XhcnoirX Korea vet and aspiring drummer Mickey Rooney ('Quicksand') gets driven off the road by suave racketeer James Craig ('While The City Sleeps'). To compensate, Craig gives Rooney a job in his bookmaker's room. When the police bust in to the business, Rooney manages to escape and hitches a ride with Sally Forrest ('Mystery Street'), who works at a nightclub owned by William Demarest ('Night Has A Thousand Eyes'). Rooney pays the nightclub a visit and before he knows it, he's switched jobs from the bookie room to the drum kit and has fallen hard for Forrest. Forrest wants a movie career however, so Rooney introduces her to Craig, who has some contacts. But Craig isn't interested in helping Forrest, he just sees another pretty girl to add to his list of conquests. When Rooney confronts Craig about this things quickly fall apart, leading to Craig getting killed, and Forrest nearly dead, and Rooney as the prime suspect...Told in flashback, the movie starts with the discovery of Forrest barely alive on her apartment floor, and during the investigation, the discovery of Craig's body and a gun. Rooney is brought in for interrogation, and he tells his side of the story in flashback. It all sounds like pure noir, until you see the movie, which is also in many ways a musical. Artists and musicians like Louis Armstrong, Vic Damone and Jack Teagarden are given plenty of time to play their music and sing their songs, as a large part of the movie plays out in nightclubs. In fact, one of the songs (sung by hatcheck girl Kay Brown) got the movie an Oscar nomination. Thankfully, unlike some noirs where musical interludes slow down the story, it works rather well here. And seeing Rooney and Forrest showing off their drumming and dancing skills respectively was way more fun than I expected, impressive stuff.But a noir it still is, trust me. People use people and through the flashback structure, there is always tension under the surface as (part of) the outcome is already known to the viewer. And it has a bleak, downbeat, even ironic, ending that firmly establishes this as a noir. Performances are great across the board, helped by the well- written characters and dialogue. The main negative is that the directing by Laszlo Kardos ('The Tijuana Story') and cinematography by Robert Surtees ('Act Of Violence') is good but not very noir or imaginative. Still, that's only a minor quibble, this movie impressed me with its successful blending of noir and musical, the performances and the story. Recommended! 8/10

madformickey05 OK-let's give credit where credit is due here OK? Mickey Rooney simply steals the show and is great on the drums. Not only that, he's great in this movie. The story, the acting, the music are all tops here. Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream on was a Oscar nominated song. This is one of the most entertaining musicals I have ever seen. Mickey Rooney was in his 30's here and no longer a child. The man kept right on working when other child stars faded into obscurity. It's no wonder why. The man had talent that no other star in history could match. He could do anything, anytime, anyplace and succeeded at it all. I met Mr. Rooney while he was doing his show Sugar Babies and he also is a super nice guy. So, let's no under estimate the talent of this man, OK?

David (Handlinghandel) Mickey Rooney isn't convincing in the role of a nice guy who falls in with a bad crowd. His acting is OK. He just doesn't look the part. Sally Forrest has been better elsewhere.The plot, told primarily in flashback, is routine: Honest boy in dishonest profession falls for cold, ambitious girl. Murder is involved. The whole nine yards. One has to like jazz to enjoy this. And was Vic Damone, for whom the plot stops while he delivers a number, considered jazz? On the other hand, the main song, originally delivered in a bizarre duet between Rooney and William Demarest, is a great one. "A Song To Build A Dream ON": Such a gem deserved a better setting.

bmacv The murder/suspense plot is little more than a convenient set of bookends to showcase the post-adolescent Mickey Rooney, Sally Forest and a gathering of jazz greats (Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, Vic Damone) in the setting of a Sunset Strip nightspot. James Craig isn't bad as the mustachioed "heavy" doting on his office foliage (after Dewey's defeat in '48, mustaches became quite unAmerican). This movie is neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring, and only marginally "noir" by virtue of date, setting and plotline, but it's watchable -- the music and dance numbers are pretty good. Like a couple of other films ("The Man I Love;" "Love Me or Leave Me") it gives evidence that a new genre might have been in formation: the musical noir.