Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

atlasmb "Good News" is a musical comedy about life at Tait College in 1927. The script--by Comden and Green--features plenty of Roaring 20s patter, like "bee's knees". Its dance numbers also contain plenty of anachronistic swing dancing, to satisfy audiences of its time. Since the dancing is one of its best features, it gets no criticism from me.Filmed in Technicolor, it also displays some wonderful fashions, though some are not as nice as others. The songs, written by Henderson, Brown and DeSylva, are similarly uneven, but they include "The Best Things in Life Are Free", which gets the classy treatment of Mel Torme.The story centers around sorority girl Connie Lane (June Allyson) who--despite her best intuitions--develops a crush on BMOC Tommy Marlowe (Peter Lawford). Neither of them are spectacular singers, and they would not be my choices for these roles. The lensman must have used all the gauze in the set's first aid kit achieving the relentless soft focus for Allyson (who was age 30).The show is stolen by Joan McCracken, who plays Babe Doolittle--the vivacious ball of energy who leads the electrifying dance sequence for "Pass That Peace Pipe". She would have few acting credits in films. (She would also marry Bob Fosse)Despite one of June Allyson's weaker performances, this film has much to recommend it. June had plenty of other roles in which she shines.

Dalbert Pringle The good news about "Good News" is that there really isn't any good news. (Ha! Just kidding there, folks!) Actually, the good news about "Good News" is that this Technicolor Musical/Comedy from 1947 does, surprisingly enough, feature 3 outstanding and really swinging musical numbers, which are - Pass The Peace Pipe, Varsity Rag and the film's opening sequence.But, on the other hand, the bad news about "Good News" is that, no, these 3 high-energy musical numbers do not in any way, shape, or form, come anywhere near to compensating the viewer for having to endure the drab and clichéd triteness of the rest of the film.This picture's predictable, little story concerns the activities of a bunch of super-preppy rich kids in the late 1920s who are attending Tait University.When these "golly-gee" brats aren't singing up a storm (sometimes quite out of tune), they spend most of their time either partying and/or gossiping about who's dating who.These spoiled-rotten, whipper-snappers seem to have very little concern about their studies, their grades, or their finances. (Well, what the heck could you expect from this bunch, anyways?) To be totally honest here, I thought that "Good News" (for the most part) really sucked. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. (But, hey, to each his own, is what I always say) One of this film's biggest let-downs was that its 2 big-name stars, Peter Lawford and June Allyson, couldn't carry a tune even if their lives depended on it. They really couldn't. (I really couldn't say much in favor of their dancing, or acting, either) And, that, my friends, is the good news, as well as the bad news, about "Good News".

jeffhaller125 I know of no other movie musical that feels so much like I am watching a Broadway show. Just one great number right after another and they all have something to do with the story or characters. And just think of all the history behind those actors. June? Well, there never was a role she was better suited for and she gives it an enthusiasm no one else could have. Peter? Miscast? Yup, but this isn't Shakespeare and he is so sweet. McCracken? What a shame there is so little of this talent on screen. I remember first seeing this movie when I was a teenager. 40 years later it is better. Now I can appreciate the broad comedy and it is amazing to see how tender it can be. Why they didn't extend the design into 1920s hairstyles for the women I can't understand,but the movie looks great. The DVD I just saw must have been remastered; the colors were brilliant. For some of us this is MGM's best. Certainly its most honest and least pretentious. What a peek into a world that is gone and will never come back. Such innocence.

bkoganbing Good News was the best musical from the Roaring Twenties from the premier songwriting team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson. It ran on Broadway for 557 performances in the 1927-29 season and gave the team a number of song hits identified with them like the title song, Just Imagine, Lucky In Love, and The Best Things In Life Are Free. All of those songs made it as well as one of the great dance numbers of the Roaring Twenties, The Varsity Drag.The musicals of that era had the lightweight nonsensical plots which also was taken from the Broadway show. Big man on campus, Peter Lawford, has to get a passing grade in French to stay eligible for the football squad. He gets mousy student librarian June Allyson assigned as a tutor and the inevitable happens as it does in these films. After that Lawford has to choose between mercenary coed Patricia Marshall and Allyson. It's a struggle, but you guess who he winds up with.This film is strictly about the music and dance numbers and it offers a rare opportunity to see Joan McCracken singing and dancing which she mostly did on the Broadway stage. She introduces a song especially written for the film Pass That Peace Pipe which was a big hit in 1947 and won for Good News its only Academy Award nomination. Pass That Peace Pipe lost to Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah for Best Song. But the number is one of the best dance numbers ever to come from an Arthur Freed produced MGM musical. Joan McCracken died way too young as oddly enough her dancing partner Ray McDonald.Good News presents an idealized version of the Roaring Twenties and is the quintessential college musical which flooded Hollywood mostly in the years before World War II. It holds up well as entertainment and the songs are still fabulous.