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Small Town Girl

Screening on Film
Directed by Busby Berkeley and Leslie Kardos.
With Jane Powell, Farley Granger, Ann Miller.
US, 1953, 35mm, color, 93 min.

Farley Granger plays a wealthy playboy arrested for speeding in a small town. Jane Powell co-stars in the title role as the judge’s daughter who takes it upon herself to reform the ne’er-do-well Granger. The story is razor-thin and merely a set piece around which to build some inspired musical numbers by Berkeley, including a frenetic performance of “Street Dance” by Bobby Van, in which he bounces around town like a human pogo stick, and “I’ve Got to Hear that Beat,” in which a showgirl played by Ann Miller maneuvers her way around a group of disembodied hands playing musical instruments.

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Alain Kassanda,
2026 McMillan-Stewart Fellow