Remains to Be Seen (1953)

Just perfect...

Blistering performances.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Neither terrible nor an effervescent delight this minor comic mystery has the usual MGM sheen and excellent supporting staff but plot holes you could drive a truck through. The story, or what there is of it, is harmless enough but characters aside from the featured pair just drop out of view with no explanation or resolution to their part of the tale. Case in point Louis Calhern is charming and funny at the beginning of the film then vanishes while it seems he should still be there. Angela Lansbury, in what amounts to a cameo, is chic and forbidding but she pops in and out at random points and also disappears abruptly.While the film definitely has shortcomings it also has some charms chief among them a nightclub performance by an absolutely sensational looking Dorothy Dandridge who is in fine voice, it's worth watching the film to catch it alone. This last pairing of June Allyson and Van Johnson shows the studio that made her a star was running out of ideas of how to showcase her. She was wise to move on since her next film, The Glenn Miller Story, opened up a whole new career for her as the perfect wife to numerous big stars in several huge hits over the coming decade.Strictly for fans of the two top-lined stars, if you like them you'll enjoy the film but it's neither performers best work.

For years I've been wishing and hoping to see Dorothy Dandridge in "Remains to be Seen" on DVD. I've only seen a short clip of Dorothy's stunning night club number and it is a visual knock out! Lena Horne's movie appearances were largely confined to such cameo scenes which could easily be extracted for southern audiences whose only acceptable image of a black woman was an grinning eye popping big black mammy in a head rag serving "Miss Charlotte". Still Ruby Dandridge (Dorothy's "Mommie Dearest") made a good point when she quipped, "It's better to play a maid than BE a maid." Maybe daughter Dorothy used the same logic years later when she decided to PLAY a slave in "Tomango"...or maybe it was a simple choice "to work or not to work" since DD was offered no leading roles after "Carmen". There was just no decent work for a beautiful colored girl in Hollywood in those days and things haven't really changed that much. Halle Berry, Dorothy Dandridge reincarnated, still faces and fights racism and typecasting at the myth factory. Why doesn't MGM release this dud solely for avid Dandrige fans like me who would gobble it up? I also look forward to seeing a restored "Tomango" and "Porgy and Bess" on DVD. Other Dandridge movies that have not been released on DVD include "Blues for a Junkman"(TV)/"Murder Men"(European version w/nude scenes)" "The Decks Ran Red" "Bright Road" "Four Shall Die" "Malaga" and "Marco Polo".

Let's get this straight right from the start: "Remains To Be Seen" is neither a cinematic masterpiece nor a standout comedy, even by the standards of its time. The storyline is rather thin, too, plus the movie tries to be a comedy and a mystery thriller simultaneously, a combination that rarely works.Still, I like it a great deal. Why? As a light comedy, it's certainly entertaining and even a sourpuss will get at least some laughs out of it. Then, it's the setting, New York City in the early 1950s, a fancy apartment building on Park Avenue. I admit I've always been sold on 1940s and 1950s culture (including movies), the architecture, the automobiles, jazz music and even the way people used to dress back then. Americans in those days may have been a bunch of commie-baiting, racist, chauvinist bigots (I'm not saying they were, but they've certainly been amply characterized as such), but they sure had style, much more so than today (but that goes for popular culture in most Western countries, including Germany).Anyway, what makes this movie really worth watching is the chemistry between the two main characters, played by June Allyson and Van Johnson. They gas each other practically the moment they meet, a fully credible romance one simply has to find enchanting. They're a wonderful match, two wholesome and outstandingly likeable people who seem to have been made for each other.Other plusses for "Remains To Be Seen" are a host of great character actors like Louis Calhern, Barry Kelley and Angela Lansbury and, last but not least, an all-too-brief appearance by the magnificent Dorothy Dandridge, playing herself in a spirited, swinging and highly sophisticated rendition of that wonderful song "Taking A Chance On Love". Plenty of good swing music in that movie in general.All the more reason to watch "Remains To Be Seen", which I caught on German Television late at night (and videotaped on that occasion). I'll keep it forever, that's for sure.