Happy Memorial Day! - Panama Hattie

MGM, 1942

Starring Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, Dan Dailey, and Virginia O'Brien

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter and others

We salute our men and women who fought and died on the high seas with this wartime hit. It started out on Broadway in 1940 as a popular vehicle for Ethel Merman, with music by Cole Porter. The start of World War II suddenly made its story about a nightclub singer and three sailors who get caught up in spy intrigue and her romance with a wealthy soldier even more relevant. How does all this look today? Let's start with an opening card admitting that the gobs in this movie get pretty goofy and find out...

The Story: Those three sailors who burst through the card, Red (Skelton), Rags (Rags Ragland), and Rowdy (Ben Blue), are huge fans of nightclub singer Hattie Mahoney (Southern). They're also convinced that spies are lurking around every corner. Hattie is in love with rich soldier Sgt. Dick Bullard (Dailey). She gets off on the wrong foot with his 8-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jackie Horner) when Gerry laughs at her ribbon-trimmed suit, but she soon makes friends with the child. 

Hattie has a harder time with Lelia Tree (Marsha Hunt), the snooty socialite who is also after Dick. After Red gets two notes mixed up, Lelia angrily accuses Hattie of putting him up to it. Hattie insists Dick loves her, but after Lelia claims Hattie will just be in his way, she insists on leaving town. Hattie's sailor friends discover that the empty house mentioned in the first note may be the clue to the location of the spies they've been looking for...and their way of keeping Hattie around long enough to marry the right man.

The Song and Dance: Brief but charming. Despite Southern playing the title character, this one is really dominated by the three sailor comics. Skelton had some of his earliest exposure at MGM as the leader of the three, showing off the wacky pratfalls and babyish voices that would become his trademarks in later years. Southern does best playing off them and doing the sweet "Let's Be Buddies" with the adorable Horner. Virginia O'Brian has the most fun of the supporting cast as Hattie's best friend Flo, who gets to chase Dick's proper British butler Jay Jerkins (Alan Mobray). 

The Numbers: We open in the nightclub with the chorus singing about "Hattie From Panama" and Hattie's sailors admiring how she performs the hit from this show, "I've Still Got My Health." The instrumental "Berry Me Not" lets the trio of Berry Brothers take command of the floor with their show-stopping tap routine. Lena Horne gets another Porter standard, the breezy "Just One of Those Things," later at the club. Flo sings the Porter patter number "Fresh as a Daisy" to explain her feelings for Jay. The trio of soldiers woo three pretty Panama lasses by insisting that they're all "Good Neighbors."

The last Porter song that made it into the film is "Let's Be Buddies." Hattie initially sings it with Gerry as they admit they got off on the wrong foot and want to start their relationship over. Flo picks it up as she grabs Jay and says she wants a relationship with him, period. The film ends with a band playing "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" as the sailors are saluted as heroes. Flo sings "Did I Get Stinkin' At the Savoy" at the nightclub, while Lena Horne and the Berrys introduce the audience to the South American dance number "The Sping." The film ends abruptly with the sudden burst of patriotism from Hattie and the cast, "The Son of a Gun Who Picks On Uncle Sam."

Trivia: Panama Hattie opened on Broadway in 1940 as a vehicle for Ethel Merman. The story seems to have been pretty much the same as the film, other than Hattie got more involved in helping the sailors capture the spies in the finale. Merman would do a second version for the short-lived TV show The Best of Broadway in 1954. Other than a few scattered staged concerts, Hattie has seldom been heard from since.

What I Don't Like: There's a reason for that. Hattie may be the quintessential 40's musical comedy...and as such, hasn't dated well beyond the end of World War II. Southern tries hard and is cute with Horner, but is otherwise no Merman. The three sailors dominate the action to such a degree, they pretty much crowd out everything else, including the love story between Hattie and her soldier. Dailey was at the start of his career and wouldn't really come into his own as a dancer and actor for another five years. Neither he nor Lena Horne (who is certainly capable of doing more than singing two songs) have much to do. There's also the loss of the full Porter score. I did hear it wasn't his best, but it would have been nice to have more songs that actually came with the show.

The Big Finale: Cute time-waster this holiday weekend if you're a huge fan of Skelton or 40's musicals, but nothing you really need to go out of your way for.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, the former in a remastered edition from the Warner Archives. 

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Cult Flops - There's No Business Like Show Business

20th Century Fox, 1954

Starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, and Marilyn Monroe

Directed by Walter Lang

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

This was intended to be the biggest musical Fox ever made in every sense of the word. It's six main stars came from every corner of show business. Ethel Merman was one of the biggest stars on Broadway. Dan Dailey and Donald O'Connor were movie musical veterans. Johnnie Ray was a massively popular singer known for his emphasis on rhythm and blues and dark ballads a few years before rock really started. Do they all work together in this lavish cavalcade of Irving Berlin hits, or should this family be separated for good? Let's start at the height of vaudeville's popularity in 1919, as married act the Donahues have just added another member...

The Story: Molly (Merman) and Terry (Dailey) Donahue are show business troopers through and through, even raising their children to be part of the act. Though the children attend Catholic school, they eventually rejoin the act after high school as The Five Donahues. Even as the act expands, vaudeville contracts. Sound movies and radio cuts into their business, and then the Depression hits. 

Having their grown children in the act is good for business, but they don't remain there for long. Gentle pianist Steve (Johnnie Ray) joins the priesthood. Vivacious daughter Katie (Mitzi Gaynor) marries handsome lyricist Charlie Gibbs (Hugh O'Brian). Wayward oldest son Tim (O'Connor) pursues gorgeous dancer Vicky Parker (Monroe), but disappears when she's tired of him complaining about her career. Molly never trusted the sensuous Vicky and blames her for Tim running off. It seems that Tim is gone for good and The Five Donahues have gone the way of vaudeville, until the Hippodrome Theater in New York has one last benefit, bringing all the Donahues together one last time.

The Song and Dance: This is as big as a musical could get in the mid-50's. Huge numbers that fill a wide Cinemascope frame, gorgeous Oscar-nominated costumes, a cast of thousands, vibrant DeLuxe Color, an expansive story that covers pretty much all of popular culture from 1919 to 1939. Dailey puts in one of his best performances as the roguish father who will do anything for his family, and Merman also does well as his strong-willed wife. O'Connor would later call this his favorite of his films, and he certainly runs with the opportunity to play a character that's slightly darker than usual for him, including one of his best numbers with the statues. Gaynor is so charming when she is seen, I wish she had more to do.

Favorite Number: We open with the Donahue parents performing "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'" in vaudeville. It does give us a good idea of what a typical couple number was like, including them ending up as the front and back half of a train. Katie and Tim reprise it hilariously at Steve's party before he joins the seminary, complete with the same costumes and them as two halves of a train. "Play a Simple Melody" begins with Molly in old-fashioned hoop skirts and bloomers and Terry in stripes playing ragtime as they sing one of Berlin's signature two melodies at once, with Molly preferring old-fashioned ballads and Tim wanting something a little jazzier. "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" has a blonde Molly competing with a bevy of glittering chorus girls for Tim's attention.

The act breaks up briefly, with Merman performing "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" on the radio, and Dailey turning "You'd Be Surprised" into a girlie burlesque act. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" turns into a massive chorus routine when all the Donahues join in. Molly and Terry do a German dance in bright peasant costumes. Tim dons a kilt for a Scottish highland dance, while Katie joins the boys for a French can can, and Steve simply plays and sings it on the piano. Monroe's introduced in a barely-there glittering white gown with enormous feathers in her head for "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It Anymore." The chorus gets "Remember" at that party for Steve. He also gets to sing the ballad "If You Believe." 

Molly may not be happy that she lost the number (in the film or real-life), but Vicky sizzles in "Heat Wave," with its straight-legged dances and brilliant pinks and blacks. Vicky only sings "A Man Chases a Girl Until She Catches Him" off-camera, but it's enough to inspire Tim to do an amazing dance with moving statues around a moonlit park. Tim and Katie literally dances rings around Vicky, who would rather linger and be "Lazy" on a chaise lounge. Katie and Molly liven things up as sea salts in the city who claim "A Sailor's Not a Sailor ('Til a Sailor's Been Tattooed)." The movie ends with all of the principals, including Vicky, joining for a massive version of the title number, literally performed on a pedestal as dancers in colorful costumes representing different aspects of show business flitter around them.

Trivia: This was also Oscar-nominated for Best Score and Best Story. 

Berlin's second-to-last full film musical (White Christmas, released later that year, would be the last). 

Monroe initially refused to do this movie, but Fox promised her the lead role in The Seven Year Itch and a pay increase of $3,000 a week. They also gave at least two numbers planned for Merman to her, including "Heat Wave." 

What I Don't Like: The story is the same domestic melodrama Fox had been serving up in its musicals going back to their 1938 Alexander's Ragtime Band. It feels like they tried to throw every possible cliche in, including Ray joining the priesthood. Speaking of Ray, while he's not quite as terrible as critics claimed at the time, he's not great, either. His performance is stiff as a board, which is likely why he doesn't have much to do besides sing, look concerned, and perform the marriage ceremony for Katie and her beau. No wonder this would be his only film appearance. 

Monroe's not a whole lot better. It's obvious that, other than her numbers, she didn't want to be here and wasn't interested in any of this. She has no chemistry with the vibrant O'Connor, whom she seems to treat more like a kid brother than a lover. It also has the same problem with historical accuracy as Alexander's Ragtime Band. After they get out of the 1910's around the twenty minute mark, it looks like the 50's for the rest of the film. 

The Big Finale: Not the best musical Fox put out, but the numbers are good enough for me to recommend this for major fans of the cast or the big, bold musicals of the 50's and 60's. 

Home Media: Easily found in all formats.

DVD

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Happy Mother's Day! - My Blue Heaven (1950)

20th Century Fox, 1950

Starring Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, David Wayne, and Jane Wyatt

Directed by Henry Koster

Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Ralph Blane

Mother Wore Tights wasn't the last time Betty Grable and Dan Dailey played singing and dancing parents. This modern story of a dancing team who want to adopt a baby was Grable and Dailey's third of four films together. In addition to being a rare musical family drama, it's also one of the earliest film musicals to be set around television. TV was already starting to make headway as the latest up-and-coming medium, and far bigger threat to movies' pop culture dominance than radio. How does one couple handle all these changes? Let's start as radio star Kitty Moran (Grable) learns she's going to have a baby and find out...

The Story: Kitty and her partner and husband Jack (Dailey) are thrilled, and so are all of their friends. Sadly, their dreams of parenthood are shattered when Jack gets drunk at the baby shower and his wife is hurt in a car accident and miscarries. They try to adopt a child on the suggestion of their producer and sponsor Walter Pringle (Wayne) and his wife Janet (Wyatt), but can't due to their status as performers. 

Even as their show moves to television, things seem to be turning around, and they find an orphanage willing to let them adopt a boy...until the priggish head of the home Mrs. Bates (Minerva Urecal) sees their friends having a wild party at their apartment to welcome the baby and decides they aren't fit parents after all. Kitty's devastated, until Walter finds a woman who wants to give away her child. Kitty insists on taking care of the baby herself...but first she has to fend off her understudy Gloria (Mitzi Gaynor) when she takes her place on the show, then the child's father turns up and wants it back...

The Song and Dance: I give this one credit for originality. Musicals don't often go into domestic drama, and there's even fewer that involve adoption and how difficult the process is. There's also its discussion of early live television. Movies were mostly trying to ignore this upstart rival at this point; this may have been one of the first film musicals to use it as part of the plot. Daily and Grable make just as believable a couple in modern dress as they did in the early 20th century, and Wayne and Wyatt more than match them as the goofier couple who already have six kids, three adopted. 

Favorite Number: We begin with Grable and Dailey clowning on their radio show, singing about tax season and how "It's Deductible," even every member of the family. Wayne and all the men from the show joke about "What a Man!" Dailey is for conceiving a child, as they all get drunk and raucous at the baby shower. They sing about "Halloween" dressed as scarecrows for the Pringle kids after losing the baby. Grable and Dailey are servants dreaming of a night on the town in their masters' clothes and how "I Love a New Yorker" during their TV show. 

"Live Hard, Work Hard, Play Hard" starts off with Dailey as a gambler singing about his personal motto and Gaynor as the moll who wants him to pay more attention to her...until we cut to Grable's apartment and see her watching the show. The number finishes with her as she dances her part, claiming she could do better than Gloria ever did. "The Friendly Islands" is an obvious spoof of then then-major Broadway hit "South Pacific," with Dailey attempting to sing bass like Enzio Pinza, Grable in bad dark makeup as the native girl he falls for, and "islanders" and sailors swaying all around them. 

Trivia: Film debut of Mitzi Gaynor.

What I Don't Like: I appreciate them tackling difficult subjects like adultery and adoption in a movie musical....but I wish they'd actually figured out if they wanted to be a domestic drama or a slightly dark comedy. There's enough mood whiplash in this film to give you neck cramps. It goes right from the car crash - which we don't see much of - and her recovery into the "Halloween" sequence. Jack looks like he's dallying with Gloria...and then Kitty shows up quickly to lay down the law. On one hand, I am glad they didn't linger over a messy subplot...but it also makes me wish the film hadn't passed over this so quickly. The ending is fairly abrupt and a bit too obvious and happy-ending for the somewhat darker story before it.

Frankly, none of the musical numbers are all that memorable, either. The music is dull, and other than the novel integration of "Live Hard, Work Hard, Play Hard" as Grable wishes she was one performing, mostly don't have anything to do with the film and slow it down. 

The Big Picture: While I give 20th Century Fox credit for trying something different with Grable's vehicles, it's still best for fans of her, Dailey, or the big musicals of the 1950's. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.

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Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - It's Always Fair Weather

MGM, 1955

Starring Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey, and Michael Kidd

Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen

Music by Andre Previn; Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green

This began life as Comden and Green's sequel to the 1949 hit On the Town. When Kelly's co-stars from that film Jules Munshin and Frank Sinatra proved to be unavailable, they changed the story to focus on three unrelated best friends during World War II who meet again ten years later. Donen wasn't happy to work with Kelly again; in fact, their friendship fractured during the making of this film. They weren't the only ones with problems, either. How problematic was this unusually dark musical? Let's turn back the clock and start at a bar in New York, just as World War II ends, and see three former soldiers begin a friendship they think is forever...

The Story: Angie Valentine (Kidd), Ted Reilly (Kelly), and Doug Hallerton (Dailey) have big dreams for their futures after they're released from the Army. Angie wants to become a celebrated chef, Ted a lawyer, and Doug an artist. They vow to meet again at the same bar 10 years later, despite Tim the bartender (David Burns) claiming it won't last.

Each man goes their separate ways, but their lives don't become anything like they hoped. Doug goes into the high-paid world of advertising, but he hates his job creating copy for a cutesy campaign and his marriage is crumbling. Angie loves his wife and huge family, but wishes he ran more than a diner. Ted's a shady gambler who wins a corrupt prize fighter in a poker game. When they meet again in 1955, they learn they have nothing in common and hate each other.

That might have been that, if Doug's fellow advertising executive Jackie Leighton (Charisse) hadn't found out about their reunion. She thinks their story is perfect for Madeline Bradville (Dolores Gray), a singer with a popular late-night TV show specializing in guests with heart-tugging histories. The guys aren't sure at first...but they later discover that the reunion has changed their lives, and their perception of who they really want to be.

The Song and Dance: You've probably already noticed from the plot description, but despite the upbeat musical numbers and sunny title, this is not your typical MGM musical. I don't know too many other musicals that realistically explore how hard it can be to maintain a friendship, why friends grow apart, and how connecting with others can help us find ourselves. Though Kelly's good in the role of the heel who realizes he can be something better, the real stand-outs are Dailey as the artist who gave up his dreams for a soulless executive job and Dolores Gray as the temperamental TV diva whose toothpaste smile hides a selfish heart. 

Favorite Number: "The Binge" is the famous instrumental number set after they join a rejected Ted in getting drunk all over New York. They're so gone, they tap dance in an alley with trash can lids on their feet. "I Shouldn't Have Come Here" is the guys' number at the fancy restaurant where Doug takes the others on his expense account. They sing their frustrations and their opinions of what the others have become in a rant set to "The Blue Danube Waltz." 

Charisse joins a gaggle of punch-drunk fighters at Stillman's Gym as she relates her encyclopedic knowledge of boxing and shows off her great gams in "Baby You Knock Me Out." The trio do a triple split-screen tap routine that makes great use of the CinemaScope camera in "Once Upon a Time." Ted realizes that "I Like Myself" in Kelly's last great solo number, a virtuoso tap dance on roller skates through the streets of New York. "Situation-wise" is Dailey's big number, as he gets drunk at a company party and reveals what he hates about his job. Gray reveals her true material girl nature as she tells a group of fawning young men "Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks" and finds creative ways to get rid of them. 

Trivia: Gene Kelly bought the roller skates used in "I Like Myself" at a store down the street from his home in Los Angeles. They were ordinary skates that weren't altered for the number, making his dancing there all the more extraordinary. 

Three numbers - a solo for Kidd and his children at the diner, "Jack and the Space Giants," a comic duet for Kelly and Charisse, "Love Is Nothing But a Racket," and "I Never Thought They'd Leave" for Gray - were cut from the film. Footage of the first two, along with more of "The Binge," have been found and is included on the DVD, along with the audio for "Leave."

Gray's character, her show, and the "Thanks a Lot" number spoofed the cheery excesses of TV during the pioneering 50's, especially The Dinah Shore Show and the sob story game shows Queen for a Day and Strike It Rich. 

What I Don't Like: First and foremost, this is obviously not for you if you're looking for a more upbeat or optimistic romp through New York. It's as dark as the MGM musical was willing to go in 1955. I wish they'd made better use of choreographer Kidd...but this was his first acting job in the movies, and he's so stiff in what little dialogue he does have, maybe it's just as well. They at least should have kept Kelly and Charisse's comic duet in. The romance between the two feels perfunctory and there just because musicals were still required to have a romantic subplot then. It doesn't help that Dailey, Kelly, and Kidd lack the chemistry of Kelly, Sinatra, and Munshin. They're more believable as fracturing strangers than the best buddies they claim to be in the opening sequences. 

The Big Finale: Too mature and thoughtful for its time and for many audiences even today, this odd hybrid of sunniness and cynicism is worth checking out for the amazing dance routines alone. 

Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, the former from the Warner Archives.

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Meet Me In Las Vegas

MGM, 1956

Starring Cyd Charisse, Dan Dailey, Agnes Moorehead, and Jim Backus

Directed by Roy Rowland

Music by Nicholas Brodszky; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

In the post-war years, Las Vegas became a mecca for entertainers, gamblers, and anyone looking to have a classy good time. Everyone who was anyone played snazzy night clubs like the Copa Room and the Arabian Room, dancing the night away as top headliners performed with electric lights blinking on slightly startled gamblers from the casino floors. They had class, style, and a real sense of elegance, even with unsavory gangland folks often pouring money into them. That classier side of mid-century Vegas is reflected in this fluffy showcase for dancers Charisse and Dailey. How does this look at Vegas at the height of its "Rat Pack" era look now? Let's head to the Sands Hotel, just as down-on-his-luck rancher Chuck Rodwell (Daily) arrives, and find out...

The Story: Chuck's superstitious as well as broke. He grabs what he thinks is a random lady's hand to give him confidence while playing roulette...and he wins. And wins again when he holds it again. The lady in question, ballerina Maria Corvier (Charisse), isn't amused at first...at least until they keep winning. Now everyone in Vegas wants in on their good fortune, including Chuck's old flame Kelly Donovan (Cara Williams) and Sands promoter Tom Culdane (Backus). The two find themselves falling in love for real, at least until Maria's manager (Paul Henried) appears on the scene.

The Song and Dance: That and some nice shots of Vegas in its "ring-a-ding-ding" prime are the chief interests here. Charisse may not be much of an actor, but she looks great in the lean slit-skirt dresses she wears and has some really lovely (and occasionally rather strange) ballet numbers. Dailey's having even more fun as the down home rancher who can't believe he had the luck to find such a dish. Look for cameos from Jerry Colona, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Frankie Lane, Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher, Peter Lorre, and Vic Damone. 

Favorite Number: The Four Aces open the movie singing the title song superimposed behind ace cards. Jerry Colonna performs "My Lucky Charm" with a bevy of chorus girls dressed as good luck charms...which a drunk Charisse proceeds to invade with her own version of their slinky moves. Dailey joins adorable Japanese girl Mitsuko Sawmura for a more charming soft-shoe version of "Lucky Charm." Cara Williams stubbornly claims "I Refuse to Rock and Roll" as she wriggles to hot jazz in another nightclub number. Frankie Laine headlines a more original one, as "Hell Hath No Fury" like four ballerinas in devil scarlet dancing stylized anger behind him. Horne makes her final appearance in an MGM musical with the lovely ballad "If You Can Dream." Charisse joins Dailey and the boys on the ranch for the psuedo-country ballad "The Girl In the Yaller Shoes" as they toss her and her Victorian-by-way-of-50's style petticoats all over the veranda. 

Charisse appears in three ballets, two of which are among the most unusual to ever grace the silver screen. We first meet her at "The Rehearsal Ballet," as Maria and the troupe practice for their show, with Maria standing out in a sizzling red leotard and major pirouettes. About mid-way through, we get a modernized "The Sleeping Beauty Ballet" that somehow manages to have Maria's Sleeping Beauty fall under the spell of a mis-thrown volley ball in the middle of a choreographed volleyball game. The last is a re-written "Frankie and Johnny," with Sammy Davis Jr. performing the traditional song of a woman scorned and how she gets revenge on her unfaithful lover.

What I Don't Like: There's not much to this one besides the numbers. The story's some of the silliest fluff ever concocted for a major musical, and the songs don't really have much to do with it. This is another one that feels like MGM randomly grabbed anyone hanging around the lot who could be transported to Vegas (or already headlined there) and stuffed them in wherever they did (or didn't) fit. It doesn't help that neither Henried as Maria's calculating manager nor Williams as Chuck's blousy ex-girlfriend are threatening enough to make you believe they could break up these lucky lovers. 

Dailey is an excellent dancer in his own right. I really wish he'd been given more dance numbers than his one (admittedly cute) number with sweet little Mitsuko and his part in "Girl In the Yaller Shoes." 

The Big Finale: Worth checking out at least once if you love the MGM musicals of the 50's, Charisse, Dailey, or want a glimpse of Vegas when it was the height of all things cool. 

Home Media: Can be found in a remastered DVD from the Warner Archives and on streaming.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Happy Father's Day! - The Girl Next Door

20th Century Fox, 1953
Starring June Haver, Dan Dailey, Dennis Day, and Billy Gray
Directed by Richard Sale
Music by Josef Myrow; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

We celebrate a day for dads with this unusual comedy about a devoted dad, his adored son, and the Broadway star who moves in next to them. First, though, we're going to begin with chorus girls traveling around the country, and find out how Jeannie Laird (Haver) ends up moving to Scarsdale, New York...

The Story: Tired of living out of trunks, Jeannie is delighted to take a home in the country. On the night of her first party, birds attack the guests, then smoke pours over the wall and chokes them. She goes next door to discover her neighbors are cartoonist Bill Carter (Daily) and his son Joe (Gray). Bill's comic strip revolves around his life with Joe, and he and his son are the best of friends. Joe's upset when his father starts to spend more and more time with Jeannie and less with him, especially when his father blows off a trip to Canada. Bill's torn between his new love and his dear child, but it takes Joe befriending a little girl (Mary Jane Saunders) to understand why his father is in love with Jeannie.

The Song and Dance: Simple and charming, this one has more in common with sitcoms about single fathers from a decade later like Family Affair and The Courtship of Eddie's Father than a typical musical from this time. It's rare to see such a close father-son relationship in a musical, and Joe and Bill have a genuine and sweet relationship. Haver and Daily get to show off their dancing abilities in two extended ballets and several duets, while Saunders and Gray are very funny as the boy who is afraid he'll lose his father and the girl who wishes Joe would let her into his world. Even the limited-animation sequences with Bill's cartoons and Joe's in the finale are pretty cute.

Favorite Number: We learn how Jeannie went from chorus girl to Broadway star in two numbers seen over the credits, "We Girls of the Chorus" and "The Great White Way." The credits end with Jeannie describing her perfect, peaceful new home in "A Quiet Little Place In the Countryside." After Jeannie storms off, Bill and Joe claim that "I'd Rather Have a Pal Than a Gal Anytime."

Two extended fantasy ballets stand out in an otherwise low-key film. "Nowhere Boy" is Jeannie's plea to her prowling lover in a dark film-noir style dance in a night club that has Dailey dreaming himself onto the stage with her. Bill is torn between his fishing buddy Joe and his love for dancing and Jeannie in another fantasy dance sequence towards the end of the movie.

Trivia: Last film roles for Dennis Day and June Haver. Haver joined a convent for six months before dropping out to marry Fred MacMurray.

This was originally supposed to have been Dailey's fifth pairing with Betty Grable, but she dropped out early-on.

What I Don't Like: Not only are Jeannie and Bill from two different worlds, but it sometimes feels like the movie is, too. "Nowhere Boy" and "The Girl Next Door Ballet" stick out like sore thumbs in the otherwise relatively realistic plot and low-key songs. "Nowhere Boy" in particular has no relation to anything and seems to have been dropped in from some darker story. Day and Cara Williams are basically around to be the best friend second couple and for Day to pour his Irish tenor into a few ballads and don't add a whole lot to the movie.

The Big Finale: Unique comedy-musical isn't the most necessary movie in the world, but it is a charming enough way to pass and hour and a half with your own dad on Father's Day if you love 50's musicals or sitcoms.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.

DVD
Amazon Prime

Happy Mother's Day! - Mother Wore Tights

20th Century Fox, 1947
Starring Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Mona Freeman, and Connie Marshall
Directed by Walter Lang
Music by Josef Myrow; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

Happy Mother's Day! I'm reviewing this one in honor of my mother, Cheryl Jackman. It's one of her favorite movies, and I'm glad I was able to find it for both of us. Betty Grable had one of her biggest hits with this film, and it introduced her to her friend and frequent partner Dan Dailey. Let's head to the porch of a quiet little house to meet a kindly old couple, and hear the story of Miriam "Mikie" Burt's (narration by Anne Baxter) unusual family...

The Story:  Myrtle McKinley (Grable) meets Frank Burt (Dailey) shortly after her high school graduation in 1900, when she goes into San Francisco with two friends and tries to get into a burlesque house for free. Her friend lies and says they're there for jobs, but only Myrtle sticks it out. Frank sees her talent and takes a liking to her, offering to do a duo act. She takes him up on the offer, but almost leaves for another show before he finally breaks down and proposes.

Their new vaudeville act is a success. Myrtle takes time off to have two daughters, Iris (Freeman), and Miriam (Marshall), whom they call "Mikie." She raises them for a while, but her grandmother (Sara Allgood) eventually suggests that she returns to the act to keep an eye on her husband. She does, successfully.

They do well enough to have regular holidays, including the girls visiting them on the road one Christmas, and another one to a quiet little resort hotel in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. While her parents perk up the staid regulars, Iris falls in love with Bob (Robert Arthur), a young man whose family regularly goes there. She convinces her parents to let her and Mikie go to boarding school in Boston, but learns to her horror that her new friends don't think the stage is a dignified profession. Frank and Myrtle put on a show for the school to prove that vaudeville can indeed be sophisticated and elegant.

The Song and Dance: No wonder Mom loves this movie, and it was said to have been Betty Grable's favorite of her vehicles. It's adorable. Dailey and Grable make a nice couple and are quite believable as married parents of teenagers, two buddy-next-door blondes. Freeman is lovely as their confused teen daughter (although her beautiful voice was dubbed). The beginning in San Francisco when they meet and their trip to the quietest, most dull hotel in New England are also a lot of fun. The vaudeville angle gives this one an edge that many coming-of-age musical tales lack.

The color in this movie is gorgeous, especially when they're at the resort. The residents may be dull, but their surroundings are brilliant. The costumes are also nicely done, especially during the vaudeville numbers.

Favorite Number: The British music hall standard "Burlington Bertie from Bow" turns up in another 20th Century Fox musical, first performed by Dailey, then by Grable in a dead-on imitation. "You Do" was nominated for an Oscar, and it gets two nice run-throughs, a glamorous vaudeville version after Myrtle has returned to the act, and Iris singing it at her graduation in the finale. Grable and Dailey get two more good vaudeville numbers, the funny "This Is My Hometown" as they switch towns and theaters, and the sweet "Kokomo, Indiana."

Trivia: This is based on the memoir Mother Wore Tights, by the real Miriam (Burt) Young (who apparently went on to become a children's book author).

Mother Wore Tights was the first of four films that Grable and Dailey appeared in together in the late 40's and early 50's.

Betty Grable was pregnant during the making of this film, which explains why her stomach is frequently covered by banjos or feathers.

What I Don't Like: The movie feels too short, especially for a coming-of-age story. I would have liked to have seen more of the girls at the resort and in boarding school. We don't really see much of Mikie at all other than her falling down at the resort. Despite Myrtle's constant worry about her grandmother figuring out that she shucked college in the beginning, she accepts her new career awfully fast. Grable doesn't look much like a teenager, either (especially compared to the real young people later in the movie). As nice as the costumes are, once we get past the early 1900's, it doesn't really look that historical other than some of Mikie's girls' dresses.

The Big Finale: If you or your mother are fans of Grable, Dailey, or coming-of-age stories, you'll want to see if you can find this charming tale.

Home Media: At press time, this is only avaible on DVD via the made-to-order 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives.

DVD