by Stephen Vagg
Connie Francis died on 17 July 2025. Here’s a look at a brief period when she was kind of a movie star.
Most obituaries of Connie Francis focused on her singing career – deservedly, because that’s what made her legendary. However, for a few years there in the early 1960s, MGM thought that she also might be the next Judy Garland, Judy Holliday, or at least Jane Powell. It didn’t quite work out that way, but Francis starred in four movies which, in one way or another, all added to her legacy.
Francis was born in 1937 and began performing at a young age – talent quests at first, then eventually concerts, and television. She initially broke into films as a “singing voice”, providing vocals for Tuesday Weld to mime in Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956), then later performing the same task for Freda Holloway in Jamboree (1957) and Jayne Mansfield in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958).
In 1957, Francis became hugely famous off the back of the hit single ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ Although that was made for the record division of MGM Studios, Francis was not immediately rushed into movies – she was not a traditional beauty, as the saying goes, at least not by late 1950s Hollywood standards, which would have made producers wary about casting Francis (and subsequently led to lots of unfortunate lines in her films where Francis’ character would comment self-deprecatingly on her looks and weight).
Eventually, MGM decided to try Francis in an ensemble romantic comedy about four female friends who travel to Fort Lauderdale during spring break: Where the Boys Are (1960). Francis’ co-stars were Dolores Hart, Paula Prentiss, and Yvette Mimieux, and their leading men were George Hamilton, Jim Hutton and Frank Gorshin. (All of these went on to have fascinating lives and careers: Hart became a nun; Prentiss turned into the most talented comedic actor of her generation, had a nervous breakdown and as of writing has been married to Richard Benjamin for over sixty years; Mimieux remained a star until the 1970s as well as a screenwriter whose exes included Stanley Donen; Hamilton’s girlfriends included Imelda Marcos and LBJ’s daughter and he made more interesting movies than is remembered; Hutton was a brilliant light comedian who fathered Tim Hutton and died of liver cancer far too young; while Gorshin became the Riddler on TV’s Batman).
Where the Boys Are mixed comedy with songs, romance, risqué content and quite strong drama (Mimieux’s character is sexually assaulted) – the movie was a big hit and led to a slew of imitators, most of which did not do as well – none of them got as lucky with the casting, or had the serious undertones and sexual freshness which made this so good. Incidentally, Francis is charming in the movie and sang the title song beautifully.
A delighted MGM promptly put the female stars of Where the Boys Are into a series of follow-up movies. It saw Prentiss and Hutton as the new Myrna Loy and William Powell and starred them in three comedies (The Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise, The Horizontal Lieutenant); Hart went into Come Fly With Me (1963), which was Where the Boys Are among air hostesses; Mimieux played lead roles in MGM blockbusters like The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1960) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1963).
Francis’ second movie was meant to be Mountain Melody from a story by MGM’s British head, Larry Bachmann set in the Swiss Alps. It was never produced but she went into another movie based on a Bachmann story: Follow the Boys (1963), a Where the Boys Are-style romantic comedy about four women driving around the Mediterranean following a US navy ship. Francis played a newlywed desperate to shag her new husband (Roger Perry) and her co-stars were Prentiss, Janis Paige and Dany Robin. The film had a strong cast and pleasing scenery but didn’t quite work: the plots weren’t as strong, there was little sense of camaraderie among the girls (a strong feature of Where the Boys Are) and no funny set pieces. The movie was geared heavily towards Francis, who gets several songs, and she’s fine, but her character was depressing and the storyline sad, because all she wants to do is get laid and she can’t, which isn’t that funny. Actually, all the romances in Follow the Boys have depressing endings (spoilers) – Ron Randell gives up his dream of a command for Paige, Francis decides to stick it out with her husband but they still haven’t had sex, Prentiss is with Russ Tamblyn but they haven’t resolved the fact that she doesn’t want to marry a naval guy and he wants to go career, Richard Long is with Dany Robin but she’s a debt collector and he’s got no money… Literally, no one’s relationship looks like it has a future. Still, Follow the Boys never stopped playing on television and probably turned into a nice little earner for MGM.
Francis’ next film was specifically designed as a vehicle for her: Looking for Love (1964), produced by Joe Pasternak, who’d made Where the Boys Are. The actual concept of this isn’t that bad, if old time-y: Francis plays a singer who is frustrated with her career and thinks she’s never going to make it, so she decides to get a husband. The resulting film is dumb and slapdash. Francis chases after an inventor (Jim Hutton) who wants to promote a clothes stand that Francis invents, then she goes on Johnny Carson’s talk show, then she starts singing again, then she goes on Danny Thomas’ talk show, and then she realises that the boy next door (Joby Baker) is more appropriate and… oh it’s just stupid. Sorry, we’re being mean, but Looking for Love feels as though it was written in a plotting session with people going “hey, you should put in this idea” and tried to incorporate everyone’s thoughts without bashing it into a cohesive whole. Francis tries to channel Judy Holliday and Hutton throws himself into it as always, but they’ve got nothing to work with. There are cameos from Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and Paula Prentiss, Francis sings a lot of songs, and her fans won’t want to miss this.
MGM tried one last time to turn Francis into a movie star with When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965) a remake of Get Crazy (1943), an old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland film (based on a 1930 stage musical by the Gershwin brothers). Francis took the Judy part with Harve Presnell, coming off The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) in the Mickey Rooney role. The film was produced by low-budget maestro Sam Katzman and features lots and lots of musical acts, some of them contemporary, others old timey (as in, there’s Gershwin songs plus Liberace and Louis Armstrong), along with a few dance numbers and stand-up comedian performances… it’s a variety show grab bag, indicating MGM was unsure how to pitch the film. Presnell is not convincing in the lead, and Francis sings well but lacks energy – in her defence, she doesn’t really have a character to play. The film is bright and colourful at least.
Francis played a singing nun on television in The Sister and the Savage (1966) and that was it for her movie career. Low/medium budgeted musicals went out fashion in the late ‘60s and for whatever reason, Francis never shifted over to the bigger budgeted efforts (like, say, Song of Norway). It is likely that MGM never considered her pretty enough to co-star alongside Elvis Presley, even though that was a natural teaming as he was under contract to the studio. It’s also a shame that she never paired with Ann-Margret – they might’ve made an ideal duo.
Could Connie Francis have had more of a movie career? Absolutely – she was charming, likeable and could sing beautifully. But she needed protection – strong storylines and co-stars. She got that on her first movie but not on her next three. Making colourful souffles is harder than it looks.
Still, we will say this – movies were only a small part of Connie Francis’ career, and three of four films she did star in are easy to watch. And Where the Boys Are is a classic of its kind – to have even one of those on the resume is something to be proud of.
