Starring Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire, Roland Young, and Ruth Warrick
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
There were high hopes for this one in 1950. Astaire just had a major hit with Easter Parade two years before; Hutton got the lead in Annie Get Your Gun after Judy Garland bowed out. Songwriter Frank Loesser had hits with the Oscar-winning "Baby It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter and the wildly popular Guys and Dolls on Broadway. Paramount tossed them all into this unusually dark story about a comedienne who desperately wants to keep her son and gets help from her former dance partner. Is it still meaningful today, or should it be taken away? Let's begin with Hutton in full belting mode, singing for the troops during World War II, and find out...
The Story: Don Elwood (Astaire) thinks Kitty O'Neil (Hutton) is going to marry him, but she ends up wed to a handsome and wealthy soldier. Five years later, the solider is dead after being shot down. Lively Kitty lives with his family, raising his son Richard (Gregory Moffat), but feels constrained by his disapproving family. Snooty Aunt Serena (Luclile Watson) wants Richard to stay with them, but Kitty won't give up her last line to her soldier and insists he stay with her.
Fed up with Serena's meddling, Kitty flees to New York with Richard. Don gets Kitty a job as a cigarette girl at the nightclub where he works. To Kitty's horror, Serena has sent two lawyers to get Richard back from her. Don takes her on as his partner to give her more stable employment. The lawyers are concerned by all the time Richard spends backstage and away from school, but the nightclub staff admit they have no trouble keeping an eye on him. Don once again tries to get her married, but it ends with them fighting and Kitty falling for another rich man, Timothy Bryant (Sheppard Strudwick). After Don ends the wedding and Serena gets Richard back, Kitty takes off with the boy yet again...but this time, Don has the means to make Serena understand how much the boy means to all of them, and to get Kitty to see how much they all mean to each other.
The Song and Dance: An unusually thoughtful musical for this era, with Hutton making a wonderful mother. She's hilarious with Moffatt, especially when he asks her where she's going and she exclaims "Crazy!" (My mother used to say the same thing to my siblings and me.) The story of a mother's devotion and how found families are often far kinder and more supportive than our actual ones is surprisingly heartfelt, and even a little dark, despite Hutton's noisy antics. Watson and Barton MacLane stand out among the supporting cast as the frigid aunt who thinks she knows best - or better than Kitty - and the owner of the nightclub who is as surprised as anyone when he gets attached to the kid.
The Numbers: We start off with Hutton doing what she does best, blaring the rapid-fire patter number "Can't Stop Talking About Him" while accompanied by an air raid siren - and more than matching its wail. Astaire comes out later for a more romantic dance. He has a creative solo number where he glides around the piano during a rehearsal in the nightclub that's by far his best moment. Richie is delighted to hear his stocks and bonds-based rendition of "Jack and the Beanstalk."
The hilarious "Oh Them Dudes" has Hutton and Astaire dressed as cowpokes and clowning while complaining how TV made their do-se-dos look all fancy-fied. Hutton tries to be seductive to Timothy, insisting "Why Fight This Feeling?" The film ends with the charming "Tunnel of Love," as Kitty and Don come together in the nightclub for this charming seaside-based dance routine.
What I Don't Like: The story is honestly a little too dark and complex for a light-hearted musical. The courtroom scenes and stuffy lawyers bog down a lot of the middle section and turn what should have been a fun romp into an almost two-hour slog. Astaire could have had more to do than one solo and the brief "Jack" routine. This is really Hutton's show. Frank Loesser's score is charming but hardly among his best work. And to tell the truth, Hutton's brash and forceful personality really doesn't fit all that well with the more charming and graceful Astaire. They dance all right together, but her pushiness and neediness crowds out his elegance.
The Big Finale: Worth seeing once for some decent numbers alone if you're a fan of either star and have time on your hands.
Home Media: Easily found on streaming and disc; just released on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber.
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