Ironically, the older Good News is the hipper one. Taking its cues from the stage show, the first film is a lot more focused on the wantonness of youth, with songs and sketches tackling smoking, smooching, boozing, and gambling. It was so lustful, in fact, that within a few years—when the Production Code took hold in Hollywood—it was banned. The 1930 Good News eventually reappeared on the archival circuit, but without the special Technicolor dance sequence that had been shot for its big finale. Still, while the movie today looks decidedly PG, it’s a kick to see the raw, sensual physicality of MGM’s dancers in the big party scenes.

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The same can be said of the 1947 Good News, which cleans up a lot of the innuendo and vice from the original production, and adds the sweetly soft June Allyson and Peter Lawford as the romantic leads, but still feels like it’s getting away with something whenever the performers are kicking up their bare legs. If nothing else, the score’s appropriation of gospel and tribal sounds—while culturally insensitive—illustrates American youth’s eternal desire to be “cool.” And it’s that wild enthusiasm and zest for living that connects the two Good Newses to Animal House and all of its descendants. Ultimately these movies are about how, in the right setting, the late teens and early 20s of youth can be one long, sexy, drunken, inappropriate celebration.

Availability: The 1947 Good News is available on DVD from Amazon or possibly your local video store/library, and can be rented or purchased from the major digital outlets. The 1930 version is out of circulation, but pops up occasionally on TCM.