The Girl Next Door
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DVD details
Actor: Dan Dailey, June HaverBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Restored
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Girl Next Door
DVD Review: Fox gives forgotten musical new life (or much ado about nothing!)
Summary: 3 Stars
The 1953 film The Girl Next Door has,surprisingly, been resurected from the Fox vaults,done up in high style and released.However,I have to wonder why all the fuss over this VERY average musical flick?
The story which is see through and at its' core plucked from well trodden territory,involves one Bill Carter,a comic strip writer(Dan Dailey),his son Joe(Billy Gray)and a chorus dancing star by the name of Jeannie Laird(June Haver).Jeannie returns from a road trip to find her manager(Dennis Day) has obtained,per her wishes,a new house.She moves in and throws a backyard party which gets inundated with dive bombing pigeons and BBQ smoke courtesy of her next door neighbour.She makes a bee line next door to scold her neighbours to find a single father whose household had been disturbed by the rowdy party.Carter and his son are up BBQ-ing hamburgers as a result(doesn't everyone when they can't sleep!?).
As the picture rolls on the flames heat up between Bill and Jeannie,but little Joe sees Jeannie as an upset to he and his fathers'life.The closer his Dad seems to get to Jeannie the more strained the two become.Joe is at one point even arrested by the police for trying to retrieve a letter he put in a mail box by mistake;one that he was writing to Bill's editor to in effect get his Dad and them back to the way things were.
Jeannie realizing that there is no point in forcing Joe to like her,reluctantly begins to pack up her things and move away.But at the last minute Joe makes amends with Jeannie and the movie ends happily for all concerned.There is a slight sub plot involving Jeannies'manager(Day)and a friend who also fall in love,just to flesh out the plot a bit,but that is generally the movie in a nutshell.
In the film are a couple of cute animated sequences done by UPA animation,to become famous in a few years for the Mr Magoo series of cartoons.There is a fantasy stage dance by Haver sung to"Getting Somewhere with a Nowhere Guy",with many visual similarities right down to the clothing worn, with the famous "Girl Hunt" ballet in "Band Wagon" released also that year,but nothing beyond that.It lacks the quality,punch and imagination of the latter and Daileys' dancing is quite pedestrian.
There is a nice little choreographed number between Dailey and Billy Gray near the beginning called "I'd Rather Have a Buddy" and Gray later gets involved in another fantasy/song/dance routine with Haver and Dailey in a kind of "battle for affections" scenario in which he acquits himself rather well.Gray was fresh off his role in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and in a few years would go onto greater fame as Robert Young's son "Bud" in "Father Knows Best" on the little screen.
The music here is provided by Josef Myron and the lyrics by the venerable Mack Gordon,with overall music being conducted by the legendary Bernard Hermann.Unfortunately all this talent couldn't put this picture over.The songs are run of the mill ditties and while Haver may be a looker Dailey I found disappointed with his lack of terpsichorian technique and average vocals.Both Dailey and Haver had been in numerous musicals for the studio previously and Dailey had been in three very well received films with Betty Grable.The films' paper thin plot may be partially to blame but the two main stars just don't generate any on screen excitement.
Then there is the father and son relationship.Joe is too precocious(more like a brother than son)and Dailey plays his part with a sophisticated coolness that doesn't ring true.Tenor Dennis Day has a few turns at showing off that fine tenor voice of his,but his acting is alas very wooden.
The real "star" in this release is in the technical department;it is top notch all the way.They have completely restored and remastered this 92 minute flick from top to bottom.Its' colour(Technicolour) has been wonderfully restored so it looks better than it ever has;generally crisp and clear throughout.
The DVD also contains three featurettes about Billy Gray,Dan Dailey and the film itself.There is a restoration comparison,a poster and still gallery,the original theatrical trailer and an interactive press book.To top that all off,Fox has included four B&W lobby card reprints in each DVD.The DVD is in its' own case and covered in turn by a carboard slip cover.
This is all top drawer restoration work Fox has done here but it seems alot of work for such a mediocre property.There are an endless number of worthier candidates gathering dust in their archives that have yet to see the light of day and countless existing ones that need the remastering this one got.Don't get me wrong I think EVERY film deserves to be released like this but I just think in this case,it's much ado about nothing.Ted Sennetts' musical film reference book "Hollywood Musicals", does not even list this film at all,that is how low on the radar this release is.
As a 92 minute average run of the mill musical time waster,The Girl Next Door fits the bill perfectly.But for real kicks in that genre,I would advise you to look elsewhere.
Description of The Girl Next Door
GIRL NEXT DOOR - DVD MovieTwentieth Century Fox produced The Girl Next Door, an interesting 1953 musical about an unusual romance and its effects on the happiness of a young boy. June Haver stars as international stage sensation Jeannie Laird, who returns to America a major star after singing and acting in Europe. Her accountant (Dennis Day) has purchased a house on her behalf, and soon Jeannie finds herself neighbors with a widower, Bill Carter (Dan Dailey), a cartoonist raising a young son, Joe (Billy Gray). Despite her fame, Jeannie falls for the low-key Bill, and he feels the same, causing a crisis of jealousy for poor Joe. The film pretty much follows the course of their relationship and Joe?s struggles to deal with the reality of a woman in his life. Between domestic crises in Bill?s house, The Girl Next Door offers some lavish song-and-dance numbers featuring its two leads. The lanky Dailey is fun to watch, with his ever-present smile and gazelle-like movements, while Haver steams things up with her adventurous dancing and staging of different songs. Dennis Day is charming as an unlikely beau for Jeannie?s best friend (Cara Williams), and his lovely voice makes one think of Irish tenors from glory days past. Special features include a brief documentary on Billy Gray, who later played Bud on Father Knows Best and whose career took a hit when he was popped for marijuana possession. --Tom Keogh
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