BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

Sterling-3 This movie and other MGM musicals in particular should be viewed by anyone who thinks they want to produce a film musical today. Watch the Pass That Piece Pipe number and the Varsity drag. Pretend you are the camera and take note of the long uninterrupted takes and the fluid motion of the dancing in concert with the camera. Then look at the musical numbers from Chicago . . . where all they did was cheat and all the action was produced in the cutting room . . the skill is gone. It is a lost art, along with dancing which has been replaced by callesthenics.Also, if you look closely to the left of the screen in the early part of The Varsity Drag, you will see one of the dancers hold her head and drop to the floor. She does not reappear in the remainder of the shot. June and Peter are the perfect couple and he is totally light on his feet unlike Richard Gere who was so lauded for being a non-dancer who was now "dancing" . . . ha! Now Peter was actually a non-dancer who was dancing and doing a good job of it without cheating, just as Frank Sinatra did in Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

ccthemovieman-1 You have to be kidding! People actually like this film and think is the music is great? They must be deaf! June Allyson and Peter Lawford are two of the worst singers you will ever hear on screen. Really! Hey, they're fine actors, but singers? No way. Dancers? Not really.The worst of the numbers are in the beginning of the film, which immediately make you wonder what you are in for the rest of the way. Generally speaking, "what you are in for" is a pretty corny movie, really dated, and sub-par song and dance numbers.Allyson's old-fashioned wholesomeness is appealing, and the college atmosphere was refreshingly the same (contrast that to today where they invite dictators who want to destroy us to speak)......but that's about it. This is not a good musical and not really fitting into a story about the 1920s. It doesn't quite have the '20s "feel."I hate to say this a for a nice film, but to be truthful: this movie is "bad news",,,,,,at least for your ears.

wes-connors At TAIT University, students more interested in each other, and football, than they are in learning French (does that sound dated?). June Allyson (she's Connie) and Peter Lawford (he's Tommy) are the focus of attention. She's the nice librarian interested in the star football player; he, understandably, attracts the school's most desirable women. Does a plain librarian have a chance to win the star football player? The screenplay, direction, choreography, and songs all hit the mark in "Good News". Ms. Allyson and Mr. Lawford are an unlikely duo to head the cast, but they turn in engaging performances. Allyson and Lawford mix just the right amount of awkward charm and graceful professionalism to bring the story alive; it's something rare in musicals of this type. The supporting cast members compliment the leads well.Allyson is at her very best - from her introduction "under the sink" to her careful dropping of book after book during a later scene, she is marvelous. With her character doing double duty as the college librarian, her role of student is believable, despite being relatively older. Lawford is not known as a singer/dancer, but his performance is as charming. Watch how he: studies French, passes a hairbrush to his coach, jumps over a fire hydrant, and puts a handkerchief in his pocket - the quick succession of bits is well-done and subjectively defines the Lawford character. The film is full of little things the characters and director (Charles Walters) do to fill out the movie without increasing its running time.Of the great supporting cast, Joan McCracken is certainly the most valuable. Her "Pass that Peace Pipe" with Ray McDonald (another outstanding performance) is a soundtrack highlight. It's "political incorrectness" really doesn't hold up, in context. Of the mature players, Jane Green is just delightful - note the scene with Allyson and Connie Gilchrist (Mrs. Drexel); it's when Allyson give the older woman a "script" to "play-act", explaining how Tommy's family has lost its fortune in Pickles due to the great Cucumber Blight. The supposed "error" in placing the film in the 1920s with most of it looking like the 1940s actually HELPS. I would have titled the movie "The Best Things in Life Are Free", though, and re-recorded the vocals on the finale. Still, "Good News" is an example of this type of film at its graceful, exuberant best. ********* Good News (12/4/47) Charles Walters ~ June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Ray McDonald