The Best Things in Life Are Free (film) explained

The Best Things in Life Are Free
Director:	Michael Curtiz
Producer:	Henry Ephron
Screenplay:	William Bowers Phoebe Ephron Frank Tashlin (uncredited)
Story:	John O'Hara
Starring:	Gordon MacRae Dan Dailey Ernest Borgnine Sheree North Tommy Noonan Murvyn Vye Phyllis Avery Larry Keating Tony Galento Norman Brooks
Music:	Lionel Newman
Cinematography:	Leon Shamroy
Editing:	Dorothy Spencer
Studio:	20th Century Fox
Distributor:	20th Century Fox
Runtime:	104 minutes
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$1.16 million^[1]
Gross:	$2.7 million

The Best Things in Life Are Free is a 1956 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars Gordon MacRae, Dan Dailey, and Ernest Borgnine as the real-life songwriting team of Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson of the late 1920s and early 1930s, and Sheree North as Kitty Kane, a singer (possibly based on Helen Kane).

In 1957, the year after the film was released, it received an Oscar nomination for Lionel Newman in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Cast

Gordon MacRae as Buddy DeSylva
Dan Dailey as Ray Henderson
Ernest Borgnine as Lew Brown
Sheree North as Kitty Kane
Tommy Noonan as Carl Frisbee
Murvyn Vye as Manny Costain
Phyllis Avery as Maggie Henderson
Larry Keating as Winfield Sheehan
Tony Galento as Fingers
Norman Brooks as Al Jolson
Jacques d'Amboise as Specialty dancer
Roxanne Arlen as Perky Nichols
Byron Palmer as Hollywood star
Gordon Richards as Butler

Reception

Critical response

Premiering in September 1956, The Best Things in Life Are Free was met with mixed reviews. Some reviews called it "the biggest new musical this year" and others "a musical-comedy that could've been produced on a higher budget with bigger and better production numbers".

Box-office performance

Being a musical, though a modestly produced one, the movie was fairly expensive to produce. The film ended with a budget of $2.86 million and made just over $4 million at the box office, earning $2,250,000 in North American rentals in 1956.^[2]