7/10
Perfectly enjoyable. Certainly not any worse than any number of other MGM musicals no one remembers
21 February 2010
MGM musical starring Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson. Sinatra plays the son of a businessman who had a secret identity as the Kissing Bandit in California. When his father dies, Sinatra moves from Boston to California to take over the business - and the Kissing Bandit identity. The problem? He's kind of a wuss. During his first raid, he's too afraid to kiss Kathryn Grayson, the daughter of the governor, which causes her to seethe with jealousy. The Kissing Bandit has an awfully low IMDb rating at 4.7, but I didn't think it was that bad. It's certainly no worse than a good chunk of MGM musicals made around the same time. Sure, we could wish it were better, but it's cute enough, funny enough and it has some pretty good songs. Grayson is absolutely adorable in it. The film also includes Cyd Charisse, in what might be her lousiest dance sequence ever (obviously the choreographer's fault) with a whip to charm Sinatra, and Ann Miller and Ricardo Montelbahn (along with another uncredited dancer) share a fine dance as "fiesta specialty dancers".
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