Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Neil Doyle STEP LIVELY is a vast improvement over Sinatra's HIGHER AND HIGHER at RKO, but that's hardly a big compliment. Nevertheless, it's a more enjoyable romp with some good work from others in the cast, including GEORGE MURPHY and GLORIA DeHAVEN, but much of the comedy is played so broadly that it seems forced at times.Based on "Room Service", a comedy starring the Marx Bros. and based on a stage play, it's about a nervous hyperactive producer (Murphy) who wants to put on a show and is encouraged when he finds a talented writer/singer (Sinatra). The trouble is he can't pay his hotel bill and is constantly being badgered for money by WALTER SLEZAK and ADOLPHE MENJOU who don't want him to hold rehearsals for a new show in a penthouse suite.It's a broad farce and is played for non-stop zaniness by the entire cast, but the constant shouting by Murphy and Menjou becomes tiresome after the first half-hour. ANNE JEFFREYS has a thankless role as a young lady who is only interested in having EUGENE Palette back the show because she's got a crush on Sinatra once she hears him sing.The songs themselves don't make much of an impression, but are handled suitably by Sinatra and GLORIA DeHAVEN. It's no more then a B-musical with some A-sets for the hotel settings and production numbers.Sinatra is his casual self in a role that makes no great demands of him except to sing on cue, but everyone else is given to extravagant bits of overacting. His best number is "As Long As There's Music", but it's a good thing he was soon grabbed by MGM for ANCHORS AWEIGH.

writers_reign As a lifelong Sinatra fan who has seen all the movies and owns all the CDs I have no hesitation in rating this the best film he made in the 40s, his best in fact until Meet Danny Wilson right at the start of the 50s. In fact it's right up there with the two great musicals he made in the 50s, Young At Heart and High Society and it's no coincidence that all three had rock-solid scripts, had in fact begun life in each case as non-musical dramas/comedies. Young At Heart was a successful novel by Fanny Hurst which became a fine drama, Four Daughters; High Society was a play, The Philadelphia Story, tailored especially for Katherine Hepburn who played it both on Broadway and the subsequent film version and Step Lively began as a farce on Broadway and became a film vehicle for the Marx Brothers. This means that Sinatra isn't asked to carry the film and we can enjoy George Murphy as a sort of pre-Bilko complete with two sidekicks, Wally Brown and Alan Carny, in a running battle with Walter Slezak, Adolph Menjou and Eugene Palette. The six great songs provided by Jule Syne and Sammy Cahn are a bonus even those in which Sinatra does not feature (Ask The Madam). Sinatra is allowed to develop his personality into something - albeit only a little - more than the gauche 'himself' he played in Higher And Higher and once he got to MGM he was back to gauche. I suspect that Anchors Aweigh would seem very dated today despite a fine score, The Kissing Bandit was always a joke with Take Me Out To The Ballgame only a notch better and I've always found On The Town vastly overrated which leaves It Happened In Brooklyn as the best of a mediocre lot. Step Lively - seen today, May, 2008, retains its freshness and failed completely to disappoint.

bkoganbing Step Lively is simply Room Service with a musical score by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. It was Frank Sinatra's second feature film role and it marked the first time he worked with that team of songwriters. There would be others, especially with Cahn who has the distinction of putting more words in Frank Sinatra's mouth than any other lyricist.The original Room Service took place in the hotel suite of Gordon Miller, fast talking producer/conman and was originated by Sam Levene on stage and Groucho Marx on screen. George Murphy is certainly a lighter, gentler version of both of them. But he's passable enough in the part because we wouldn't want too much attention taken from Frank Sinatra.Sinatra's role as the naive singer/playwright from Oswego was built up considerably from the original play. It was because of him that this film version was taken out of the one room setting of the original. His role was first played by Eddie Albert on Broadway and Frank Albertson with the Marx Brothers. One song stands out in the score, As Long As There's Music which Sinatra really aces. Yet while Step Lively was being filmed at RKO and while it was out the recording industry was being struck by the musicians union. Additionally shellac which was needed to make those 78 RPMS was in short supply because of World War II. Sinatra never recorded the songs from Step Lively even after the strike was over. Yet As Long AS There's Music still became a hit. I have a version by Eddie Fisher on one of my record albums. Yet it's never identified with Sinatra.Playing the roles that Chico and Harpo did are the comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, RKO's attempted answer to Abbott and Costello. RKO also got Adolphe Menjou and Walter Slezak to play the exasperated hotel managers and Eugene Palette had a memorable bit as the representative of Murphy's secret show backer who wants discretion in all things.The female roles are from a pair of lovely RKO starlets who had substantial careers, Gloria DeHaven and Anne Jeffreys. So you can't say they didn't do all right by Old Blue Eyes.On the strength of this film which did very well at the box office, MGM bought half of Sinatra's contract from RKO and he went on to make some great musicals in the Forties with them. But that's coming very soon.Step Lively is both funny and contains some great singing by The Voice.

stryker-5 Gordon Miller is a Broadway producer with not much cash and even fewer scruples. He has ensconced the young cast of his new show in a large New York hotel, and is feverishly rehearsing them for opening night. Along comes the young writer Glenn Russell, and it transpires that the kid can sing ...A frivolous, fizzing little musical from RKO Radio, "Step Lively" doesn't even pretend to be sensible. The frenetic farce is augmented by workmanlike songs from Cahn and Styne, two numbers standing out as better-than-average - "Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are" and "As Long As There's Music". Both are staged impressively."Come Out" gets the full production treatment, with Gloria De Haven heading a floorshow-style ensemble. "As Long" is the big finale, with two pieces of silver-screen magic. Gloria walks down a beam of light, and the chorus line have striking black-and-white gowns which enable them to 'disappear' impressively.The sets are fun. Glenn walks Christine home to her brownstone, and the couple is tracked by a neat crane shot. When Glenn runs out of the hotel, we see him sprint away from the camera, down the sweeping staircase, across the lobby and out through the revolving door. Now that's what I call a set.Frank Sinatra had made his name fronting the big bands, and now he was making the transition to independent actor-singer. He is good in the role of Glenn, the jeun-naif, but clearly lacking the poise of later years.Gloria De Haven (Christine) began her movie career eight years before this film, appearing as Paulette Goddard's sister in Chaplin's "Modern Times". She was still showing up in TV movies two years ago. How many actors working today have resumes dating back to the silent era? She is pretty and engaging as Christine, the romantic lead."Step Lively" is a curiously old-fashioned musical. It is almost as if RKO was trying to hark back to its heyday of a decade earlier, and the 'come on kids, let's rehearse a show' approach. Compared with "Meet Me In St Louis", it seems a cinematic dinosaur, and yet both were made in the same year.Verdict - A light-hearted, if light-headed, musical that was already old-fashioned in 1944.