A good-old little musical. Young Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor are both cute. Donald's roll is like his early Universal movies... A comical and tap dancing failure. Debbie is a little dancer and Donald fell in love with her at second sight. Debbie wants to be famous and Donald convinces her that he can let her be famous by taking her pictures for The Look Magazine... Also I enjoyed the comical scenes by charming Una Merkel. If you love good old 50s, MGM musicals, comedies and little happiness, you'd better watch this!!

I Love Melvin (1953) *** (out of 4) Charming Musical-comedy has Donald O'Connor playing Melvin Hoover, a wannabe photographer for Look magazine and someone who just hasn't caught his break. One day he runs into Judy LeRoy (Debbie Reynolds), a small time and unknown dancer and soon the two make it a mission to get her on the cover.I LOVE MELVIN was released shortly after the huge success of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and we get two of the three stars from that movie. I'm a little surprised that this film doesn't have a bigger following because even though it's not a masterpiece like that movie, it's at least entertaining enough to where more people should know of it. The film runs a rather short 77-minutes and manages to have a rather good story, some fun musical numbers and of course the chemistry between the two stars.The best thing this film has going for it are the performances of both O'Connor and Reynolds. Both of them are perfectly suited for the roles and this is especially true for Reynolds who easily steals the picture. There's no question that her charm is at 100% and she really manages to make you care for her character and you just want to root her on so that she gets the cover. O'Connor is also extremely enjoyable playing that rather silly but charming role that he'd do quite often. The chemistry between the two is top-notch and they really make for a great and fun couple. Una Merkel, Allyn Joslyn and a cameo by Robert Taylor add to the charm.The dance sequences are all pretty good but there's no question that the highlight is the roller skate sequence with O'Connor doing some wonderful tricks. The music numbers are also good but I'd argue that the best one happens rather early when we first see the two stars on the screen. I LOVE MELVIN has a great number of laughs and as I've said the chemistry with the stars makes this very much worth watching.

The singing and dancing are great but after Singin' In the Rain, the year before, it's just too hard to top that with Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor back together again on the big screen.Allyn Joslyn and Una Merkel make the perfect plain parents to Reynolds, who is aspiring for a show business career, and of course there is always the precocious sister who comes along.The plot is average to somewhat below average. O'Connor as Hoover meets Reynolds as Judy in the film and naturally he becomes smitten with her and uses his photography skills to snap a variety of photos for her to accelerate her career and keep an interest in him.

This film is an absolute delight from the pre-credit sequence where Debbie Reynolds writes the title of the film in lipstick on a mirror to the hilarious chase through Central Park at the end. In between Debbie dreams of becoming a Hollywood star in some magnificently staged dream sequences, thanks to the genius of Cedric Gibbons, in one of which she meets Robert Taylor as Robert Taylor! In another sequence she dances with three dancers in Fred Astaire masks and three in Gene Kelly masks - before winning an Oscar! Great stuff.Debbie is perfect as both great movie star and girl next door. Her Broadway performance as a football is a riot. Equally good is Donald O'Connor as her lover and aspiring photographer. His roller-skate sequence is brilliant, as is a dance sequence in which he travels the world and plays numerous characters (again thanks to Gibbons). There is great support from Allyn Joslyn, as Debbie's exasperated father, and from Jim Backus as a crabby photographer. And the little girl has a good song too.The score is jazzy and upbeat, and it's great to see the real Central Park and other New York locations, shot in gorgeous technicolor. I think this terrific musical is very under-rated.