Rich, Young and Pretty Information

Rich, Young and Pretty is a 1951 musical film produced by Joe Pasternak for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Norman Taurog. It was written by Dorothy Cooper (story) and Sidney Sheldon, starred Jane Powell, Danielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, and Fernando Lamas, The Four Freshmen, and introduced Vic Damone. This was Darrieux's first Hollywood film since 1938's The Rage of Paris.

Plot

Elizabeth (Powell) accompanies her wealthy Texas rancher father (Corey) on a visit to Paris, where her mother (Darrieux) lives; while in Paris, she meets Andre (Damone), an eager young Frenchman. The father tries to keep her from marrying the Frenchman and thus repeating the mistake he made when he married her mother.

Cast

• Jane Powell as Elizabeth Rogers
• Danielle Darrieux as Marie Devarone
• Wendell Corey as Jim Stauton Rogers
• Vic Damone as Andre Milan
• Fernando Lamas as Paul Sarnac
• Marcel Dalio as Claude Duval
• Una Merkel as Glynnie
• Richard Anderson as Bob Lennart
• Jean Murat as Henri Milan
• Hans Conreid as Maître d'Hotel
• Duci deKerekjarto as Gypsy Leader
• George & Katrin Tatar as Hungarian Dancers
• Four Freshmen Quartet as Four Musicians

Songs

MGM promotion for the film emphasized the film's "songs rather than its patter"; Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics and Nicholas Brodszky the music for several songs, including "Wonder Why" (which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song). Other original songs by Cahn and Brodszky include "We Never Talk Much (We Just Sit Around)", "How D'Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning?" and "I Can See You", both of which received radio airplay; "I Can See You" was also a jukebox favorite.

The film also features a "studied going over" of songs such as "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (written by June Hershey and Don Swander), "There's Danger in Your Eyes, Cherie" (written by Jack Maskill, Harry Richman, Pete Wendling) and "Old Piano Roll Blues" (written by Cy Coben).

Reception

Time said the film was "aglow with Technicolor and plush sets" and said it treated a "light cinemusical subject with the butterscotch-caramel sentimentality of the bobby-soxers it is designed to please"; the film "tackles its situations without verve or humor, and handles its lightweight problems as ponderously as if they had been propounded by Ibsen in one of his gloomier moods." Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "pretty as a picture postcard and just about as exciting."