About Face

The mirthful military-school comedy Brother Rat gets a spirited musical makeover as About Face, starring velvet-voiced Gordon MacRae and comedy pros Eddie Bracken and Dick Wesson as conniving cadets who mix their reveille revelry with song, dance and parade-splashy Technicolor . Their romantic maneuvers aren't quite regulation: Bracken is secretly married to Phyllis Kirk, with a baby due soon; Wesson eyes pretty new arrival Virginia Gibson, unaware she's the colonel's daughter; and MacRae schemes to keep a lieutenant from beating his time with local beauty Aileen Stanley, Jr. Buoyed by bouncy tunes by Charles Tobias and Peter De Rose, they merrily outflank their superiors and woo their women. Meanwhile, a pint-sized protege of Eddie Cantor steals the show as a put-upon plebe who performs the nutty novelty number "I'm Nobody." Movie-debuting 19-year-old Joel Grey instantly puts the viewer -- and About Face -- in his pocket. As The New York Times reviewer proclaimed, he "rates a snappy salute" -- and became somebody to watch.