Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Steven Torrey
The performers do not sing Cole Porter the way the best of singers can sing Cole Porter. Doris Day in "Lullaby of Broadway" sings "Just one of those things" wearing a tuxedo in a way that outshines Maurice Chevalier. Bob Hope singing "You do something to me" excels in a way that Louis Jordan cannot. Frank Sinatra and Shirley McClain singing "Let's do it" ends up as tepid as it gets as compared to almost anyone else's rendition. That these are all masters of the singer's craft makes for an astounding realization--the knack for singing a Cole Porter song is not for everyone or for every vehicle. One wonders how other singers handle interpretation of these songs in the same play. The movie was disappointing because the performances were disappointing.
theowinthrop
After his greatest stage success (KISS ME KATE) Cole Porter entered the last decade and a half of his life with a track record of hit and miss musicals. It was not that he lost his abilities to compose great songs. It was that not everything he touched turned to gold.The "gold" of this decade was his music for SILK STOCKINGS (his version of NINOTCHKA) and his musical CAN-CAN. His misses included OUT OF THIS WORLD, his attempt at a modern retelling of the Amphitryon myth from Greece. OUT OF THIS WORLD has entered the history of Broadway as a potentially great musical that was too advanced for its period. Apparently much of the musical involved homosexual as well as heterosexual sex (in keeping with ancient Greek culture both forms of love were acceptable). Unfortunately they were not acceptable in 1950 New York City (and one may add in 2008 California and elsewhere). Only one number from OUT OF THIS WORLD survived: FROM THIS MOMENT ON. It got grafted into the film version of KISS ME KATE.It is a tradition that none of Porter's scores survived totally intact in Hollywood. Songs were dropped from films or pushed into others. So CAN-CAN has Let's Do It in the film score, although it was not in the musical (it was over thirty years old by that time), and yet I LOVE Paris, Porter's greatest anthem to the foreign city he adored above all others, was dropped from the film. Still there is enough Porter in this film to appreciate his best work. And as was said in another review, Sinatra's singing "But It's All Right With Me" to Juliet Prowse happens to be quite the best moment for old "Blue Eyes" in the film.The film tried to capitalize on the success (two years before) of GIGI, by reuniting Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jourdan from that film with Sinatra, and fellow rat-packers Shirley MacLaine and Prowse. Set again in the France of the 1890s, here we are not watching a young girl blossom into womanhood and win the man of her dreams, but we are watching the sleazier theatrical world of the day in the Montmartre District*. For MacLaine runs a dance hall/bar that has the town in a tizzy due to the dancing of the "forbidden" can-can by the dance hall girls. MacLaine's partner is her lawyer (and lover) Sinatra. When a bunch of reformers cause a raid on the dance hall, they just miss arresting Sinatra, MacLaine, and a corrupt (or friendly) jurist played by Chevalier. MacLaine has to appear in court, and the judge there is Jourdan, who is known to be incorruptible. He is, but he falls for MacLaine. It enables Sinatra to beat the legal attack temporarily, but it leaves MacLaine with a lovesick Jourdan to worry about.(*GIGI is not the only recent film that has an influence on CAN-CAN. The Montmartre area is where Toulouse - Lautrec and other painters of that period resided. The color of Huston's MOULIN ROUGE (1953) and the background of the cabarets Toulouse - Lautrec went to is evident in the film too. However, there even is a little joke (no pun intended). While singing the opening song "Montmartre", Sinatra is in the street, and passes Toulouse - Lautrec holding one of his canvasses. Toulouse - Lautrec shows it to Sinatra, who looks at it, and says, "It'll never sell!")The film follows MacLaine trying to get a commitment from Sinatra that will make their sexual relationship permanent, but he is too independent. So she is slowly finding the interest of Jourdan a kind of refreshing alternative (although she does suspect it just cannot work). Chevalier is pleased to see this troublesomely honest protégé of his somewhat corrupted so that he won't interfere with the business at the dance hall, but he realizes that Jourdan is serious enough to consider marrying MacLaine, and ruining his career. Their duet ("Your Business is Your Business, and My Business is Mine.") is not one of the best recalled Porter tunes, but it is a bouncy enough one, and it certainly illustrates Chevalier's realization that what was previously a useful slip by Jourdan is now totally out of hand.The conclusion of the film is set in the dance hall, where the puritan critics are given a demonstration of the sinful dance, and discover it has a charm and excitement they had not expected. The dance sequence at the end was the only time that MacLaine (a pretty affective dancer before she became an actress) shared film dance time with Prowse. Juliet Prowse was a mediocre actress at best (see my review of MONA MCCLUSKY, her attempt at a sit com), but she was a first rate dancer, and the production number of her and MacLaine leading the Can-Can is quite memorable. The number is a fine way to end the film, and also for it to enter diplomatic history. As pointed out elsewhere on this thread, Khrustchev was touring Hollywood when they were shooting Can-Can, and watched the dance number being shot. He did condemn the film as proof of the decadence of the west. However, that did not prevent him from having his photo taken with Sinatra and MacLaine. I guess there is decadence and there is decadence.
drednm
Interminable film version of the hit Broadway musical, Can-Can is as flat as the fake champagne they drink in scene after scene. Even the several Cole Porter standards come off as boring, slow dirges.Frank Sinatra walks thru his part of the playboy lawyer who at one points opines "Ring a Ding Ding," in 1896 Paris yet. Shirley MacLaine is shrill and gives a lousy performance. Louis Jourdan (a dead fish as usual) and smug Maurice Chevalier sing a dreadful song, "Your Business is Your Business" TWICE. Juliet Prowse is a so-so dancer and lousy actress.So the question is WHY was this a hit on Broadway? The set designs here are terrible and defeat the good costumes. The direction is bad because this should NOT have been allowed to go on for 131 minutes.Even the big production number with MacLaine as Eve and Prowse as the serpent is okay at best. MacLaine's outfit was shocking in 1960 but not now. Endless scenes of talking in offices, court rooms, etc. TALK TALK TALK and no humor or wit---just TALK.And this is the musical that made Gwen Verdon a star? This ranks as one of the WORST film musicals I've ever seen.
jogrant
**SPOILER** This is a cute story that is well produced and acted. There are some very good numbers worth watching and the treatment of Paris by Americans is always amusing.However, the ending is a huge disappointment as it doesn't follow from the characters' evolution through the film; rather it falls back on the idea that Mr. Sinatra had to be the one who got the girl. Perhaps Frank was just tired of filming that day and wanted to wrap it up. In any case, the ending reinforces an idea that even in the 60's was anachronistic (a girl from the slum will only be happy or comfortable with a guy from the slum) and which today is certainly a big obstacle to enjoying the film entirely.
