BEST FOOT FORWARD

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CREDITS

1943, 95 minutes, Technicolor.
Producer, Arthur Freed; Director, Edward Buzzell; Screenplay, Irving Brecher and Fred Finklehoffe; Cinematography, Leonard Smith; Music Direction, Lennie Hayton; Choreography, Charles Walters.

CAST

Lucille Ball, Herself; Jack O'Riley, William Gaxton; Helen Schlessinger, Virginia Weidler; Elwood C. Hooper (Bud), Tommy Dix; Blind Date (Nancy), Nancy Walker; Ethel, June Allyson; Dutch, Kenny Bowers; Minerva, Gloria DeHaven; Hunk, Jack Jordan; Miss Delaware Water Gap, Beverly Tyler; Chester Short, Chill Wills; Major Reeber, Henry O'Neill; Miss Talbert, Sara Haden; Captain Bradd, Donald McBride; Greenie, Bobby Stebbins; Killer, Darwood Kaye; Colonel Harkrider, Morris Ankrum; Mrs. Dalrymple, Nana Bryant; Harry James and His Orchestra.

SONGS

Buckle Down Winsocki; You're Lucky; Wish I May; Three Men On a Date; Ev'ry Time; The Three B's; Alive and Kicking by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane; The Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakoff; Two O'Clock Jump by Count Basie, Harry James and Benny Goodman.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

". . .Lucille Ball plays a movie queen who, to boost her waning popularity, accepts a young cadet's (Tommy Dix) invitation to the Winsocki Military Institute senior prom. Before long the trouble - and the laughs - are under way as Lucy, the cadets, and their eager girlfriends converge on campus for the festivities."
- Liner Notes from MGM/Turner Laserdisc

NOTES

"George Abbott's smash Broadway musical Best Foot Forward came to the screen in Technicolor, compliments of MGM, with most of its youthful exuberance intact, but laboring under a screenplay dogged with longeur."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"A rollicking musical film which pops with hilarious situations, sparkling dialogue and the fresh spirit of youth."
Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

June Allyson and Nancy Walker made their film debuts in this movie.

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