Review of Love Me, Love My Doll (2007) by J D — 12 Mar 2008

Enjoyable musical with some great numbers like "Rockin' the Boat" and "Luck Be A Lady". Not quite as good as "Singin' In the Rain" or "The Sound of Music" but still full of catchy tunes and toe-tapping dance routines.

It wasn't quite clear why sometimes Nathan Detroit and his gang didn't use contractions and sometimes they did, but all right. The main reasons to watch this are to listen to Sinatra do some crooning and Marlon Brando acting in a musical.

It's the first time that I've seen him in a role where he played a character who wasn't intense or brooding or violent or anything you generally expect when you watch Brando do his thing. There were still a few moments where you waited to watch him punch a window or scream out or something, but nope, he's an affable gambler with a decent singing voice.

If you weren't familiar with his other work, you'd think he was just a kinda serious, friendly guy, nothing like Don Corleone or Stanley Kowalski. Sky Masterson is a great testament to Brando's talent in that he could reign in all the Method and just do some singin' and dancin'.

It was also a bit risque for its time, it seemed to me. The dance number in Havana with the men staring hypnotically at their dance partners' breasts and Adelaide's dance numbers instructing her lover to "pet her" in one and stripping off her clothes and shaking her moneymaker in another, I'm surprised it got past the censors.

Not that I'm complainin'.