Painting the Clouds With Sunshine

Painting golden clouds

     

May seem old-time now, but once upon a time girls actually went looking for rich men to marry and carry them off to Moneyland. This movie is about one of them, along with two "sisters" who form the artistic if slightly cash-strapped trio, the "Dillon Sisters". However, only one wants financial security. One wants a husband who sings and the last must have one who "makes dancing an art". The trio consists of Virginia Mayo, Lucille Norman and Virginia Gibson. The lucky lads are played by Dennis Morgan, who has a powerful tenor voice, Gene Nelson, probably the best and most athletic dancer to come along since Fred Astaire, and Tom Conway as Gene's stuffed-shirt banker cousin from Boston who wants Gene to marry someone who's been born with a "silver bean" in her mouth, and you have the setting for the story. Throw in S.Z. Sakall as the casino owner and the old desert rat who swears he owns half of the casino and he'll do anything to get it-- even marry Gene off to the singer who's really in love with Dennis Morgan and you get sneaky ideas and laughs. On the plus side, the musical numbers are great, including a mambo dance done on a disco floor twenty years before they were even invented! The ending is a bit week. It's as if someone said. "Okay, you've got to tie these ends together and get the movie off- Screen in fifteen minutes", but they wrapped it up with a Hellderado Hordown, they did. Give it a look and just kick back and let it flow. Have fun!