One Touch of Venus (1948)

Directed by

William A. Seiter

Genre

fantasy film, musical film, romantic comedy

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 22m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 37 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A department store window dresser kisses a statue of Venus and she comes to life. The goddess falls in love with him and causes romantic chaos.

whimsicallightheartedplayfuldreamydatedromanticmusical

What happens

One Touch of Venus is a 1948 American black-and-white romantic musical comedy film starring Robert Walker, Ava Gardner, Dick Haymes, and Eve Arden. Directed by William A. Seiter, the Universal-International release was based on the 1943 Broadway musical of the same name, book written by S. J. Perelman and Ogden Nash, with music composed by Kurt Weill (lyrics by Nash). However, the film omits most of Weill's music. The actors did their own singing, except for Ava Gardner (Venus) whose singing was dubbed by Eileen Wilson. The plot is from an original 1885 novella by Thomas Anstey Guthrie. In 1945, Mary Pickford announced that she would produce a film version of this musical with the Broadway cast, including Mary Martin, filmed in Technicolor, directed by Gregory La Cava, and released by United Artists. However, Martin became pregnant and Pickford sold the rights to Lester Cowan at Universal in August 1947. Ann Ronell, Cowan's wife, wrote the additional music that replaced much of Weill's material. It was later loosely remade into Goddess of Love (1988). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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