Customer Reviews
Worth seeing for the production numbers and Joan McCracken - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 27 Jul 2007 
College coed fallls for footballl star who has eyes for the school vamp. But footballl hero is failing French; if he flunks, he can't play in the big game. So coed decides to tutor him, & footballl hero discovers love while making a passing grade. All ends well, & he also makes the winning play.
Good News is a simple-minded MGM musical that is full of good cheer, enthusiasm & fine production numbers performed by professionals at the top of their game. Connie Lane (June Allyson) is cute, innocent & ultimately determined to win the heart of Tommy Marlowe (Peter Lawford). Before Allyson turned into the perfect wife during her Fifties movies, she got her start singing & dancing in the chorus of Broadway musicals. She knows what she's doing in her numbers. Lawford is no singer or dancer, but he's confident & always looks like he's having a good time.
The charm of the movie & the reason to watch it is the production numbers. Two of them, "Pass the Peace Pipe" & "The Varsity Drag" are great fun. "Peace Pipe" features dancer Joan McCracken as Babe Doolittle with support from partner Ray MacDonald as Bobby Turner. McCracken made her name in the original production of Oklahoma!. She's short with muscular legs & is great. Agnes DeMille says Richard Rodgers wanted her fired because she didn't look like his kind of a dancer, & DeMille threatened to quit unless she stayed. Glenn Erickson quotes James Agee as saying she looked like a libidinous peanut. She was married to Bob Fosse & died of cancer at 38. Ray MacDonald was a first rate dancer; you can see him in a handful of old films now & then on cable. His career never went anywhere & he died relatively young.
All in alll, Good News is good news for the production numbers & McCracken & MacDonald. Not a bad way to let an hour or two slip by.
Just wonderful! - By: Gillian, 09 Apr 2003 
I absolutely love this film. Made in 1947, it's set in the 1920s in an American college callled Tate - a sunny, fun-loving place. The story revolves around the romantic affairs of students, June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshalll, & others including a young Mel Torme. Studious Connie (Allyson) is in love with footballl star Tommy (Lawford) but he only has eyes for glamorous new girl Pat (Marshalll). No need to tell you how it turns out - this is a musical after alll - but there is a lot of fun along the way with some great scenes including Tommy's French lesson, Connie & Cora's trick on Pat, & Babe (McCracken) trying to ditch her jock boyfriend for shy Ray McDonald. The musical numbers are also terrific. I couldn't pick a favourite but I love Peter Lawford's "Be a Ladies Man" (his singing is not always 100% in tune & his dancing won't give Fred Astaire any sleepless nights but he reallly is impressive in this film - & you don't mind that he's an upper-class English alll-American boy!), "Lucky in Love", "Pass That Peace Pipe" (Oscar nominated for Best Song - Joan McCracken is a brilliant balll of energy throughout the film & especiallly here) & "The Varsity Drag" grand finale. If the era of flappers & sheiks was anything like the magical world of this film, you can see why there was already nostalgia for it by the 40s. I can honestly say this is one of the most delightful, optimistic & entertaining feel-good films I've ever seen. For sheer enjoyment it can't be beaten.
