Merry Andrew (film)

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Merry Andrew
Directed by	Michael Kidd
Produced by	Sol C. Siegel
Written by	I.A.L. Diamond Paul Gallico (story) Isobel Lennart
Starring	Danny Kaye Pier Angeli Salvatore Baccaloni
Music by	Saul Chaplin
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Editing by	Harold F. Kress
Release date(s)	1958
Running time	103 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Merry Andrew is a musical comedy film starring Danny Kaye (as "Andrew Larabee") and Pier Angeli (as "Selena Gallini"). Tommy Rall also appeared in the film (as "Ugo Gallini", the most protective of Salena's five brothers).

Michael Kidd was both director and choreographer of the film. Saul Chaplin wrote the music and Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics. The writer of the film was I.A.L. Diamond.

1 Plot
2 Songs from the film
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Andrew Larabee is a teacher at a school which is run by his father as headmaster. Andrew has a unique and (with his young charges) popular way of teaching, which his traditionalist father does not approve of. Andrew's special interest is archaeology, and he hopes to be able to publish and earn his father's respect though this field of study. Also, Letitia Fairchild, Andrew's fiancée of five years, insists that Andrew earn a promotion before she marries him.

During the school holidays, Andrew rides his bike to some ancient ruins where he thinks a statue of Pan can be found, thereby leading to publication and marriage with Letitia. At the site, however, he finds the famous Gallini Circus occupying the area and a beautiful girl who is taking a shower in a special shower tent. Andrew, who has a licence to dig at the site, works out an arrangement with Gallini family to do so. He meets the beautiful girl, who turns out to be Selena Gallini, the niece of the ringmaster. By happenstance, Andrew occasionally finds himself playing funny roles within the ring, and proves to be a natural clown.

The inevitable happens, and Andrew and Selena fall in love with each other. Selena goes into the tunnel to speak to Andrew during the early evening, but they are trapped when there is a cave-in. The following morning, the Gallini family find Andrew and Selena in an innocent but seemingly compromising situation when the 'roof' of the tunnel suddenly collapses. To save the family honour, Selena's relatives insist that Andrew and Selena marry the following Saturday morning.

When the circus leaves, the Gallini family hold Andrew prisoner, so he cannot escape. Selena, though, does not want Andrew to marry her just because he is being forced to do so. She loves him, but she helps him escape so that he can return to the school. Arriving there, Andrew is horrified when he is given the promotion which Letitia had insisted on, and is told that a marriage had been arranged for Andrew and Letitia to marry the following Saturday - the same day that Andrew was to marry Selena. The dismayed Andrew tries to get out of marriage with Letitia, but unwillingly gives in to society's conventions. All seems lost, with Andrew headed for a loveless marriage, until fate takes a timely hand in the affair.

[edit] Songs from the film

"Everything is Tickety Boo"
"Pipes of Pan"
"Chin Up, Stout Fellow"
"Salud"
"Here's Cheers"
"Square of the Hypoteneuse"
"You Can't Always Have What You Want"

The songs and some additional soundtracks from the film were released on CD on Jul 11, 2006, by Sol C. Siegel.

[edit] Trivia

During the song, "Square of the Hypoteneuse", in which Andrew Larabee is teaching the schoolboys the Pythagorean theorem for right angle triangles, he "quotes" Einstein on the matter. In Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, Euclidean geometry no longer holds, and the Pythagorean Theorem is not true in general.

At the end of the film, Andrew's father mentions that his ancestor was a jester in the court of a British king, a possible reference to The Court Jester, Danny Kaye's previous film.