It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Kelly and Me (1956) – Musical #752

Studio:
Universal Pictures

Director:
Robert Z. Leonard

Starring:
Van Johnson, Piper Laurie, Martha Hyer, Onslow Stevens, Hebert Anderson, Douglas Fowley, Frank Wilcox, Dan Riss, Kelly the Dog, Madge Blake (uncredited)

Plot:
Set in 1930, vaudeville performer Len Carmody (Johnson) has a corny, failing act. When another performer abandons his trained dog, Kelly (Kelly the Dog), the dog becomes attached to Carmody. When the dog walks out on stage during Carmody’s act and the audience goes nuts, he realizes he may be on to a new act. The pair become successful on stage and are traveling when they meet Mina Van Runkel (Laurie), who happens to be the daughter of a film studio executive (Stevens). Mina convinces her father to give Carmody and Kelly a role in a film. As Kelly becomes a great film star, Carmody resents the dog’s celebrity and playing second fiddle in his films.

Trivia:
• Van Johnson requested Robert Z. Leonard as director for the film. This was the director’s final film.
• Premiered in London on Dec. 30, 1956, and in Los Angeles on April 10, 1957.

Piper Laurie and Van Johnson

Highlights:
• Van Johnson

Notable Songs:
• “Singing a Vagabond Song” performed by Van Johnson
• “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” performed by Van Johnson
• “Side By Side” performed by Van Johnson

A film scene within the film of Kelly the star dog with Van Johnson (as Carmody) having little to do in the film.

My review:
With the passing of Piper Laurie recently on Oct. 14, 2023, I decided to shift from my originally planned film to a musical that co-starred the late star.

The shift made for a pleasant, new-to-me film discovery of what turns out to be a hard-to-find film, KELLY AND ME (1956), starring Van Johnson, Laurie, Martha Hyer, and a German shepherd named Kelly.

The film is set in 1930 when vaudeville is declining and sound is starting to happen in Hollywood films. Johnson plays Len Carmody, an unsuccessful ham actor with a lousy vaudeville act. A fellow stage performer has a dog act with Kelly, but mistreats the dog, eventually abandoning him. Kelly attaches himself to Carmody, who realizes that the two could make a successful vaudeville duo, with Carmody and Kelly dancing together on stage. While traveling to their next performance, Carmody meets Mina Van Runkel, played by Piper Laurie, who is running away from school to her family. As it turns out, Mina is the daughter of a studio executive, played by Onslow Stevens, and tells her father about this dog performance that could help save his financially floundering studio.

Kelly and Carmody are put on screen, but Carmody plays second banana to the German shepherd, who quickly becomes the top star in films. Carmody benefits from Kelly’s success but is bitter that he hasn’t become a bigger film star than the dog.

This role is quite different from Van Johnson’s earlier roles. Rather than the sweet boyish character he played in his early roles, he plays a rather unlikeable ham who is convinced he’s always about to hit the big time. Early on in the film before finding the dog, Johnson’s character tries to do a Will Rogers impression and it’s awful, and it’s supposed to be awful. Johnson is really great in this. As a major Van Johnson film, I enjoyed this new-to-me role. Reviewers agreed.

“Johnson is quite good as the cornball entertainer and performs a few song-and-dance numbers with ease and charm,” wrote the Motion Picture Herald in their review.

Kelly the Dog is great of course, and his dance numbers with Johnson are really cute. I guess I’m a sucker for a dog film, because I thought this was a great time.

Both Piper Laurie and Martha Hyer frankly don’t have much to do in this, though both do a great job with what they are given to do. Though in the plot, Laurie’s character is the catalyst for the fame of Carmody and Kelly.

One interesting note, Douglas Fowley makes a brief appearance as Van Jonson’s manager and I loved the two being reunited after starring in BATTLEGROUND (1949) together.

Though some reviewers said this film was old-fashioned for 1956, I thought it was a good time. Filmed in vibrant Technicolor, it had a great range of conflict and emotions. It’s true, that this isn’t your typical musical. Most of the singing and dancing is frontloaded in the film, but you know me, I’ll count three songs as a musical – we end on a musical number as well.

What’s frustrating is that this wasn’t an easy film to find. I was able to view it on one of those dubious internet webpages, but no DVD release that I could find. And there was even very little written about this film after its release.

For a fun film with an interesting performance from Van Johnson, I feel it should get more recognition than it is currently receiving.

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