Good News

1947 June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshall 93 min.

Connie Lane (Allyson) is a student and librarian at fictional Tait College in the Roaring Twenties. She, like all the girls, has a crush on football captain Tommy Marlowe. Tommy, however, only has eyes for Connie's new sorority sister, Pat McClellan (Marshall). Unimpressed with Tommy's clowning at a sorority party, Pat sets her sights on someone with more wealth--of culture, that is. Pat's insult, in French, sends Tommy to the school library in search of the definition, where he meets Connie and gets an impromptu French lesson. All of Tommy's subsequent efforts to woo Pat with his French fail, so he asks Connie to go to the prom with him.

Things get complicated when Connie's friend Babe Doolittle (McCracken) steps in. Babe, in order to improve Tommy's state of mind in time for the big football game, convinces Pat that he's richer than her current boyfriend. Gold-digger Pat wheedles a prom invitation from Tommy, who has temporarily forgotten about Connie. Meanwhile, Babe finds out too late that Connie has fallen hard for the football star.

Tommy's grades slip after he begins dating Pat, and soon, a failing grade in French threatens his spot on the team. Connie is pressed into service as his tutor, knowing that when he passes his exam, and helps Tait win the next football game, he and Pat will announce their engagement.

June Allyson and Peter Lawford didn't have the singing or dancing chops of Judy Garland and Howard Keel, Vera-Ellen or Donald O'Connor, but they do a good job, and stay on key. This movie is a happy, light-hearted escape from real life; it's unfair to expect much more from that in any musical. The score is filled with catchy songs, and "Pass that Peace Pipe" was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. The screenplay is by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, probably best known for 1952's Singin' In the Rain.

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