Two Sisters from Boston (1946)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The Worst Film Ever

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Producer: Joe Pasternak. A Henry Koster Production. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. Copyright 26 February 1946 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Capitol: 6 June 1946. U.S. release: April 1946. U.K. release: 24 June 1946. Australian release: 17 October 1946. 10,229 feet. 113 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Two Boston girls go to New York to find song and/or romance. NOTES: One of the top 36 boxoffice attractions in U.S.-Canadian cinemas for 1945-46.COMMENT: Bright and breezy musical especially in its first half before the plot gets too involved with grand opera and the aristocratic Lawfords. Mr Durante is in top form and has some really funny dialogue and made-to-order patter songs. The climax, an imaginary opera Marie Antoinette, obviously designed to utilize Adrian costumes from the Norma Shearer film, does not otherwise impress, especially as it is played straight when earlier on the whole notion of grand opera is gently ridiculed. Miss Grayson's voice as usual is poorly recorded. Melchior is hammy even when playing straight, Miss Allyson is much as usual. It is Mr Durante and the movie's supporting players that are its real joy. Harry Hayden in particular is given some delightfully stinging additional dialogue by James O'Hanlon and Harry Crane. Koster's direction is more lively than usual. Surtees has given it a nice period atmosphere and flavor with unusual-for-a-musical film noir lighting. Dance director Jack Donohue is at his best in the zesty Bowery numbers.

From 1946, "Two Sisters from Boston" stars Kathryn Grayson and June Allyson as -- well, two sisters from Boston at the turn of the century. Grayson is Abigail Chandler, who wants to make it as an opera singer in New York, but winds up singing with Spike (Jimmy Durante) in a burlesque house. When Martha (Allyson) comes to visit with their parents, Abigail claims that she's singing at the opera house, and they buy tickets.Spike is an old hand at getting into places. He intimates to the staff that she is the girlfriend of a big patron, Patterson, and gets her into the chorus. Abigail incurs Olstrum's wrath when she keeps interpolating high notes during his aria.Peter Lawford is Patterson's son Lawrence and is terribly upset when he thinks his father is having an affair with Abigail. That's straightened out, and Lawrence becomes interested in Martha. Now, how to keep his upper crust family from knowing that Abigail is High C Susie in a Burlesque house?Sweet film, heartwarming, with Jimmy Durante hilarious as he pretends past scandalous associations with well-known people to get into places and get favors. June Allyson is delightful with her relaxed comedy that came out of her character. Peter Lawford - I can never get over how handsome he was. Kathryn Grayson had a very pretty voice though a screechy top and was charming as Abigail. I just don't understand how anyone hired her for roles that absolutely, positively did not fit that fluttery light soprano: Apparently she performed La Boheme, La Traviata, and Madama Butterfly on the opera stage. No idea what they were thinking. She should have been singing Don Pasquale, Daughter of the Regiment, Mignon. As bad as Jeanette McDonald singing Tosca.In this film, the studio took concertos for violin, etc., and turned them into classical music rather than having actual operas. The exception was in some of Lauritz Melchior's music. With the end of World War II before this movie began filming, he was able to sing Wagner once again. He was one of the greatest heldentenors who ever lived, and his specialty was in Wagnerian roles. Here he knocks your socks off with a sequence from Lohengrin and Preislied from Der Meistersinger. Magnificent.The best sequence was Melchior's recording session where his dog sat in front of the megaphone-shaped phonograph in an exact replication of the RCA logo, and someone said, "His master's voice." Fabulous.Fun movie. I wish they'd used some real operas, though, instead of "Marie Antoinette" which was really Violin Concerto in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Here's a film that's a pleasure to view and hear. All departments work together, as does the talented cast, to make this a fun-filled experience.Jimmy Durante ties the various comedic elements together with spunk and verve. Katheryn Grayson sings her operatic selections beautifully, yet it's her skill in the honky-tonk numbers that surprises and delights. Likewise June Allyson works smoothly on several levels, as does Peter Lawford.The musical team has skillfully crafted operatic arias and montages for Lauriz Melchoir that shows off his glorious heldentenor marvelously. The entire production is fun-filled and thoroughly pleasant. It may seem like a modest effort, but there's a lot of solid craftsmanship at its core.

Kathryn Grayson is an aspiring opera star and, trying to make it to the top, spends time and makes money in something like a burlesque show. (But, she keeps her clothes on, of course). I believe it's in Chicago. Her family is a prominent one, that's been part of the upper crust in Boston for generations now, which includes sister June Allyson, who is unhappy. When word gets back to the family that their daughter is in with the wrong crowd and not studying and/or performing in opera, they hightail it there and try to get her to leave. That is just the beginning.Costarring Jimmy Durante (who's great), Peter Lawford, and Lauritz Melchior as an opera star, this is a very funny and satisfying film, despite its relatively quiet and under-praised existence in the world of musical comedies. The only complaint I have is that, while Miss Grayson has a beautiful voice, she is never given any particularly great songs to sing, other than in the opera at the end of the movie.And, Miss Allyson has never been funnier. With her trying to be so proper all the time and going back and forth between fainting and being slightly intoxicated and hiccuping, she was hilarious. It seems more like June's movie than Kathryn's. And, there's a misunderstanding about the sisters to boot. If you want to have a good time with June and Kathryn, then this is for you.