Anything Goes (1956)

Bill Benson (Crosby) is a well-known Broadway star.  He is preparing for his next show, but just needs to find the rest of the cast.  His agent, Victor (Kurt Kasznar) hires popular TV star Ted Adams (O'Connor) to be the other lead.  Thankfully the two men get along, but each have distinct ideas about who is the star and what to do with the other.  The female lead still needs to be cast, so the two men head to Europe to find the perfect girl before rehearsals begin.

Bill goes to see a musical and is impressed with Patsy Blair (Gaynor).  After the show he meets Patsy and offers her the job.  With a little prodding from her father Steve (Harris), she accepts the job and they make plans to meet in a few days to sail back to America.  Meanwhile, in Paris Ted meets nightclub headliner Gaby Duval (Jeanmarie) and offers her an iron-clad contract for the lead role.  The night before they return to America, the men realize that they now have 2 leading ladies, and each feels they made the right choice.  On the ship as they try to sort out the mess, Ted falls for Patsy and Bill falls for Gaby.  Can they find a solution before the girls find out the truth?


In 1934, Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse (with revisions to the book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse) and Cole Porter collaborated to create Broadway musical Anything Goes.  The original show starred Ethel Merman and was a success.  In 1936 Paramount Pictures turned the show into a movie musical with Merman and Bing Crosby in the lead roles.  In 1954 the show became a TV movie for the Colgate Comedy Hour, again starring Merman with Frank Sinatra.  Since then the show returned to Broadway in 1987 with Patty LuPone in the lead, and again in 2011 starring Sutton Foster.

This film adaptation bears little resemblance to the show or the other film / TV versions.  The film retains Porter's famous songs, and adds 3 new ones: "Ya Gotta Give the People Hoke," "You Can Bounce Right Back," and "A Second Hand Turban And a Crystal Ball", all written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn.  Porter's tunes are given new arrangements, while the plot is brand new.

Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor work well together.  Their opening duet "Ya Gotta Give the People Hoke" proves their chemistry.  Crosby gets to sing a few ballads, and does most of the heavy lifting in "Blow, Gabriel, Blow".  O'Connor gets another memorable dance routine "You Can Bounce Right Back" which is charming.  Here is the video... there is dialog at the beginning which is then translated... but the dance is cute.

O'Connor has excellent chemistry with Mitzi Gaynor.  Gaynor gets the big powerhouse song "Anything Goes", but done in a new way.  Changing the song was a smart choice, as Gaynor does not have the big voice required to really sell the song as it is normally written.  Her version is good and fits her voice and dancing abilities.  I was not familiar with Jeanmarie, but she is good here.  She is a wonderful dancer and gets her own dream ballet sequence.  Together all four are great.

The film is decent, but never achieved the kind of love and fandom of other musicals of the other musicals by the stars.  I enjoyed it, but I do not plan to add this musical to my collection or list of favorite musicals (even though I enjoy the stage show).

Anything Goes (1956) 106 minutes
Director: Robert Lewis
Starring: Bing Crosby as Bill Benson
Donald O'Connor as Ted Adams
Jeanmarie as Gaby Duval
Mitzi Gaynor as Patsy Blair
Phil Harris as Steve Blair