Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos. Melvin wants to marry Judy, but her father would rather she marry dull and dependable Harry Black. As a last resort, Melvin promises to get Judy's photo on the cover of the next issue of Look, a task easier said than done.
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Yes, "I Love Melvin" is formula, but sometimes formula provides nutrition. If indeed that is true, then the cast of this pleasing musical comedy is overdosing on nutrients. Donald O'Connor plays a Look Magazine Employee, assistant to photographer Jim Backus, who longs to make the grade and cease running errands for his boss. He takes pictures of rising Broadway ingénue Debbie Reynolds whom he slowly falls in love with in spite of the fact that her father (Allyn Joslyn) is trying to push her together with the boringly handsome Richard Anderson. But O'Connor tries to win over pop Joslyn and mama Una Merkel's affections by presenting a fake cover of "Look" with Reynolds on the cover. How will he explain when "Philly of the Month" ends up being a prizefighter? There are more musical numbers in this that actually seem to be moving the plot along than "drop-ins" or on-stage numbers, although Reynolds humorously portrays a football in one, her Broadway show which appears to be the "Good News" of its day. She also has two dream sequences where she's a movie star (I guess a Broadway one isn't big enough in MGM's eyes) including one where she resembles Ginger Rogers while dancing with several men in hideous Fred Astaire masks. They are delightful spoofs of the Hollywood image, and the over-the-top grotesqueness is appropriate. Impish Donna Corcoran playfully sings a delightful ditty, "Life Has Its Funny Little Ups and Down", which O'Connor does a roller skate dance to that just about equals his "Make Em' Laugh" in the previous year's "Singin' in the Rain". Then, he has his big solo, "I Wanna Wander", during which you'll expect him to pass out from due to exhaustion. In typical MGM fashion, all ends happy (as MGM musicals should) and smiles are guaranteed.
Delightful follow-up to "Singing in the Rain" (minus Gene Kelly, which is fine with me), "I Love Melvin" is a snappy(76 minutes), tuneful Technicolored treat with one show-stopping musical number after another. A serviceable plot (Donald O'Connor plays a free-lance photographer who becomes so enamored with aspiring singer/dancer Debbie Reynolds that he promises he'll get her the cover of Look Magazine) provides a nifty frame for a series of first-rate, beautifully choreographed musical numbers that make one wonder why this terrific little MGM gem has been overlooked. The music is sensational (thank you, Joseph Myrow), the evocation of the Manhattan setting is a visual delight (MGM actually went on location for a few scenes--watching Ms. Reynolds walk across Central Park South is a time-capsule come to life.) And O'Connor and Ms. Reynolds have probably tbe best displays of their singing & dancing talents in their entire careers (their frenetic "Where Did You Learn to Dance?" is a knockout; O'Connor's solo "I Want to Wander" is a classic; and Debbie's opening dream number, "The Lady Loves," wherein she is attired in slithering pink as she delivers the sultry lyrics, hint at the dreamy sexiness she was allowed to exude in future films.) MGM produced so many classic musicals in the early 1950s that "I Love Melvin" has been unjustly neglected. Too bad, because it's a sparkling, melodious, toe-tapping treat that ranks among MGM's finest and is long-overdue for the accolades it deserves.
Donald O'Connor should be revered as the musicals god he was (and still very probably could be). "I Love Melvin" should be considered a classic, right up with the rest of the musicals. I guess life really isn't fair, lol.As cute as they come, and with Debbie Reynolds, to boot!
This film is an absolute delight from the pre-credit sequence where Debbie Reynolds writes the title of the film in lipstick on a mirror to the hilarious chase through Central Park at the end. In between Debbie dreams of becoming a Hollywood star in some magnificently staged dream sequences, thanks to the genius of Cedric Gibbons, in one of which she meets Robert Taylor as Robert Taylor! In another sequence she dances with three dancers in Fred Astaire masks and three in Gene Kelly masks - before winning an Oscar! Great stuff.Debbie is perfect as both great movie star and girl next door. Her Broadway performance as a football is a riot. Equally good is Donald O'Connor as her lover and aspiring photographer. His roller-skate sequence is brilliant, as is a dance sequence in which he travels the world and plays numerous characters (again thanks to Gibbons). There is great support from Allyn Joslyn, as Debbie's exasperated father, and from Jim Backus as a crabby photographer. And the little girl has a good song too.The score is jazzy and upbeat, and it's great to see the real Central Park and other New York locations, shot in gorgeous technicolor. I think this terrific musical is very under-rated.