Top Banana (film)

1954 film by Alfred E. Green

Top Banana is a 1954 American musical film based on the musical of the same name, starring Phil Silvers, and featuring Rose Marie, Judy Lynn, Jack Albertson and Joey Faye, all of whom reprised their roles from the Broadway production of the musical. The film was shot in 3 D but was released by United Artists "flat".

In New York City in the early 1950s, Jerry Biffle (Phil Silvers) is the star of the Blendo Soap Program. He has been invited to participate in an autograph signing party for his new book at an important department store. He meets Sally Peters (Judy Lynn), one of the department store models, and makes her part of his TV troupe. As part of his campaign to court Sally, Jerry gets Cliff Lane (Danny Scholl), the tenor of his TV company, to sing to her over the phone. When Sally and Cliff meet, they fall in love, with Biffle ignorant of the complications. Biffle engineers a big publicity wedding between Cliff and "a girl", not knowing that Sally is the girl. To further complicate his life, Jerry learns that he is about to lose his sponsor. The publicity elopement between his girl and Cliff almost shatters his entire career and life. When it seems that his whole world will cave in, Jerry's sponsor comes up with a new format for the Blendo program and, as far as Jerry is concerned, the day is saved.

After concluding its successful engagement on Broadway in 1952, Top Banana went on tour for a year playing in major cities across the country. Phil Silvers and the cast finished their successful run at the Biltmore Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. During that engagement, Harry Popkin negotiated with producers Albert Zugsmith (Touch of Evil, The Incredible Shrinking Man) and Ben Peskay to film the show exactly as it had been presented on stage in sold out performances across the country. The company packed up the sets and costumes and moved to the Motion Picture Center Studios in Hollywood, where a mock theater "stage" set was built. The film was shot over five days.</blockquote>

All of Rose Marie's musical numbers were excised from the final cut of the film. In 2017, she stated that a producer had made sexual overtures to her, and that when she sharply retorted, the offended producer cut out all of her songs. By her testimony it was the only time she experienced any form of sexual harassment during her 90 year career in the entertainment industry.

The film was not financially successful upon its release.

The film was photographed in Eastmancolor, and processed by the Color Corporation of America laboratory in Burbank, California. The lab went out of business the following year. Although unconfirmed, it is presumed that all of the original elements were junked at that time. The negatives were labeled under the production company name, Roadshow Productions. The only material in the MGM/UA library today is an edited 16mm release print of one side (missing about 15 minutes of footage depicting the rehearsal for the introduction of "Miss Blendo"). This is the version which has been released on home video. No original elements of the film are known to exist. It is the only 3 D film lost in the original stereoscopic form. The edited footage does survive in several 16mm prints struck in 1954.