..."Libeled Lady". MGM did lots of this in the 40s and 50s when they were on the way down. Dust off an old script, slap on a few songs, and film the whole thing in Technicolor. And still it is so obviously inferior to the original.
Libeled Lady, from MGM. When wealthy heiress Connie Allenbury (Esther Williams) sues a newspaper for falsely printing that she broke up a marriage, the paper's fast-talking employee Warren Haggerty (Keenan Wynn) comes up with a dubious plan: have reporter Bill Chandler (Van Johnson) quickly marry Haggerty's own fiancee, entertainer Gladys Benton (Lucille Ball), then send Bill to woo Connie in order to get compromising photos of the two so that Gladys can then publicly sue for divorce, thus proving that Connie is indeed a homewrecker. Naturally things don't go as planned as Bill really falls for Connie.
Despite the Technicolor sets and costumes, and an abundance of South of the Border flavor thanks to a Mexican resort setting for much of the film, I found this dull and uninvolved, particularly in comparison to Libeled Lady. This was Williams' first time singing on screen, and she isn't awful, even if none of the songs are memorable. Buster Keaton reportedly directed some scenes, perhaps the slapstick-heavy hunting sequence. One particularly unusual rumor is that Fidel Castro is among the poolside extras in some of the resort scenes.
Libeled Lady, from MGM. When wealthy heiress Connie Allenbury (Esther Williams) sues a newspaper for falsely printing that she broke up a marriage, the paper's fast-talking employee Warren Haggerty (Keenan Wynn) comes up with a dubious plan: have reporter Bill Chandler (Van Johnson) quickly marry Haggerty's own fiancee, entertainer Gladys Benton (Lucille Ball), then send Bill to woo Connie in order to get compromising photos of the two so that Gladys can then publicly sue for divorce, thus proving that Connie is indeed a homewrecker. Naturally things don't go as planned as Bill really falls for Connie.
Despite the Technicolor sets and costumes, and an abundance of South of the Border flavor thanks to a Mexican resort setting for much of the film, I found this dull and uninvolved, particularly in comparison to Libeled Lady. This was Williams' first time singing on screen, and she isn't awful, even if none of the songs are memorable. Buster Keaton reportedly directed some scenes, perhaps the slapstick-heavy hunting sequence. One particularly unusual rumor is that Fidel Castro is among the poolside extras in some of the resort scenes.