Strictly Dishonorable (1951)

Set in New York in the 1920s, an opera singer (Ezio Pinza) who has a reputation as a womanizer is compromised when he lets a young music student (Janet Leigh) sleep in his apartment although nothing happened between them. To avoid a scandal, they go through a sham marriage. Based on the play by Preston Sturges (previously filmed in 1931) and directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama (WHITE CHRISTMAS). A total stinker! Ezio Pinza had scored a big hit on Broadway in SOUTH PACIFIC and MGM figured that this might translate to movie stardom. He did two movies for MGM of which this is the first released and they both flopped. The camera didn't like Pinza and he wasn't a good actor, on film anyway. He's stiff and it sounds like he's reading his lines phonetically. The film's biggest sin is making the appealing Janet Leigh unappealing! Although set in the 1920s, the costumes and hair are strictly 1951! At a relatively brief 98 minutes, the movie felt like three hours! With Millard Mitchell, Beverly Garland, Gale Robbins, Arthur Franz, Esther Minciotti and Maria Palmer.