One Touch of Venus (1955)
Overview
While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.
Cast
Janet Blair
Venus
Russell Nype
Rodney Hatch
George Gaynes
Whitelaw Savory
Iggie Wolfington
Stanley
Val Avery
Bus Starter
Arny Freeman
Anatolian
Louis Nye
Dr. Rook
Georgia Simmons
Mrs. Moats
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CinemaSerf
This is probably most notable as an example of a televised live performance. Neither the story nor the cast deliver anything particularly scintillating, otherwise. The story is quite fun: "Rodney" (Russell Nype) tries out his soon-to-be-fiancée's engagement ring on a statue of Venus. She (Janet Blair) promptly comes alive and decides to get shot of the girlfriend and claim him for herself. Blair is actually OK, but the rest of this hasn't really stood the test of time so well. Clearly the actors are under lot of pressure by the nature of the presentation, and so the performances - especially the singing - are really quite stilted and wooden. The stars way too worried about fluffing their lines, missing their cues etc. - and unlike the theatrical performers, seemed to have nowhere near enough confidence to make this other than a tough watch for us viewers. Worth a watch because of it's innovative nature but not much more.
