Exclusive“Good News” (1947): First Football Film

le crayon, le crayon, le cahier, le cahier, le papier, le papier, noir, rouge, blanc, a black, red, white, rouge, blanc, noir, you're fairly bright. Now please go back. I'll bet I get them right. Rouge, blanc, et noir, le papier, le cahier, le crayon, la chaise, la plume, le livre, le livre, et rouge, la chaise, et noir. That's wonderful. With all this friendship my sleeve, I'm sure to get the boys' attention. Well, that certainly is bonne nouvelle. What's that? That's good news. I'm Rebecca Brannan. I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. One of the great things about movies from the golden era of Hollywood is that so many of them blend multiple genres, so people with different tastes can enjoy the same films. In spite of this, when we were trying to think of a sports-themed and particularly football-themed movie, it was a struggle to find one that was both approachable and entertaining, even if you're not an avid sports enthusiast. Particularly football now is so popular in the professional realm. In this time period, the 30s to the 50s, college sports were the main outlet where people enjoyed them. Our choice for a movie that really captures the fun and spirit of football is Good News from 1947. This movie blends the genre of sports with a romantic comedy and even a musical. It's an MGM film directed by Charles Walters, and it stars June Allison and Peter Lawford as the two main characters. The script was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Romance and hijinks abound at Tate College in the year 1927. Football star Tommy Marlowe wants nothing more than to get a date with the new girl on campus, a very sophisticated young lady who just got out of finishing school. But after a playful French lesson with sweet Connie, who works at the library, he wonders if maybe she's a better girl for him. Meanwhile, Babe, Connie's roommate, is very interested in skinny Bobby, who's on the scrap team, rather than her former sweetheart Beef, another football hero. Now, this movie is interesting because it was made in 1947, but it's set in 1927, 20 years earlier. And you always have to wonder, why did they make this a period piece? And it's interesting to look at the history of how this film got to the screen. It started out as a 1927 stage musical. And obviously, at the time, it wasn't a period piece. It was just in modern times. But as they made it into a movie, first in the 1930s and then in 1947, I think as they were analyzing the music, because they used almost all the music from the original stage play, they thought, it wouldn't work if we changed it to the post-war 40s. Yeah, there are a lot of pop culture references of the time. A lot about the dances and the spirits. So they thought, let's just keep it in the 20s. Right. A lot can be said about films like Singing in the Rain, for example, how they weren't necessarily accurate with costumes. But the funny thing about this movie is they're barely even trying, but you don't mind it. Because it's just, it's a charming 1940s look at 1927. And something about the fact that they're, they're almost making a point of the fact that they're not really going 20s style with the clothes. It just becomes kind of a main, kind of one of the most unique things about the film is it has this really unusual hybrid 20s and 40s fashion you really can't find in any other film. Because most of the dresses are drop waist, but they still have that more structured look of the 40s. There's use of like taffeta and certain fabrics are all puffy sleeves. The hairstyles are all most of the 40s, particularly June Allison. Her costumes are very much the style of the day, not the time in which it was set. This stage play, of course, featured music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Lou Brown and Bee Gee or Buddy Da Silva. And there were a lot of hit tunes that came out of it. And then it was made into a movie in 1931. But that film was rather risque compared to this movie, because in the early 1930s, the styles were very different. That era is now known as the pre-code era, and you could basically do anything you wanted. Riskeity abounded. And although I understand that that early film is either totally or at least partially lost. Wow, I didn't know that. But reports remain that it was quite risque as opposed to the 1940s movie, which between 1934 and 1954, the Motion Picture Production Code was in place under the leadership of Joseph Breen at the Production Code Administration. So under that leadership, it was the rule of the day for films to be decent and respectable for everyone. So this is very much the code look at the 1920s. It doesn't have as much of the spirit of depravity, which it did in the early 30s and would have been really in 1927 as well. Yes. The jazz age, the prohibition, all that. You see just the more fun aspects of it, not the darker side. On the corner, not the bootleg hooch and the rolled down stockings and things that have become such stereotypes of the 20s era. It's definitely not stereotypical in any way. They use the terms flapper and chic, but. And interestingly, this film was going to be made originally in 1940 with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, who were sort of the star musical team at MGM at the time. They were going to remake it pretty soon. Yes, they were. After they were so successful in Babes in Arms in 1939, that same production unit, Arthur Freed Producing and Busby Berkeley Directing was going to make this film. But then the swing music was all the rage then. So the studio head, Louis B. Mayer, talked to Arthur Freed and said, I think you should get into this modern jazz craze. So they made Strike Up the Band instead. So this could have been a Mickey and Judy musical, but it's so great. The time it was made, I think it was just right. But interestingly, they would have been actual college age. That's right. And they didn't that often. Sometimes they played younger than that. Mickey Rooney especially played high school age characters long after he was that age, right? But June Allison was 30 at the time of this movie, but she was really the girl next door. Yes, she was. She really has a very youthful look. Some of them are younger. Like Peter Offord was younger. He was 27. All right. Still a bit old to be in college, unless he's really dumb. Well, maybe he is. He seems more interested in football than in his studies. It's such an interesting cast because there are so many actors in this that aren't, if you're familiar with the era, you're not going to recognize a lot of these people. Yeah, they aren't some of the main musical stars. Pat McClellan, the new debutante, sort of, this was that actress's feature film debut. And I don't think we've seen her in anything else. No, she wasn't in anything else. And Joan McCracken, who plays Babe, was a stage performer. Yes. So I don't think she had much of a film career. No. And interesting, almost a cameo, is the performance of Mel Tormé in this movie, who is, of course, known mostly as a jazz singer, jazz musician. But he has a small part in this, only one or two lines. Mostly he's just there for his voice. And he sings, he joins in the ladies' man number, which is an ensemble piece, and then sings the beautiful ballad, The Best Things in Life, for free as a reprise. June Ellison sings it first. Which leads us into, we have to talk about the music in this movie. Like I said, it's interesting how many of the songs they featured. Because a lot of times, at this time, they would just take the title and throw out everything else. But they kept almost all of the songs from the original. The arrangements are very much of the day. They have more of the big band sound. But keeping that in mind, once I found out these actually are old songs, listening to it, I can kind of hear something about the melodic construction, how these were older songs. So you've got The Best Things in Life, for free, the main romantic ballad. Right. There's Be a Ladies' Man, where all the fellows on campus are talking about how you have to dress like a dapper Dan to get girls' attention. And Lucky in Love, which several different couples sing. Right. It's one of those songs where everybody takes a verse. And then the big show-stopping finale, which is the varsity drag, where they're all talking about this new dance craze. Yes. But there were three original songs written for the movie, and only two actually made it into the final cut. One of them was There Must Be an Easier Way, a duet between Pat and Connie, which can be heard on the soundtrack album. And apparently, that scene can still be found on some DVD copies. But that was cut. And then the song Pass That Peace Pipe, which actually won the Oscar for Best Song that year. Yes, it did. But interestingly, that was written for Ziegfeld Follies in 1945, but apparently not used in that film. And then the French lesson, when Connie is teaching Tommy a bit of French vocabulary for him to try out on Pat, because she always speaks French. That was written originally for this. And it's a really funny scene, if you know behind the scenes, Peter Lofford spoke fluent French. So he had to teach June Allison how to teach him French for this number. And he has such a great accent, you can tell. But it is such a great scene. It's so impressive. It's funny how part of the way through the song, he starts conjugating in a way you obviously couldn't if you didn't know French. But that kind of adds to the humor. It's more of a patter song. They sing maybe two lines. Yes, it's mostly spoken in rhythm with some musical accompaniment. And that music is used as theme music later in the film. And then it leads into when she sings the best things in life are free. That's one of the most beautiful scenes in the movie, just the whole starting out with the playful French lesson, and then they start talking and relating to each other how they were similar in childhood. These two students who've both been at Tate College for four years, and he's like, he's never seen her before. And she's like, we've seen each other a hundred times. He's good friends with her roommate. She's like, you were next to me by the punch bowl last night at the sorority party. But he's never even noticed her because he's this football hero, this ladies man, and she's this bookish librarian. He comes into the library and he tries to pretend like, oh, I've been here a lot. She says, not in the last two years you haven't because she works there. So she knows she's never seen him. Yes. But then as he wants something, he wants to learn French. So she says, well, I can teach you some. They start to realize how much they have in common. And they bond over that. But it all goes in the first drama when he's still being drawn in by sort of the vixen. Until he finally realizes when it's almost too late. She's the girl that he wants. He just wants someone simple and sincere like Connie. Yes. The characters of the two girls who are vying for Tommy's affections are so different. Yes. Because you've got the ultimate glamour girl of Pat, who really is the most flapper-like character. Yes. She wears like the stereotypical fringe dress. More of the straight silhouette. Right. Whereas June Allison is probably the least like the 20s. She looks like a 40s college girl. Very, very much typical 40s clothes. My outfit is based on an ensemble, which you see Connie wearing three different times. She wears three different cardigan sweaters with a simple skirt and a white blouse underneath it. In one scene in particular, she's wearing a pinkish cardigan with a white tailored blouse. Longer black skirt and black shoes. Her sorority pin, of course. And very simple jewelry. And in one scene, you see her wearing sort of a bucket hat. So this reflects that style. While my dress in color tone does not particularly suggest any one dress, the style of it is very similar to the unique 20s and 40s hybrid style shown in this film. With the dropway silhouette, but the fuller taffeta skirt. More like what you'd see in the 40s. And shoes very much like ones worn by June Allison in the last scene, which have a flower-like decoration on the toe. And many girls are wearing flowers in their hair in the fancier events. Of course, we started out by saying this is a sports movie, so we have to talk about how it actually is football themed. Right. Football is an overarching theme throughout the movie, because the three main male characters are all on the football team. Tommy is the big star who's going to be all-American. Beef is... He's really the only one who looks like what we think of as a football player. He's really the hulking man. And then we've got little Bobby, who's played by Ray McDonald, who is a good, a really good dancer. And he was in some of the... Some of the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies, or particularly Mickey Rooney 1. He doesn't show his tap dancing as much in this film. No. As in some of his earlier ones. But in particularly the past, that Peace Pipe number, he and Joe McCracken are dancing quite a bit. So he's that fella who's on the bench, and they just won't let him in, because he's really too thin to be a football player, but he's so eager. He's like, let me in there, coach! I want to get out there and fight! And then, of course, the characters of the coach and then the manager are also very important members of the cast. The final football game in the film is very important to the plot, because Tommy and Pat announced that after the game, they're going to announce their engagement. Yes. And Tommy is conflicted, because he realizes at this point that he really loves Connie. So he almost doesn't want to play the game, because then he'll kind of, like, if he plays the game and wins, he'll be engaged to her. And even leading up to that, he can't play in the game unless he passes all his courses, and he fails in French, because he hasn't been studying. Right, and leading them to ask Connie to give him some private coaching. So that's really when, because they're seeing each other again, that's when he really realizes what a mistake he's made. And so he has to kind of make the choice, is he going to, does he win the game and get the wrong girl, or not play and then he can be with Connie? And he actually makes the choice to purposely fail the test, but she tells the instructor he knows his French, so he passes him. For dear old Tate. And he still, his heart isn't in it, to the point that the coach takes him out of the game, and then Bobby gets his chance to come in, and he's running the wrong direction at first, but then once they turn around, he scores a goal, and then all the girls love him. So that's one of two games that are in the movie. The earlier one is also a turning point in his relationship with Pat, because by that point, she's been told the phony story that he's the son of the Pickle King, a very wealthy manufacturer, and Babe just made up that story sort of as a joke on her. Right, so Pat comes and asks him to take her to the prom, which leads him to break his date with Connie. But she says, oh, when I saw you play, then I knew that I really loved you, so that's the first turning point. And then the second is that game when he realizes he doesn't care about winning, he doesn't care about football as much as he cares about Connie. It really reflects his growth as a character. Yes. And in that conversation that he has with Connie after the French lesson, he talks about when he was a little boy, he wanted to read, and he wanted to know about so many things. And you see, he's intelligent. He's not one of those guys who's just there because he's a football player. He's just gotten caught up in sort of the romance and the allure of the college life, and that all the girls love a football star, until he meets Pat, who's just interested in wealth of culture. And by meeting Connie, it really kind of helps him remember who he is, that he's not just a jock, and that there are so many more important things in life than playing football. And the best things in life are free. But it's an interesting look at football of the 1920s, because they do reflect the uniforms of the era with the very different looking pads and helmets. Yes, you'll definitely think, what are they wearing? Because it's so different from modern football uniforms. And funnily enough, in the very famous 20s movie, Singing in the Rain, which I mentioned earlier, one scene, they're showing how they could film movies side by side. One of them was a football scene, and they're wearing the Tate College uniforms for using costumes. I think we noticed that the last time we watched that movie, and then I read that on IMDb. Because those are 20s football uniforms. I think this is a really fun movie, and young people could enjoy it, because it's about college life in a past era, almost 100 years ago now. Seeing how there are some of the same experiences, and some things are completely different. It's kind of a look at the 20s in a playful way. You've got a nice little romance, a couple of different funny romantic scenarios, and some really interesting musical numbers. I think none of the musical numbers are really the same. Each one is different. Yeah, they're very unique styles. I think in modern films, whenever they're reflecting an old era, it's become kind of a popular idea to try to reflect that it's not old-timey, like trying to make it feel modern, and there are different ways of doing that. A lot of people talk about how in the 2013 Baz Luhrmann movie, The Great Gatsby, they use hip-hop or rock and roll music because they're trying to make it feel current, because that's the music of this day, and jazz is the music of that day. You sort of can see that reflected for the era in this film, that they're using the 40s big band style, so it has that really youthful and modern and up-to-date feel, so young people could appreciate it then. That's what makes it such an interesting and unique look, seeing one older time period looking at an even older time period. That's always a fascinating thing about period pieces from the golden era. But if you are interested in looking back at those time periods, I think this movie could be a good way to start it if you like. Football, college-themed films, musicals, but I think it's also a good musical, it's not too intensive a musical. Yes. Partly because a lot of the performers aren't really that legit of musical performers. Like you said, Mel Tormé is really the only one who's just a singer. Most notably, Peter Lawford. In the 1974 movie That's Entertainment, he expressed that he felt very miscast in this because he was hardly Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly as a singer or a dancer, but under the studio system, he did what you were told. So he's got a good presence. He's a good performer. He's not a great singer, but he does a good job. He can dance and he embodies the character well. He really does. He's really good in this character. And June Ellison is just so cute. But because neither one of them is Gene Kelly or Cyd Charisse or Vera Ellen, they don't spend too much time on the musical numbers. Right. And it's good that they were both that, so they match. You don't have the one really strong person and then the romantic interests like leading lady or leading man doesn't measure up. So they're on in sort of an even playing field, to put it in a sports analogy. Yeah. And if you like sort of a Broadway-style number, you definitely get that with The Past, That Peace Pipe and The Varsity Drag. Definitely. The big perspective of Busby Berkeley. Interesting that this was originally going to be directed by Busby Berkeley because the style of that number is very much like some of his early films. Yes, it is. But this director, Charles Walters, I understand this was his directorial debut. So good way to start. If you're interested in seeing this film, it is readily available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, many other streaming services. It's available for free on some platforms like Tubi. And it's also available to purchase on DVD on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and in a beautiful, clear Technicolor recording. So it's approachable in the fact that it looks really good. Good news is all about the fun and romance of college life. But as we've observed many times before, not all classic films are this lighthearted. Join us next time as we talk about a dramatic, intense murder mystery, which could be called a film noir. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.