dmnemaine I recently saw this musical, and enjoyed it very much. There is only one thing that puzzles me though. First, a little history of "My Sister Eileen". It originated as a series of short stories by Ruth McKenney that eventually was published as a book in 1938. In 1940 the book was adapted as a non-musical play. In 1942, Columbia produced a film version of the play. In 1953, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green wrote the music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical adaptation retitled "Wonderful Town". Then two years later, in 1955, Columbia released this musical version. What puzzles me is that it seems that Columbia completely ignored the hit Broadway show of just two years prior, as if it never existed. It's interesting that they would have Jule Styne and Leo Robin write a completely new score for the film, when the superb Bernstein/Comden & Green score was already there. The Styne/Robin score is very good, but in no way does it compare to "Wonderful Town".

ptb-8 Other comments on this site seem to love this 1955 Columbia musical, but I just didn't. I have an LP of the celebrated stage musical Wonderful Town with Rosalind Russell which is the source material for this film. As with ON THE TOWN (also with Betty Garrett) the studio tossed out almost all the songs and wrote new ones. Unfortunately he new ones weren't better than those deleted... in both cases. Wonderful Town has memorable and lively and wistful songs. EILEEN is a wallflower instead... in every way. Whereas ON THE TOWN succeeds by virtue of stellar MGM cast and other dance talent, MY SISTER EILEEN has non musical talent in the leads (Janet Leigh and Jack Lemmon) with superior talent relegated to the second ranks: Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall. As with Columbia's other 1955 musical travesty THREE FOR THE SHOW which slavishly turned every glorious snazzy Fox Marilyn Monroe musical number into a tubby spandex imitation version with Betty Grable (!) EILEEN clearly visually copies a lot of the set decor and costume design Garland enjoyed in A STAR IS BORN from 1954. Some of Garrett's outfits are copies seen in the famous surreal "Born In A Trunk" number. Finally, the apartment block set is right off the same plan as seen in REAR WINDOW... all as if Columbia clumped together ideas gleaned from those other successful films and like a ball of musical plasticine released their second big cinema scope musical called MY SISTER EILEEN. The male dance leads: Fosse and Rall have one truly sensational acrobatic number together, set in an alley... It is really the highlight of the film. ... On the real downside, Betty Garrett and Leigh are just not believable as sisters. Garrett, as wonderful as she is, just looks too old, like her Aunt instead, a generation ahead of perky Debbie-style Leigh. Beyond all that bewilderment, the characters of the girls are just plain dopey. I get naive, but these two are basically whiny and not very smart. MGM's B musicals ATHENA and I LOVE MELVIN and SMALL TOWN GIRL, all produced the year before are far better than this A grade Columbia attempt. And I love Betty Garrett and Jack Lemmon. A proper musical version of WONDERFUL TOWN awaits us all and if ever produced as written and scored will prove my comments to be hopefully more correct than wrong. I wanted to like this film a lot and was ready to, but the obvious plagiarism of production, the wrong casting and the fact I know the source musical to be excellent, makes Eileen fall over. I will avoid commenting on the goofy embarrassment of Dick York, the butch neighbour with the spunky fiancé, a spin on the horny newly weds across the courtyard in Rear Window.

daventx Where has this film been all these years? What a completely charming piece of entertainment with a nice score by Jule Styne (Gypsy, Funny Girl, Bells Are Ringing). OK, so it's no Singin' In The Rain or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But it's equally as good as a lot of the other lesser MGM musicals of the 1940s and 1950s such as Summer Stock and On The Town. Based on the 1940 play of the same name (Book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov;) Betty Garrett and Janet Leigh are perfect as the Sherwood sisters. They both shine in their performances. And top it off, the film highlights some wonderful choreography by none other than legendary Bob Fosse. His work is, as it always was, stylish and pure class. The only glitch in the casting is that of Jack Lemon. He tries to be a slick, man-of-the-world New York publisher. But his performance just falls a bit short of his usual standards. And sadly there was very little chemistry between Garrett and Lemon, making the blossoming romance of their characters somewhat hard to believe. Still, even with this small weak link in the chain, overall the film really works.It does seem strange that just the year before this film was released, Broadway produced their own musical version of the original 1940 non-musical version of My Sister Eileen, called Wonderful Town (Music by Leonard Berstein; Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green). While Wonderful Town wasn't a huge Broadway smash, it did run 559 performances, which was respectable for 1954. With a musical stage version of the play already existing as a part of the world of musical theater, I tend to wonder why Columbia started from scratch with this film and didn't film the Bernstein, Comdon & Green musical. But still, it's nice to know that there are two different musical versions of this charming play to enjoy.

mokus-1 What if this schlock fifties remake of a decent movie adaptation of a very good musical had had, in addition to Jack Lemmon and Dick York--Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe? The combination would have been a natural.