The Dolly Sisters

20th Century Fox, 1945
Starring Betty Grable, June Haver, John Payne, and SK Sakall
Directed by Irving Cummings
Music by James V. Monaco, Charles Henderson, and others; Lyrics by Mack Gordon and others

Betty Grable was the top draw at Fox by the time this movie went into production in 1944. It was only natural for the biggest star in Hollywood and the newest star on the Fox lot to play two of the most beloved vaudeville performers of the early 20th century. How does the troubled lives of these glamorous siblings come off nowadays? Let's follow Uncle "Latsie" Lazlo Dolly (Sakall) and his nieces to small Hungarian cafe in New York in 1904 and find out...

The Story: Rosie (Haver) and Jenny (Grable) are still singing in that cafe in 1912 to pay their uncle's gambling debts. Still needing cash, they decide to get into vaudeville. Harry Fox (Payne) first comes into their life on the train to New York. He fibs that he's a Broadway headliner,  when it turns out he's really a low-level songwriter. He's upset that they're billed over him, but it evaporates when they go over really well. He even helps them get in with vaudeville impresario Arthur Hammerstein (Robert Middlemass). They're a huge hit, even as Harry continues to struggle.

Harry and Jenny do finally marry and his newest song becomes a hit...just as World War I breaks out. Harry joins the army and Jenny rejoins Rosie for a European tour. He wants her to join him, but she can't bring herself to leave her sister again, leading him to demand a divorce. The sisters ultimately remain in Europe after the war. Rosie becomes engaged to department store owner Irving Netcher (Frank Latimore), while Jenny gambles, drinks, and pursues a British nobleman (Reginald Gardiner). Unfortunately, tormented by her memories of Harry, they end up in a nasty car crash. Jenny's career ends in a haze of hospital visits and morphine, but there's always her memories of one last concert with Harry.

The Song and Dance: Grable is the thing in this colorful and evocative rendition of the vaudeville era of the early 20th century. She actually comes off pretty well as the older sister torn between her love for her sibling and her love for her first husband. Where this movie scores best is when it focuses on the sisters themselves and their world of seal trainers, acrobats, demanding singers, and glittering dancers. The costumes and sets are colorful and fairly accurate to the era for one of these movies and for the early 40's. I also love the sequence where Harry encourages the girls to pose as Hungarian headliners to get Hammerstein's attention, and earlier when they're dressed as children to get a half-fare train ride and still flirt with Harry.

Favorite Number: Most of the songs in the film were from the era the story was set in, like Payne and Grable's cute "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl" sung to a male chorus on a record at their boarding house. Grable and Haver get one of the two new songs, "We've Been Around," as they try to convince Hammerstein that they're big European stars. Payne introduces the lovely ballad "I Can't Begin to Tell You," which he gets to sing with the girls in the finale. He also does a nice "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" with Grable in a nightclub right before he's discovered.

What I Don't Like: Most of this movie is pure fabrication. Yes, the Dolly Sisters really were vaudeville headliners, were twin dancers whose moves shadowed each other, were a hit in Europe during and after the war, and Jenny really did marry a songwriter named Harry Fox and was in a terrible car accident. They were also tall, willowy brunettes instead of bosomy blondes, and they came over from Hungary with their parents, not their goofy uncle. Jenny's accident was years after she divorced Fox, and it was over whether she should marry Selfridge, the real-life British department store owner. Neither sister's life ended happily. Consumed by her injuries and the resulting pain, Jenny committed suicide in 1941. Rosie considered it, but finally died in 1970.

Haver is stiff as a board as the slightly younger Dolly Sister and with a lot less to do. Payne comes off only slightly better. He was never really comfortable in musicals, despite being a good singer. The larger musical numbers come off even worse. While the "Powder, Lipstick, and Rouge" chorus routine is generally goofy but harmless, "The Darktown Strutters Ball" in Paris, with it's glamorous depictions of African-American stereotypes, is more offensive than amusing today.

The Big Finale: Ultimately, this one is best for fans of Grable, romantic melodrama, or the big Technicolor musicals of the 40's and 50's.

Home Media: Currently only on DVD via 20th Century Fox's Marquee Musicals collection.

DVD