Tonight at 4:00am, TCM is show a rare airing of Gaily, Gaily (1969) co-starring Melodie Johnson whom I interviewed for my new book, Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood. Excerpt below:

Melodie played the beautiful duplicitous niece and ward of George Kennedy’s crooked politician in the lavish turn-of-the century comedy Gaily, Gaily (1969) starring Beau Bridges as “Bible-toting country boy” Ben Harvey who comes to Chicago in quest of fame and fortune. Based on the life of writer Ben Hecht, the film was directed by Norman Jewison and co-produced by Hal Ashby. With this much talent behind the scenes, Gaily, Gaily was predicted to be a hit. Unfortunately, movie audiences didn’t find it very gaily and it flopped.

Not available on DVD, this lost comedy is worth checking out.