Saturday Spectacular: High Button Shoes (1956)

In this musical, Nanette Fabray and Joey Faye recreate their roles from the 1947 Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn Broadway musical, based on Stephen Longstreet's semi-autobiographical book. In this early-twentieth-century tale of con men and domestic bliss, shady Harrison Floy returns to his hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey, with his sidekick Pontdue to swindle Floy's former sweetheart Sara Longstreet and her husband Henry. As they await Floy's arrival for a meeting, Henry confesses "I Still Get Jealous" to Sara, and she joins in in the song. Floy and Pontdue arrive and trick the pair into buying a new (actually stolen) Oldsmobile for $100; Floy sings "Know How" to demonstrate his own acumen. Floy then convinces the Longstreets to let him market a parcel of land they own by subdividing it. He agrees to speak to Sara's birdwatching society, and while waiting for the ladies to arrive Sara and Floy sing "I Love to Do the Lulu-Fadoo." The lady birdwatchers arrive and perform the "Birdwatchers' Song," after which Floy convinces them to bring their husbands to the land sale. The action moves to the day of the sale; the whole town is enjoying a picnic, at which Sara sings "Papa, Won't You Dance with Me" to Henry. The sale proceeds, and the Longstreets are appalled when Floy and Pontdue intimate to the public that the land being sold has oil on it, inducing community members to pay more money than the plots are worth -- $5000 in all. Sara is even more upset when she sees the pair of con men run off with the money to Atlantic City. She follows them. Henry discovers that Floy, Pontdue, and Sara have gone off and at first believes that Sara has eloped with Floy; in a flashback, he recalls the time at which he and Floy were both courting Sara, singing, "Can't You Just See Yourself in Love with Me?" He eventually realizes that his wife is loyal to him and heads off for Atlantic City as well. In that beach town, Sara tries to distract Floy by singing "On a Sunday by the Sea" while waiting for the police. The police arrive, and a chance ensues, but the criminals get away. Later back in New Brunswick, the Longstreet family worries about how its members will repay the community the $5000 Floy and Pontdue have taken. Henry sings "You're My Girl" to Sara to comfort her. Floy returns with his half of the money, explaining that he has repented. He invests $500 of it in a bet at the Princeton-Rutgers football team and tries to sway the Rutgers team into throwing the game by singing "Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers." Tension mounts in the Longstreet home as the game's results are awaited.