Film Snail

One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus

7.3

One Touch of Venus

NR·1955·79m

Summary

While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.

Crew

Director, Adaptation

George Schaefer

Adaptation

John Gerstad

Lyricist, Theatre Play

Ogden Nash

Novel

F. Anstey

Theatre Play

S.J. Perelman

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

November 14, 2022

6

This is probably most notable as an example of a televised live performance. Neither the story nor the cast deliver anything particularly scintillating, otherwise. The story is quite fun: "Rodney" (Russell Nype) tries out his soon-to-be-fiancée's engagement ring on a statue of Venus. She (Janet Blair) promptly comes alive and decides to get shot of the girlfriend and claim him for herself. Blair is actually OK, but the rest of this hasn't really stood the test of time so well. Clearly the actors are under lot of pressure by the nature of the presentation, and so the performances - especially the singing - are really quite stilted and wooden. The stars way too worried about fluffing their lines, missing their cues etc. - and unlike the theatrical performers, seemed to have nowhere near enough confidence to make this other than a tough watch for us viewers. Worth a watch because of it's innovative nature but not much more.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

jealousy
live broadcast
live television
broadway musical
engagement ring
roman mythology
venus the goddess
tv special