There is a reason this is a practically unknown and rarely shown on TV. While there is nothing terribly wrong about this movie, there is also nothing terribly right about it either. It is a throwaway production from start to finish.It succeeds only as modest entertainment. None of the songs are particularly memorable. One song, "The Girl with the Yaller Shoes" is downright annoying. The script is especially weak - even by movie musical standards. It does not serve wither of the leads very well. Dan Daily is about twenty years too old to be playing a "young rancher". Cyd Charisse's character is very cranky and negative at the start of the film. It is very difficult to feel any empathy for characters who have no positive energy. Especially silly is the casting of Agnes Morehead as Mr. Dailey's Mother - even though they are roughly the same age.Fans of modern dance will no doubt enjoy the dance numbers. To my untrained eye they just seemed very dated and out of place.

Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse provide some good chemistry in this 1956 film. Unfortunately, they're a little too old to play the parts of the gambler and ballerina who discover they're meant for each other.In her short appearance as Dailey's mother, Agnes Moorehead's part would have been more suitable to the likes of Marjorie Main. Her booming voice was needed with the scenes on the farm.Charisse dances up a storm and Dailey is given little musical talent, except that he sings very well with a young Japanese child.As her manager, Paul Henried looks so different in color, but maintains the same smoking tradition as he did with Bette Davis, 14 years before, in "Now, Voyager."Cara Williams is able to dance up a storm and really vamps around the stage. Who did the coloring of the hair in the movie? Williams and Moorehead have that same heavy red tint. What kind of henna were they using?Since we're dealing with the Las Vegas night club scene, the appearances of Frankie Laine and Lena Horne are worthwhile. Don't think we don't see Frank Sinatra and Peter Lorre at the slot machines and tables as well.

One of the great blunders committed by MGM was the fact that Cyd Charisse was never cast opposite her husband Tony Martin. Right around this time musicals were winding down, but Tony and Cyd were just getting started on a joint nightclub act that made them a premier attraction around the country for many years.Don't get me wrong, Dan Dailey is a fine performer and he did a good job in the male lead role. But I would love to have seen Tony Martin playing the role of the rancher who gets on a hot winning streak at the Las Vegas casinos after he holds Cyd Charisse's hand. Making matters worse is the fact that Tony Martin does do one of the unbilled cameos in this film.Cyd Charisse has some fine dance numbers, especially the Frankie and Johnny finale where she danced to the famous blues song sung offscreen by Sammy Davis, Jr. Dan Dailey has some good numbers as well, he does a nice soft shoe routine with a young Japanese girl to My Lucky Charm which was earlier sung by Jerry Colonna.The nice thing about this film is the fact that because of the Las Vegas location you can integrate a whole lot of celebrities doing numbers and not have it mess with the story. Lena Horne, Frankie Laine and Jerry Colonna all do some nice musical numbers. Around the casinos one will spot besides Tony Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Peter Lorre, and the man most identified with the Vegas scene shortly, Frank Sinatra.Other members of the cast that have good supporting roles are Jim Backus as the casino manager, Agnes Moorehead as Dailey's mother, and Paul Henreid as Charisse's manager. Some of Henreid's performance seems to be modelled on that of Charisse's first husband Nico, according to the stories Charisse told in her joint memoirs with Tony Martin.Meet Me in Las Vegas is good musical entertainment, but what a blown opportunity not to have had Tony and Cyd as leads in a musical.

MGM, as its glory days began to recede, threw every talent it could gets its hands on into this colorfully tasty little CinemaScope stew. Of course there's the delicious Cyd Charisse, especially leggy in the "Gal with the Yaller Shoes" production number; Cara Williams lending cleverly funny support (Whatever happened to her?); Dan Dailey, a little more engaging than usual; Agnes Moorehead, Jim Backus and Lili Darvas helping Cyd to look like she could act as well as dance; cameos by everyone MGM still had under contract and several others who had escaped or never had labored under that servitude; and a host of performers who help us to remember that one used to go to Las Vegas to see the big-name entertainment in the lounges and showrooms, rather than to gawk at the absurd splendor of the city's extravagantly stupendous hotel/resorts. I assume that the VHS version is (Phooey!) "letterboxed", but I'd add this one to my library if, perchance, they've issued it in a "Deluxe Widescreen Edition"...the ONLY way to fly!