Saturday Spectacular (1956)

Run Time - 90 min.  |  
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Nanette Fabray and Joey Faye repeat their original Broadway roles in this live, 90-minute TV adaptation of the 1948 Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn musical comedy hit High Button Shoes. Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Stephen Longstreet, the story is set in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the year 1913. Returning to his home town after many years, glib con artist Harrison Floy (a part immortalized on stage by Phil Silvers, but played here by Hal March) hopes to find at least few people he hasn't already fleeced. Floy targets his former girlfriend Sara Longstreet (Fabray) and her husband Henry (Don Ameche), smooth-talking them into unwittingly participating in a land scam. As if that wasn't enough skullduggery, Harrison and his cohort Pontdue (Joey Faye) even try to fix the upcoming Princeton-Rutgers football game. The musical numbers include "I Still Get Jealous", "Papa Won't You Dance With Me?", "You're My Girl", "Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers" and "The Cops and Robbers Ballet" (originally titled "The Mack Sennett Ballet until former comedy-movie producer Sennett sued for unauthorized use of his name). An abridged version of High Button Shoes was later staged as a 1966 episode of The Garry Moore Show.