The Broadway andHollywoodian views of American college life have always remained on thefar side of lyric paradise (with) songs and dances in ice-cream parlors,football stadiums, and sorority houses. When Good News became a smashBroadway hit back in 1927, it was inevitable that screen versions wouldfollow. (For the 1947 version) producer Arthur Freed decided to givechoreographer-dancer Charles Walters a chance at direction. The spiritof the twenties prevails but the "look" and manner of theprincipal players are decidedly forties. No one is really young enoughto be convincing undergraduates (but) the tuneful score (can) lullspectators into amused complacency. Allyson's husky-voiced breathings ofthat ancient hymn, "The Best Things in Life Are Free"; asuperb ice-cream parlor dance by Ray McDonald and Joan McCracken to"Pass That Peace Pipe"; and brisk vocal arrangements by KayThompson give the film a special verve, and Comden and Green's satiricalsong, "The French Lesson," is a tongue-in-cheek classic.Today, it is the postwar optimism and temporary innocence of Good Newsthat strikes us. --Albert Johnson