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Rich, Young and Pretty

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Rich, Young and Pretty
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Taurog
Screenplay byDorothy Cooper
Sidney Sheldon
Story byDorothy Cooper
Produced byJoe Pasternak
StarringJane Powell
Danielle Darrieux
Wendell Corey
Fernando Lamas
Marcel Dalio
Una Merkel
Richard Anderson
Jean Murat
Vic Damone
CinematographyRobert H. Planck
Edited byGene Ruggiero
Music bySammy Cahn (lyrics)
Nicholas Brodszky (music)[1]
Production
company
Distributed byLoew's, Inc.[2]
Release dates
  • July 24, 1951 (1951-07-24) (New York City)
  • August 3, 1951 (1951-08-03) (U.S.)[2]
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,528,000[3]
Box office$2,999,000[3]

Rich, Young and Pretty is a 1951 American musical comedy film produced by Joe Pasternak for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Norman Taurog. Written by Dorothy Cooper and adapted as a screenplay by Cooper and Sidney Sheldon, it stars Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, and Fernando Lamas, features The Four Freshmen, and introduces Vic Damone. This was Darrieux's first Hollywood film since The Rage of Paris (1938).[4]

Plot

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Elizabeth (Jane Powell) accompanies her wealthy Texan rancher father (Wendell Corey) on a visit to Paris, where her mother (Danielle Darrieux) lives. In Paris, she meets Andre (Vic Damone), an eager young Frenchman. The father tries to keep her from marrying the Frenchman and avoid the mistake he made when he married her mother.

Cast

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Jane Powell

Songs

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MGM promotion for the film emphasized the film's "songs rather than its patter";[1] Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics and Nicholas Brodszky the music for several songs, including

Other original songs by Cahn and Brodszky include

  • "We Never Talk Much (We Just Sit Around)",
  • "How D'Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning?" and
  • "I Can See You", both of which received radio airplay; "I Can See You" was also a jukebox favorite.[1]

The film also features a "studied going over"[1] of songs such as

Reception

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Box office

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According to MGM records, the film made $1,935,000 in the US and Canada and $1,064,000 elsewhere, making a profit of $54,000.[3]

Critical reception

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Time said the film was "aglow with Technicolor and plush sets" and said it treated a "light cinemusical subject with the butterscotch-caramel sentimentality of the bobby-soxers it is designed to please"; the film "tackles its situations without verve or humor, and handles its lightweight problems as ponderously as if they had been propounded by Ibsen in one of his gloomier moods."[4] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "pretty as a picture postcard and just about as exciting."[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Bosley Crowther (1951-07-26). "Two Newcomers on the Local Scene". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b Rich, Young and Pretty at the TCM Movie Database
  3. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study
  4. ^ a b "Also Showing". Time. 1951-08-20. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012.
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