This is one of those properties which yield incredible mileage in a relatively short time-span. It started life as a series of short stories about two sisters from Ohio. The stories became a film which in turn became a Broadway musical and when Columbia ran into trouble securing the rights to the Broadway musical they simply made their own smaller scale musical and tapped Jule Styne for the music and Leo Robin for the lyrics, both more than able to stand comparison with Lennie Bernstein and Comden and Green, arguably the most overrated lyricists of the forties and fifties. Janet Leigh struggles to reach ho-hum as the (on paper) irrestible Eileen whilst Betty Garrett leaves Leigh dead in the water. It remains a pleasant enough movie for one viewing.
Review of My Sister Eileen
