sisbarrolouis The chance of waking up at six AM in a semi semiconscious state, flipping on my T.V. and seeing the 1947 film GOOD NEWS, well was such a wonderful surprise. The film of a fantasy life on a college campus sparked me into awaking on a happy positive note. Zany,yes Colorful,yes Lighthearted,yes ESCAPE,yes into a world that seem be be removed from our modern day world. Why shouldn't a Film, Broadway play allow you to slide back into a more comfortable Time and Place? Look theater and the film industry's job is to give us all a place to regenerate our joys and outlook of life. Some how the current films main purpose seems too be,to hang a dark cloud over the populous, retreat into the sanctuary of our home. Times are a changing! and bad in now good. Someone with Intelligence and Knowledge should pick up the script of GOOD NEWS! and run like deer to Broadway in good old N.Y.C. and get this gem on stage. The American public is ripe for some good,happy toe taping fun. I want to leave a theater and feel there is still hope for the human race.....Isn't that what entertaining is all about? But of course the non talented producers seem to not understand the needs of a American Renaissance. Is there something wrong leaving a theater with a smile on your face and a song in your heart". Or is that too plebeian? Lou Sisbarro

jeffhaller125 I know of no other movie musical that feels so much like I am watching a Broadway show. Just one great number right after another and they all have something to do with the story or characters. And just think of all the history behind those actors. June? Well, there never was a role she was better suited for and she gives it an enthusiasm no one else could have. Peter? Miscast? Yup, but this isn't Shakespeare and he is so sweet. McCracken? What a shame there is so little of this talent on screen. I remember first seeing this movie when I was a teenager. 40 years later it is better. Now I can appreciate the broad comedy and it is amazing to see how tender it can be. Why they didn't extend the design into 1920s hairstyles for the women I can't understand,but the movie looks great. The DVD I just saw must have been remastered; the colors were brilliant. For some of us this is MGM's best. Certainly its most honest and least pretentious. What a peek into a world that is gone and will never come back. Such innocence.

wes-connors At TAIT University, students more interested in each other, and football, than they are in learning French (does that sound dated?). June Allyson (she's Connie) and Peter Lawford (he's Tommy) are the focus of attention. She's the nice librarian interested in the star football player; he, understandably, attracts the school's most desirable women. Does a plain librarian have a chance to win the star football player? The screenplay, direction, choreography, and songs all hit the mark in "Good News". Ms. Allyson and Mr. Lawford are an unlikely duo to head the cast, but they turn in engaging performances. Allyson and Lawford mix just the right amount of awkward charm and graceful professionalism to bring the story alive; it's something rare in musicals of this type. The supporting cast members compliment the leads well.Allyson is at her very best - from her introduction "under the sink" to her careful dropping of book after book during a later scene, she is marvelous. With her character doing double duty as the college librarian, her role of student is believable, despite being relatively older. Lawford is not known as a singer/dancer, but his performance is as charming. Watch how he: studies French, passes a hairbrush to his coach, jumps over a fire hydrant, and puts a handkerchief in his pocket - the quick succession of bits is well-done and subjectively defines the Lawford character. The film is full of little things the characters and director (Charles Walters) do to fill out the movie without increasing its running time.Of the great supporting cast, Joan McCracken is certainly the most valuable. Her "Pass that Peace Pipe" with Ray McDonald (another outstanding performance) is a soundtrack highlight. It's "political incorrectness" really doesn't hold up, in context. Of the mature players, Jane Green is just delightful - note the scene with Allyson and Connie Gilchrist (Mrs. Drexel); it's when Allyson give the older woman a "script" to "play-act", explaining how Tommy's family has lost its fortune in Pickles due to the great Cucumber Blight. The supposed "error" in placing the film in the 1920s with most of it looking like the 1940s actually HELPS. I would have titled the movie "The Best Things in Life Are Free", though, and re-recorded the vocals on the finale. Still, "Good News" is an example of this type of film at its graceful, exuberant best. ********* Good News (12/4/47) Charles Walters ~ June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Ray McDonald

tavm Good News is one of the most underrated MGM musicals from the '40s I've ever seen from that era. While leads June Allyson and Peter Lawford are no Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (who ironically, were the original considered leads for this movie version years ago), they sing and dance entertainingly enough for one to not notice after a while. Another underrated talent showcased here is one Joan McCracken who shines in the opening number and the later made-for-film specialty "Pass That Peace Pipe", which was eventually nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. And dig the "Velvet Fog" Mel Torme in his younger days crooning here! Excellent debut for director Charles Walters and screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green makes this one of the most spectacular musical comedies I've seen yet! P.S. Among the extras on the DVD are two numbers from the 1930 film version of Good News, the title number and "The Varsity Drag", both performed energetically and athletically by a young woman named Dorothy McNulty, later to be known as Penny Singleton from the Blondie movies. All of the above are well worth checking out!