Small Town Girl

1953

Musical / Romance

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 13% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 13%
IMDb Rating 6.3/10 10 980 980

new york city musical broadway

Plot summary

Rick Belrow Livingston, in love with Broadway star Lisa, is sentenced to 30 days in jail for speeding through a small town. He persuades the judge's daughter Cindy to let him leave for one night, so that he can visit Lisa on her birthday. After that he goes on the town with Cindy and she falls in love with him. But Dr. Schemmer wants his son to become her husband.

Director

László Kardos Photo
László Kardos

Top cast

William Campbell Photo
William Campbell as Ted
Fay Wray Photo
Fay Wray as Mrs. Gordon Kimbell
Chill Wills Photo
Chill Wills as Happy
Robert Hyatt Photo
Robert Hyatt as Dennis
480p.DVD
825.25 MB
640*480
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 33 min
Seeds 88

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Isaac5855 7 / 10

Another entertaining entry from the Golden Age of MGM

SMALL TOWN GIRL was a 1953 musical from the MGM stable about a rich playboy (Farley Granger) who gets arrested for driving too fast through a small town and falls for the sheriff's pretty young daughter (Jane Powell). Nothing really special here, Granger and Powell are charming enough, but this film will always standout in my mind because of two musical numbers performed by supporting players Ann Miller and Bobby Van. Both of these numbers would later be featured in different installments of THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. "You Gotta Hear that Beat" was a sizzling production number featuring Ann Miller dancing amongst a disembodied orchestra where you only see the arms/hands of the orchestra playing various instruments. The second number "Take Me To Broadway" featured Van as a human pogo stick, bouncing his way all over town, greeting people and interacting with people and places in town, but he never stops hopping. It's just an amazing number and because of these two musical highlights, SMALL TOWN GIRL is a film I will always remember.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 6 / 10

The Virtues of the Small Town

Jane Powell gets to try a role first done by Janet Gaynor in a musical remake of Small Town Girl. Though she has top billing the best numbers in the film are given to Bobby Van and Ann Miller.Playboy Farley Granger goes whizzing through Jane's small town and interrupts the church service. The cops clock Farley at 85 miles an hour and he's arrested and hauled before Judge Robert Keith. Farley's passenger is fiancé and musical comedy star Ann Miller. They're in a big rush to elope. As it turns out the Judge is Jane's father and Farley's attitude earns him 30 days in the joint. Jane also has a boyfriend in Bobby Van, the son of the local department store owner, S.Z. Sakall. Of course she takes one look at handsome Farley and she shifts her romantic gears.The big number that everyone remembers from Small Town Girl is Take Me to Broadway where Bobby Van acts like a human pogo going through the entire town or at least one very big MGM soundstage. The original film had James Stewart in Van's part and was considerably smaller.Robert Taylor was in Farley Granger's part and wasn't quite as haughty or arrogant as Granger plays it here. Yet in both cases you can see why the small town girl thought Prince Charming arrived.Small Town Girl is not the best MGM musical done, nor is it the best of Jane Powell's films for MGM. But it's entertaining enough.
Reviewed by imdbfilmcricket 7 / 10

Worth watching, for Nat "King" Cole, if nothing else

Small Town Girl is cute, fluffy and moderately entertaining. It tells the story of a handsome rich young man (Farley Granger) and the titular daughter of the small town judge who sentences him to 30 days in jail for speeding. Antics ensue.There is much singing and dancing and Bobby Van has a long scene where he hops through town -- even with two or three cuts, it's still a whole lot of hopping!What made me sit up and take notice, though, was Nat "King" Cole's number, set in a New York nightclub. It makes the film definitely worth watching, even worth buying.
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