failure of the film. The genre of the musical in Hollywood of the 60s was already dying - only individual films in this genre became hits.
But, whatever it was, the film, of course, not a masterpiece, but more or less still watchable. Fans of the genre should watch the film.
7 out of 10