Daddy Long Legs

This third film version (fourth if you count Shirley Temple and Curly Top) of Jean Webster's novel/play, about an orphaned waif who falls for a playboy sophisticate who has become her anonymous benefactor, is for the most part an unusually flaccid Astaire musical, despite sterling efforts from the two leads plus Clark and Ritter (as, respectively, Fred's manager and secretary). The chief problem is the story's utter predictability, although the score and choreography (with the single exception of 'Something's Got to Give') are also uninspired. Shot to no apparent advantage in 'Scope, this is Hollywood escapism at its most mediocre.