I Love Melvin (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Don WeisRelease Date(s)
1953 (December 16, 2025)Studio(s)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
Singin’ in the Rain, which teamed star Gene Kelly with Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, is regarded as one of the best musicals of all time. A year later, MGM teamed O’Connor and Reynolds once again in the lesser-known film I Love Melvin.
Melvin Hooper (O’Connor) is an assistant to Look photographer Mergo (Jim Backus). Judy LeRoy (Reynolds) is an ambitious chorus girl hoping to make it out of the chorus and into a featured role on Broadway. Melvin and Judy each wander through Central Park alone, daydreaming of finding love. Accidentally bumping into each other, they exchange angry words and head off in separate directions. This “meet cute” scene telegraphs that before long, these two young people will be in each other’s arms. Getting there comprises the lighter-than-air plot.
Judy gets word that she has indeed been plucked out of the chorus and given a more prominent role. She’s excited until she finds out she’ll be playing a football in a musical number and be tossed, carried, and rushed around the stage by a male chorus dressed at football players. Melvin spots her picture on a poster outside the theater and uses his press credentials to go backstage. He watches Judy and intrigued by her he pretends to be the official photographer for Look and asks to do a photo spread on her. Flattered, she agrees to a number of photo sessions, believing the publicity will propel her career.
Over the next few weeks, Melvin and Judy fall in love. Judy’s parents (Una Merkel, Allyn Joslyn) are apprehensive about their daughter’s pinning her hopes on fame in the entertainment industry and instead want her to marry handsome, successful businessman Harry Flack (Richard Andersen). But she doesn’t love Harry and to prove to her parents that Melvin is a solid prospect, she tells them that he promised to get her picture on the cover of Look. From there, the predictable plot surfaces occasionally between the candy-colored musical numbers.
MGM borrowed O’Connor from Universal for I Love Melvin after his show-stopping performance in Singin’ in the Rain. He has an instantly likable charm that works for his shy, often socially awkward Melvin. He’s far from a Casanova with women and feels he has to exaggerate his importance to make Judy notice him. With his easy going manner, pleasant tenor, and loose-limbed grace, the young song-and-dance man makes the most of a role that doesn’t fully exploit his talent.
O’Connor has a number in which he dances on roller skates. It seems that major male dancers of the period had to do a number on roller skates in at least one picture. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly both took to skates in memorable numbers. The choreography for O’Connor’s turn on wheels, however, lacks pizzazz. He does swing around a couple of lights on a gazebo, but that’s the extent of the excitement the scene generates. I Wanna Wander is O’Connor’s big solo. It combines his vocal and dancing talents with his flair for goofy comedy. As Melvin sings about the places he would like to visit, he dons costumes from a photographer’s studio rack as he dances in styles of various countries. Some simple special effects are employed to make it seem as if he’s made split-second changes. Yet though he works hard, the number never clicks the way his classic Make ‘Em Laugh tour de force does in Singin in the Rain.
Reynolds exhibits some snappy moves with O’Connor in the Where Did You Lean to Dance? number, which takes place during a photo session in Judy’s living room where they dance on and around furniture as Melvin takes pictures without missing a step. But Reynolds is showcased most glamorously in a dream sequence in which she’s a big movie star filming a major number. Dressed in lavender tulle and feathers and adorned with sparking jewelry, she descends a staircase to sing A Lady Loves. The lyrics refer to a fondness for French chapeaus, penthouses, Riviera holidays and gifts on her breakfast tray. With Judy in fancy dress backed by a chorus of elegantly attired gentlemen, the dream sequence differs in style from the earthier stagings of the film’s other numbers. There’s even a cameo by actor Robert Taylor. If you’re going to dream, why not include a bona fide movie star!
The scanty plot offers ample time for musical numbers that show off the talents of O’Connor and Reynolds. I Love Melvin is hardly one of MGM’s classic musicals, but it has charm, catchy tunes, and energetic performances by the leads. For a modestly budgeted film, it boasts location footage in Manhattan, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park West, and Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain The dances are staged by Robert Alton and performed in fairly confined spaces. Even the Saturday Afternoon Before the Game number lacks a sense of grandeur. The first song, We Have Never Met As Yet, is a duet in which Judy and Melvin—separately—long for someone to love. In a second dream sequence, Judy dances with six chorus boys, three wearing Fred Astaire masks and three wearing Gene Kelly masks, cleverly publicizing MGM’s two biggest musical stars without needing them to appear.
I Love Melvin was shot by director of photography Harold Rosson on 35mm film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection is sourced from a new 4K scan of the original Technicolor negatives. Clarity and contrast live up to Warner Archive’s reputation for pristine presentations of older films. The color palette is vivid, including Judy’s lavender gown in a dream sequence, the football players’ uniforms in the Saturday Afternoon Before the Game number, brilliant greens of shrubbery and lawn in Central Park, and Judy’s print dresses in pastel hues.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an available option. Dialogue is clear and distinct. The MGM orchestral arrangements sound rich and bouncy. Sound effects include O’Connor’s skates as he tap dances and swirls around a park gazebo, flash bulbs popping, and tapping feet.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release the from Warner Archive Collection include the following:
- Deleted Musical Sequence (1:55)
- The Impossible Possum (6:33)
- TV of Tomorrow (7:08)
- Theatrical Trailer (3:40)
Deleted Musical Sequence – In this outtake of A Lady Loves, the melody is the same but the lyrics and the set are different from those in the final film. The set is a stylized barnyard and Debbie Reynolds’ costume is a glamorized red-and-white checked, ankle-length gingham dress. Donald O’Connor joins her for the finish in this version but not in the final film.
The Impossible Possum – In this 1954 MGM Technicolor cartoon directed by Dick Lundy Barney Bear tries to catch a clever possum for dinner, Barney figures he can outsmart the possum using a female possum hand puppet. The possum falls for the ruse. Barney plays jitterbug music and they dance, but the disguise comes off when the possum invites the “girl” home with him. Barney repeatedly fails to trap the elusive creature, as the possum uses his tail to turn the tables on Barney. Finally, Barney chops down the possum’s tree home. The tree crashes down onto Barney’s house.
TV of Tomorrow – Directed by Tex Avery, this 1953 Warner Bros. Technicolor cartoon satirizes the 1950s obsession with television. The short presents a series of absurd, futuristic TV sets designed to fix common 1950s viewing problems, such as a set built into a stove, a TV-lighter for smokers, and a set that shoots planes to fix signal interference. Predicting that in the future there would be dozens of channels, the cartoon also predicts that there would be nothing to watch except the same Western.
I Love Melvin has tuneful songs, a simple plot, and engaging musical numbers by Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds, fresh off their success in Singin’ in the Rain. It’s fast paced, and the plot is just enough to bridge the musical numbers. This is the kind of film that deserves a look. It’s a sort of overlooked semiprecious gem from the MGM vault.
- Dennis Seuling