This highly enjoyable sequel to "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (and according to Hollywood legend, the inspiration for "Xanadou") is a colorful musical that gave Rita a chance to escape from the "Gilda" image created the year before. The seemingly haughty goddess Terpsicore goes "down to earth" with "oh-dear" angel Edward Everett Horton at head angel Roland Culver's request to supposedly stop a show about the muses of Mount Ponassus from being ridiculed in the public's eye. There, she takes on the leading role of the show (replacing disgruntled leading lady Adele Jergens) and gives producer Larry Parks a very hard time. When she finds human emotions and falls in love with him, realizing that he has laid his life on the line for this project, she decides to follow his rules and the show goes on. But after opening night, she has to honor her promise to the angels, which finds her emotionally distressed as she goes from being a Broadway diva to an unable to cry muse once again.When Rita Hayworth smiles, men are transfixed by her beauty. Her long ravishing red hair, photographed to the max here, adds to her beauty. She can sing, dance, act, even charm the socks off the director in spite of being out to sabotage him. She wants to make the show "respectable" at first, but allows her emotions to take over her actions later on. Rita was Columbia's jewel in the crown by this time, and no expense was spared to make her a film goddess to rival the Greek one she portrays. Along for the ride are two hold-overs from "Here Comes Mr. Jordan"-EE Horton and agent Max (James Gleason). Mr. Gleason's character is more of a comical buffoon here than he was in the original film, walking through a moving set door at one point and becoming very befuddled by still being inside the theater. Roland Culver replaces Claude Rains as Mr. Jordan, and is acceptable, but no one can truly replace Mr. Rains in talent and on-screen magnetism.Larry Parks ("The Jolson Story") is fine as the love interest, not sounding at all like Al Jolson here when he sings. Marc Platt, already a well-respected Broadway hoofer, does a fine job in the dance sequences, but in his conflict backstage with Hayworth, there is never any doubt who would come out the victor if Hayworth hadn't agreed to change her plans. He comes off more as an annoying sidekick to Parks due to his stiff acting. As for the musical numbers, the lyrics aren't always the greatest, even though the bad lyrics of the opening song, "For instance take a chick like me, they call me Terpsiquore", are meant to be parody. The bigamy song is probably the worst number, but "People Have More Fun" (set in New York's Gramercy Park) is fun, and "Let's Stay Young Forever" is very pretty. Look for William Frawley of "I Love Lucy" as the investigator questioning Gleason. While not as good as the two other big color musicals that year ("Mother Wore Tights" and "Good News"), it isn't as bad as critics wrote. I've seen it over 10 times in the past 30 years and enjoy it more than a lot of movies I saw as a child, then re-visited several times as an adult.PS-Anybody know where I can get a copy of the song they mention, "Who hit Nellie in the belly with a flounder?"

The quote probably sums up this musical the best. I was looking at Turner Classic Movies and this was on and I didn't know that Xanadu was a remake of this idea though one of the actors states, "I had butterflies in my stomach before, but now they are on roller skates" in a strange prophetic vision to what was to come for this movie.The story is about the same. Muse comes to Earth via a helper, which is odd to me because if she was a Muse and didn't like a play I would assume that she would tell Papa Zeus and he would let the thunderbolts rain down on the production and that would be that. I do like that Terpsichore says Dionysus is her dad (which actually makes sense if you think of Dionysus' pleasure loving characteristics if not true by the book). It was a little hard for me to get past that fact that Terpischore was seen as the Muse of theater and dance, because a couple of the other Muses were theater inspirations too (Thalia, Melpomene,Calliope) but this is nitpicking because I like the myths. The musical portrays that Americans like jazz and hot dogs, while mythology (or old European culture) makes them snore, so the musical director makes a musical where the Muses act like trollops. This leads to some interestingly progressive numbers, like one where the Goddess says she is going to marry two men, then four. I thought this woman-as- bigamist as kind of a cool idea, but one I wouldn't expect in a 40's musical with its standard treating of women. It is hard for me to understand why a Muse needs to not only rely to men, but also a pilot that I guess would be sort of a St. Peter to get her down to Earth (used the title of the movie here, ha) when Gods in mythology could come down whenever they wanted to. They needed no guides. Thought it is interesting to think of a heavenly place where the Gods of the Ancients co-mingle with Christian theology. It is probably another progressive idea that should be explored more since I think Christianity got its idea of heaven from the Greek Gods living on Mt. Olympus. Anyway, as far as musicals go, this one is fine by me. It would probably help if you like Rita Hayworth and/or Greek mythology. The songs are adequate enough, some are better than others to me, like the opening and the great Greco-Roman Reconstructionist middle where the Muse takes us back to a more ritualistic "high brow" time. Then other numbers are not as great like the ending "people are the best" song with people dancing on a playground or even the "Kiss of the Muse" song. Overall, I can see why this was made into Xanadu, because it is sort of a diamond in the rough and in its remake, we got a version with a lot better songs, some of those were big hits. Of course, that was grade A cheese too. I grew up in the 70's and 80's, so I was all into it when I was a kid and there was a movie about a muse coming to Earth. So now, I am also into this lost gem of a movie.

As many others have already said, this poor attempt at a musical is painful to watch, like a train wreck, you know its awful but you can't look away. Gorgeous Technicolor & big stars could not save this film from the inelegant choreography, weak & clumsy dialogue, and ill-conceived musical numbers. The songs are awkward and there is not one with a tune anyone can remember, much less hum along with. In the transitional five years between the war years of the early forties and the optimistic dawn of the fifties, this film falls short as though the writers had no direction, no target audience, no message to convey. It's a bit of fluff with a big budget but small ideas.In the finale, Rita energetically climbs and flings herself around the set like a rag doll on a string, all the while singing about having fun. But she looks like a manic, insane person, she has no idea where she is going next. It doesn't look like fun at all!The direction seemed amateurish, instead of wider shots of the dance group during the opening night of the play, the camera wanders around the confusing scene, often becoming filled with a bewildering mass of arms. I kept worrying that the live flames of the torches being waved around would catch in the billowing costumes & I wondered if they'd had any injuries during the filming. And on a purely superficial note, the choice to lighten Rita's signature bright red hair and smoky eyes gave her a pale, insipid look that did nothing to reinforce her presence on the screen.Too bad this film didn't have more scenes like the one where Terpsichore pleads with Mr. Jordan to let her stay on Earth. Rita was classic when she could cry on the screen. She was a much better serious actress than a comic one.

I was very surprised to have stumbled on Down To Earth on early morning television as I was recently having a discussion on Terpsichore (really!).Anyway, it is a darned pretty film to look at for the Technicolour and Rita Hayworth alone, but it was so sad to see her so wasted on hideously mediocre musical numbers. The costumes and the sets were lovely and her fabulous red hair never looked better! What was so bizarre was this musical sequence she sings about wanting to marry two men -- who are more than eager to comply! Just watching the dancing steps of the two grooms made me uncomfortable.Having this film based on an all-time classic was another huge error but bringing back Edward Everett Horton was the right move! He is always exceptional in his little character roles...