She's Back On Broadway (1953)

A film actress (Virginia Mayo) whose career is on the skids returns to her Broadway roots in the hope that it will reactivate her movie career. But the tension between her and her director and former lover (Steve Cochran), who was the man who made her a star, threatens to derail the show. Directed by Gordon Douglas (TONY ROME). Backstage musicals are almost always enjoyable but this undistinguished vehicle's main interest lies not in the songs and production numbers which are, for the most part, weak but in the dramatic narrative. There is an audition sequence for singers and dancers which is fairly amusing if somewhat cruel and that wonderful dancer Gene Nelson is poorly utilized. Patrice Wymore as a dancer in love with Cochran has a good Mardi Gras number but choreographer Leroy Prinz isn't allowed to fully develop the dance numbers. Mayo's hoofing is decent enough to wonder how she would have paired off with Astaire or Kelly. With Frank Lovejoy, Larry Keating, Paul Picerni, Jacqueline DeWit and Kathleen Freeman.