OVP: Meet Me in Las Vegas

Film: Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956)
Stars: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, Jim Backus, Cara Williams, Paul Henreid, Lena Horne
Director: Roy Rowland
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Scoring of a Musical)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Celebrity is a funny thing, particularly when it's one that's rather fleeting.  That was one of the below-the-line aspects of this forgettable musical starring Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse, but it's the one that kept sticking out to me.  The film has a running gag of having nearly a dozen major stars of the era randomly show up in cameo appearances, some of whom are still recognizable (Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds) and some of whom you'd have to have a very keen knowledge of Hollywood to recognize (Pier Angeli, Vic Damone, Elaine Stewart).  All-in-all, it's still a fun game of "guess the star" (which is a game I enjoy in general when channel-surfing over to Turner Classic Movies), which distracts from a pretty mediocre plotline.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is about Chuck (Dailey), a down-on-his-luck professional gambler and Maria (Charisse), a sheltered and prissy ballerina who by circumstance realize that when they hold hands, magical things start to happen.  Suddenly they find that they are insanely wealthy from gambling, and slowly they fall for each other after a night of carousing and gambling (which causes Maria's star to rise as a tabloid sensation).  As they fall in love, though, they start to realize that when you're lucky in love, you're unlucky at the card table, and in the end, after what appeared to be a fairly genuine breakup, they decide to give it a go, melding their two worlds into one.

I will say that there were portions of the film that I liked.  After an insane series of films from the 1950's and 60's where every single woman gives up a promising career for a man, it was refreshing to see that they weren't going to go that route here (half the year would be her career, half would be his), and I was desperately worried that she'd throw away her promising talent to please her man, so this was a most welcome development.  I also loved the dance numbers with Charisse-there's a reason this nabbed an Oscar nomination, as the ballet numbers are like something you can't imagine was caught onscreen; Charisse's impossibly long legs jet across the stage as if motorized.  Absolute precision, absolutely spell-binding, and the two guest numbers by Lena Horne and Frankie Laine (again, two of the many, many, many random celebrity cameos) were wonderful; Laine shows that gusto that would be his trademark and nobody can sing a torch song like Lena Horne.  It's kind of wonderful to see two major singing stars of the 50's unencumbered by screaming crowds or playing a part, just giving us a great musical performance.

The actual musical numbers integral to the plot in the film are much more miss than hit, though.  Dan Dailey's "Yellar Shoes" number is dreadful, and while his cute number with Mitsuko Sawamura is fun, it's more because Sawamura, who was enjoying an odd flash-in-the-pan fame at the time, is so enjoyable (if you'd like, you can see her sing during this same time period with Judy Garland right here).  Overall, though, I would say that it's more the dance direction that Oscar should have paid attention to rather than the scoring.  At least it wasn't a nomination other than the music, though, as the story and acting is just bad-Charisse plays Maria as too prim and Dailey's easy-going charm can't seem to find the cad he's supposed to be in the earlier scenes.

Those are my thoughts on this quiet little musical from the mid-50's-what are yours?  Has anyone seen it?  If not, what do you think of Dailey and Charisse, two major stars of this era?  And how do you think modern celebrity cameo bonanzas onscreen will fare in the future?  Share below!