Give a Girl a Break

Give a Girl a Break is a 1953 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, starring Debbie Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. A young Bob Fosse has a featured role. As Martin Gottfried wrote in his book, All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, "There were residual elements of the big project it had once been, a score by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin [their only collaboration], for instance, direction by Stanley Donen and musical supervision by Saul Chaplin. The screenwriters, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, were estimable too, although in this instance they had written a slender story involving three unknown actresses competing for a Broadway role that becomes available when the star walks out." The third lead actress, Helen Wood, had a performing background before being signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but would eventually leave Hollywood for stage work in New York, including dancing at Radio City Music Hall. Under the pseudonym "Dolly Sharp" she later co-starred in the landmark pornographic film Deep Throat.