Celebrating Juneteenth - Killer Diller

All-American, 1948

Starring Dusty Fletcher, George Wiltshire, Butterfly McQueen, and Nellie Hill

Directed by Josh Binney

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's celebrate Juneteeth, the day the slaves were freed in Texas, with a collection of black talent you won't see anywhere else. Race movies, B-films made for segregated black theaters, go back to the silent movie era. By the post-war era, they were wildly popular, and though there were dramas, mysteries, and non-musical comedies, the biggest of all were the all-black musicals. We saw two other race films from this era back in February. How does this one compare to those? Let's begin with theater manager Baltimore Dumdore (Wiltshire), as he tells his secretary Butterfly (McQueen) to find him a magician, and find out...

The Story: The magician Butterfly digs up is Dusty (Fletcher), and...well, he's not very good. He accidentally makes his girlfriend Lola (Hill) disappear after she walks into two disappearing cabinets. Trouble is, Dumdore just gave Lola a thousand-dollar pearl necklace that vanished with her. The police chase Dusty in and out of his cabinets...and all around the acts in the big variety show Dumdore wanted him for in the first place.

The Song and Dance: With a story that flimsy, the real attraction here is the variety show itself. Nat "King" Cole and his trio make some of their first movie appearances here, and we get a rare glimpse of a slightly watered-down version of Jackie "Moms" Mabley's infamously ribald stage act. Some of the dancing is pretty darn amazing too, especially from the quartet known as The Four Congaroos. 

The Numbers: Our first song isn't until we start the variety show, 15 minutes into a 75-minute movie, but it's the lively "Gator Serenade" by Andy Kirk and His Orchestra. Next, sassy Beverly White has too much fun admitting she loves being single in "I Don't Want to Be Married" and "It Ain't Nobody's Bizness What I Do." Rotund singing comics Patterson and Jackson are next with "I Believe" from It Happened In Brooklyn, a delightful tap routine by Patterson to "Ain't Misbehavin," and their imitation of the Ink Spots, "If I Didn't Care." Moms performs "Don't Sit On My Bed" twice, first after Patterson and Jackson. Later in the night, she's disrupted by Dusty and the cops and gets so fed up, she walks off. We next get another nifty tap routine, this one from the Lark Brothers. 

After that, it's our first Nat "King" Cole Trio number of the night. Cole's having a great time with the adorably charming upbeat ballad "Ooh Kickaroonie." Cole slows things down with the comic blues number "Now He Tells Me," then finishes with "Breezy and the Beat." The Four Congaroos really pick up the pace with their wild Lindy Hop to Andy Kirk and His Orchestra playing "Basie's Boogie." Kirk and His Orchestra stay for two more solo numbers. The variety show's finale features Kirk and his group performing "Apollo Groove" for the "Varietettes Dancing Girls," aka members of the Katherine Durham School of Dancing. 

What I Don't Like: Did I mention the flimsy plot? There's a few mildly funny moments with Dusty being chased by the cops and flirting with Butterfly, but they're mostly annoying and unnecessary. (And we never do get to see Dusty do his actual magic act in the show.) I really, really wish BET or someone else would throw money at restoring these, too. The copy on Tubi is awful, scratchy and blurry.

The Big Finale: Worth checking out for the acts alone if you're a fan of Cole or Mabley or the black orchestras and performers of the 40's and 50's. 

Home Media: Like most of the race movies, it's in the public domain and can be found on most formats. It's currently streaming for free with commercials at Tubi.

DVD

Tubi

Happy Father's Day! - Hearts Beat Loud

Gunpowder & Sky, 2018

Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemmons, Toni Collette, and Sasha Lane

Directed by Brett Haley

Music and Lyrics by Keegan DeWitt

We're digging into the indie scene to honor Pride Month and Father's Day with this charming tale of a father and daughter who form an unlikely songwriting duo just as their lives pull them apart. Independent musicals go back to the start of the early talkie era, when even smaller production companies were bit by the musical bug. They started up again with their own lower-budget versions of Busby Berkeley in the 1930's. By the 1940's, Poverty Row studios like Monogram were making dozens of musicals mainly catering to the brand-new youth market or to soldiers overseas. Once the war ended, they tapered off...until the 60's, when the Beach Party movies made for drive-in double features suddenly made low-budget antics big again. Even today, low-budget independent musicals like Once continue to prove that you don't need big studio largess to make great music. How does this sweet, simple story fare? Let's begin at Red Hook Records in Brooklyn, where owner Frank Fisher (Offerman) is offending a customer by smoking inside, and find out...

The Story: Frank looks forward to playing music and writing songs with his daughter Samantha (Clemmons) every evening. It's one of the few things in his life that isn't changing for the worse. His landlady Leslie (Collette) just raised the rent on his record store, and he won't be able to keep it open for much longer. Sam insists that she's going away to medical college in California at the end of the summer, and that she's not starting a band with her father. He downloads a song they wrote on Spotify, calling themselves "We're Not a Band." While Frank rejects Leslie's ideas to expand the store with a cafe, Sam writes a song about her relationship with her girlfriend Rose (Lane). It isn't until the day Red Hook Records closes for good that father and daughter agree to play together again. Even though they'll be on separate coasts, they now understand that when they play each other's music, they're never far from each other's heart.

The Song and Dance: This is such a sweet movie. Though Collette as the landlady with an interest in Frank and Ted Danson as Frank's bar-owning best friend have good moments, it almost entirely belongs to Offerman and Clemmons as the fractious father and daughter. He in particular puts in a terrific performance as the doting dad who fears change and hopes that posting their music and getting her to play in a band with keep her from leaving. Some nice cinematography in the real Brooklyn, too, especially as Sam and Rose go on dates throughout the borough. Their relationship is also genuinely charming, even if it doesn't get the screen time that Sam and her father do.

The Numbers: We open with Frank watching "Summer Noon" on his laptop and ignoring a fussy customer who insists that he not smoke inside. We first hear the embryonic form of "Hearts Beat Loud" during a father-daughter jam session. Sam adds lyrics to it later, which her father then uploads to Spotify without telling her. She writes "Blink (One Million Miles)" about her relationship with Rose. He writes "Shut Your Eyes" and "Everything Must Go," the latter on closing the store. They play "Hearts," "Blink," and "Everything" on the final day of the store's operation. She reprises "Hearts" at an open mic night in California alone.

Trivia: The songs were performed live on-set, much as they would have been in real life.

What I Don't Like: Did I mention this is a small-scale, low-budget musical? It's not for someone who wants huge Busby Berkeley spectacles and big stars, or a more complicated story. It's just a father, a daughter, and how they deal with the changes in their lives. Those looking for something more lavish or typical will have to go elsewhere. I also kind of wish we could have seen a little bit more of the girls' relationship and how Rose handled their separation. 

The Big Finale: Small-scale charmer has a lot to love for those who just want to watch something sweet and small with their own dads this Father's Day.

Home Media: Easily found on all formats, including for free on streaming with commercials.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Cult Flops - Viennese Nights

Warner Bros, 1930

Starring Vivienne Segal, Alexander Gray, Bert Roach, and Walter Pigeon

Directed by Alan Crosland

Music by Sigmund Romberg; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein III

Warners hadn't had much luck with film operetta before this came out. Though The Desert Song was a hit, it didn't go over that well with the critics. Song of the West went over even worse, and then there was the infamously offensive Golden Dawn. No amount of fancy songs or jungle capers could put that one over with anyone, even then. By 1930, they were getting more creative. They hired Oscar Hammerstein III and Sigmund Romberg to create music for four original operettas, three of which made it out just as musicals fell out of favor. This is the only one of those three still existing today. It didn't go over well in the US in 1930, which was still reeling from the start of the Great Depression, but is this brittle confection worth checking out over 90 years later? Let's begin in the 1870's in old Vienna at the time of the Austrian Empire, as three close friends and students sing of good times to come, and find out...

The Story: Those three friends are Otto Stiemer (Gray), wealthy Franz von Renner (Pigeon), and plump, jolly Gus Sascher (Roach). The three join the Austrian army, but only Franz proves suited to it. Otto's heart is forever with his beloved symphony. Otto falls for the lovely cobbler's daughter Elsa Hofner (Segal), but her father (Jean Hersholt) wants her to marry a man with money and discourages their romance. She eventually agrees to marry Franz after Otto gets drunk when her father tells him Elsa is more in love with money than him.

Otto and Gus move to New York with Gus' girlfriend Gretl (Louise Fazenda). Otto gets small jobs with Broadway pit orchestras, but it's not enough to put food on the table. His shrill wife Emma (Virginia Sale) demands that he get a job in Gus' pickle factory and give up music. One night at the show, he sees the now-wealthy Elsa with the Hungarian ambassador (Bela Lugosi). They go for a ride after the show, and though she admits she still loves him, she doesn't run away with him after she discovers he has a son (Freddie Burke Fredrick) he adores. 

Forty years later, it's now 1930. The elderly Elsa is preparing her granddaughter Barbara (Alice Day) to marry a wealthy man, but Barbara truly loves a poor composer (Gray). Despite her grandmother's protests, she finally gets her to hear her sweetheart's music...which sounds a lot like that symphony his grandfather never completed. Elsa is forced to confront her feelings for Otto and just how much he meant to her, even after all these years.

The Song and Dance: It's too bad this one isn't better-known today. What a truly lovely film! I'm so glad the color is intact here. The frothy pastels of two-strip Technicolor add enormous charm and sparkle to the proceedings. Segal and Gray overcome some slightly stiff dialogue with gorgeous performances of some of Romberg and Hammerstein's best film music. "You Will Remember Vienna" was the hit and the promise. Fazenda and Roach have their own fun as Elsa's chatty best friend and Otto's rotund business-minded pal. Hammerstein and Romberg had control over not only the music, but every set and costume, which explains the gorgeous production and why the music bonds so well with the romantic story. 

The Numbers: In fact, we open with Otto, his two friends, and Franz's father Baron von Renner (Phillpp Lothar Mayring) singing "You Will Remember Vienna" in the young men's cheap apartment. "Goodbye My Love" is our first chorus number at the Dritte Cafe. The second is "Oli Oli Oli" as the students enjoy their time with the ladies and the soldiers join them. Gus convinces Elsa to reprise "Vienna" at the Cafe. It turns into another chorus number as the other soldiers join in, including an enchanted Franz. Franz joins in with his own song to woo her, "If I Were a Gypsy." "Here We Are" is performed by Elsa, Otto, and the students and their girls at the cafe. We also hear "The Regimental March" twice, both times as a lively chorus number in and outside of the cafe.

Gretl reminds the besotted Elsa what happens "When You Have No Man to Love" while they're discussing her suitors. Otto reprises an instrumental "Vienna" on his violin at the conservatory, to Elsa's delight. He tells her "I Bring a Love Song" in the other hit from this score. "Here We Are" is heard again after the announcement of Franz and Elsa's engagement, but Otto is heartbroken as he reprises "Vienna." 

Years later, we cut to New York, where Otto plays "I Bring You Bad News" for a Broadway operetta of the time. He hears Elsa singing "Vienna" again in his mind, drowning out his obnoxious and unappreciative wife. "I'm Lonely" laments the singer (June Percell) in the show Otto plays for, before he encounters Elsa again. We get a jazzier reprise of "Here Are We" for Barbara, her sweetheart, and the Biltmore Trio in 1930. "Poem Symphony" is the concert number in the finale, the variation on "Vienna" that Otto had worked on for so long. We end with another reprise of "Vienna" as Elsa's spirit walks off with the now-late Otto.

Trivia: If your neck starts to itch when you see Elsa in the box at the Broadway operetta, yes, that is Bela Lugosi playing the Hungarian Ambassador next to her, almost a year before he became a star in Dracula. 

What I Don't Like: Not only is the story standard operetta melodrama, it sounds like Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet (which debuted in London the year before) and the 1937 MacDonald-Eddy version of Maytime, and can occasionally be heavy going. Roach and Fazenda are so cute when we see them, I almost wish she in particular had more to do than a few catty comments and her one comic number. 

The Big Finale: If any movie could benefit from being in the public domain, it's this one. I hope this exquisite candy box of an operetta finally gains the far wider audience it so richly deserves.

Home Media: Legal problems kept it off legitimate disc and streaming...but thanks to it entering the public domain this year, it's now all over YouTube.

YouTube 

The Inspector General (1949)

Warner Bros, 1949

Starring Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, and Elsa Lanchester

Directed by Henry Kostner

Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

Danny Kaye was at the height of his popularity as one of the most beloved comedians in the world when he did his one and only vehicle for Warners. Based on the 1832 Czech play The Government Inspector, and with music entirely by his wife Sylvia Fine, this also wound up being one of the biggest hits of Kaye's career. Is it still worth running for today? We'll begin in the small French town of Brodny, where the Mayor (Lockhart) and his corrupt cronies just got a most unwanted message, and find out...

The Story: The Mayor and his cronies are terrified when they get a message telling them that the Inspector General is coming to their town. The Inspector is known for demanding justice and honesty, and the Mayor and his family members whom he's assigned to office care about nothing but furnishing their own lavish lifestyle with tax money. They think a man who wandered into town and was arrested is the Inspector General. His real name is Georgi (Kaye), a kind but illiterate peasant who wandered into town after his gypsy boss Yakov (Slezak) fired him. The Mayor and his men dress him well and give him everything he asks for. The Mayor's wife (Lanchester) thinks he's her ticket out of town and flirts with him.

Even as Georgi enjoys their hospitality, Yakov makes his way to town and convinces Georgi to let him stay. Georgi is more interested in the pretty maid Leza (Barbara Bates). She tells him that the Mayor bought an organ for the church with taxpayers' money, then sold it to a nearby town. Yakov tries to convince Georgi to take bribes from the Mayor and his relatives to pay for the organ, then conspires with the Mayor to increase his sum. Georgi's horrified, even more so when the Mayor and his men plot to kill him. Yakov's quick thinking saves him, but Georgi manages to stop him from making off with the money. Fortunately for Georgi, the real Inspector General is on his way, and he's far more appreciative of honest men with no education than educated men with no honesty.

The Song and Dance: One thing I like about Danny Kaye is he's one of the few golden-age comedians who can pull off historical roles and manage to be dashing and funny at the same time. This would be his first of three historical movies (The Court Jester and Hans Christian Andersen would be the other two), and he runs with it, commanding when playing the Inspector, adorable and timid with Yakov, delightful showing off to the town in his patter numbers. Slezak and Lancaster take the other honors as his crafty boss who is more greedy than evil and the Mayor's love-starved wife. Gorgeous costumes and stunning Technicolor, even in the slightly blurry public domain prints generally available, ably bring the world of eastern Europe in the 1830's to life. 

The Numbers: We open with "The Medicine Show" as Kaye shows off his tongue-twisting dexterity Georgi's patter number intended to sell the phony elixir to the townspeople. "Brodny" is the chorus number that introduces Georgi to the townspeople as they all gather to greet the Inspector. It's heard again in the ending, as they salute their new Mayor. (He struggles to pull out his sword both times.) Georgi, nervous about being discovered, sings the title song after Yakov convinces him to stay. This goes into "Soliloquy for Three Heads" as three different versions of Georgi act as consciences and try to convince Georgi to stay or go. He does an instrumental acrobatic number with soldiers in training as he tries to hide from a general who saw him selling phony medicine with Yakov. 

Hoping to cheer up Leza and make her see that she can be more than a kitchen maid, he sings about "Happy Times" when they're downstairs together. One of the cronies (Walter Catlett) sings "Onward, Onward" when he's trying to explain his reasons for being corrupt to Georgi. Georgi launches into the "Gypsy Drinking Song" to distract the Mayor from his plan to retrieve the church organ, while the Mayor just hopes he drinks a poisoned glass of wine.

What I Don't Like: If you're not a fan of Kaye, you probably won't be into this. He has the lion's share of the songs except for the "Brodsky" chorus number and most of the best set pieces. This also doesn't have a lot in common with the book. In the original book, it was a Russian worker, not a French peasant, who accidentally fooled everyone. There was no church organ, no love interest, no gypsy boss or elixir. Fine's music, while not bad, isn't the best she's done for her husband, with "Happy Times" as the only standout.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Kaye or loved The Court Jester, you'll have just as much fun with his earlier venture into comedy in another time and place.

Home Media: Best place to find this public domain title would be on streaming. Almost every streaming service, especially the free ones, has it in one form or another.

Tubi

Pluto TV On Demand

Amazon Prime

YouTube

Happy Memorial Day! - Let's Face It

Paramount, 1943

Starring Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, Eve Arden, and ZaSu Pitts

Directed by Sidney Lanfield

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter and others

Let's celebrate the upcoming Memorial Day weekend with the last of the four comedies Bob Hope did set in the military. On Broadway in 1941, Let's Face It was a farce with Cole Porter songs that made stars out of Danny Kaye as one of three soldiers who are hired by bored wealthy women to escort them and Eve Arden as the most prominent of those women. It was a surprise hit despite less-than-stellar reviews that didn't consider it to be one of Porter's better scores. How does it look nowadays? Let's begin, not at the barracks, but at a dairy farm that is also a health spa for overweight women and find out...

The Story: Winnie Porter (Hutton) is getting tired of her fiancee, Private Jerry Walker (Hope) ducking out of getting married. On the day they're supposed to finally tie the knot, Winnie catches Jerry selling junk food to her clients, and the Army catches him when he accidentally drives a Jeep through a wall. Desperate to pay off the Jeep, he convinces his friends Barney (Dave Willock) and Frankie (Cully Richards) to join him in arranging dates for wealthy Maggie Watson (Arden) and her friends Cornelia Figeston (Pitts) and Nancy Collister (Phyllis Povah). The ladies are tired of their husbands going off on "fishing trips" and leaving them alone. Furious when they catch them with the women, Winnie and Frankie and Barney's girlfriends Muriel (Dona Drake) and Jean (Marjorie Weaver) take the ladies' husbands out on dates at the same nightclub. Unfortunately, the boys' superior officer Sergeant Wiggins (Joe Sawyer) is also out on the town. When he catches them, it sends the boys fleeing again.

The Song and Dance: Though Hope and Hutton both have some good moments, Arden and the older ladies are the ones who really steal the show. They get all the best lines and have some of the best moments, including when their husbands catch them with the soldiers! Hope does get a few moments of his own to shine, notably in the beginning when he's trying to hustle the ladies with the sweets and the end when the guys are fleeing the entire mess. 

The Numbers: We open with "The Milk Song" as Winnie leads ladies of all shapes and sizes in an exercise class. Winnie and Jerry say "Who Did? I Did? Yes I Did!" as they sing along to an album Winnie made and Jerry tries to show off on Winnie's exercise equipment. "Let's Face It" is the sole chorus number as the Army soldiers sing about the presents their girlfriends sent them. "Who Did?" is heard later as an instrumental dance number for the trio of soldiers as they literally stick together to keep the overly amorous older ladies at bay and as they finally do dance with the women. When we get to the nightclub, two dancers do an instrumental routine that seemed to mainly involve variations on the woman smacking the man. Winnie gives her own option on romance as she insists "Let's Not Talk About Love."

Trivia: Jules Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote "Who Did? I Did! Yes I Did!"

Let's Face It debuted on Broadway in 1941 with Kaye in Hope's role singing two patter numbers written by his wife Sylvia Fine in addition to Porter's songs. As mentioned, it was a surprise hit, running two years in New York and a year in London in 1943. It pretty much disappeared after the London run, other than a TV version in 1954 with Bert Lahr and Gene Nelson as the soldiers and Vivian Vance in Eve Arden's role.

What I Don't Like: No matter who wrote the music, this isn't really much of a musical. I really wish they'd kept more of the Cole Porter score, even if it wasn't one of his best. It might have fleshed out more of the characters. We barely see Winnie other than her numbers, and Jerry's buddies and their girls are fairly interchangeable. 

The Big Finale: Mainly for really big fans of Hope, Arden, Porter, or small-scale 40's musicals. 

Home Media: Which makes it just as well that the only places you can currently find this are on YouTube and the Internet Archive.

YouTube

Internet Archive

Li'l Abner (1959)

Paramount, 1959

Starring Peter Palmer, Stubby Kaye, Leslie Parrish, and Billie Hayes

Directed by Melvin Frank

Music by Gene dePaul; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Lil' Abner was one of the most popular comic strips of the mid-20th century. From 1934 to 1977, millions of Americans followed the hilarious shenanigans going on in the Kentucky hillbilly town Dogpatch, where characters had names like Earthquake McGoon and Evil-Eye Fleagle and the spoof was broad, hilarious, and firing everywhere. The main characters were the title character, a handsome but hulking young man who was forever being pursued by the sweet Daisy Mae. When Daisy Mae finally caught him in 1952, it was a national event. The strip was popular enough to inspire a hit Broadway musical in 1956. The film version did well enough when it debuted in 1959, but is it still as funny almost 70 years later? Let's begin on "A Typical Day" in Dogpatch and find out...

The Story: Things are moving along in Dogpatch pretty much the way they usually do, with formidable Mammy Yokum (Hayes) giving her strapping son Abner (Palmer) his Yokumberry Tonic, and Abner being chased by lovely Daisy Mae Scragg (Parrish). The ladies are more excited about Sadie Hawkins Day, when the women of the town chase the men they hope to marry. They're shocked to find out Sadie Hawkins Day may not go on this year when Dogpatch is declared the most useless town in the US and is marked for nuclear bomb testing. 

The residents toss out everything they can think of to keep their town from being destroyed, until Mammy tells the government about that Yokumberry tonic. Not only does the government want the tonic, but so does General Bullmoose (Howard St. John). He enters his mistress Appassionata Von Climax (Stella Stevens) in the Sadie Hawkins Day Race and has her catch Abner. She'll marry him and get the tonic recipe, then kill him. 

Daisy Mae and Abner's parents are so horrified when they discover Bullmoose' plot, Daisy Mae agrees to marry Earthquake McGoon (Bern Hoffman), "the dirtiest wrassler in the world," to get him to help. Daisy thinks she'll be stuck being McGoon's wife, but it's the government who figure out what the tonic really does when they use it on the men of Dogpatch...and Abner's Pappy (Joe E. Marks) who finds a way to give his strapping son the gumption to go after the lady he truly loves.

The Song and Dance: You can't fault the cast on this one. Most of them were in the stage version as well, including Palmer as a perfect Abner, Stubby Kaye as the matchmaker Marryin' Sam (who leads most of the chorus numbers), and Julie Newmar, who doesn't need to speak a word for the audience to understand why she's called Stupefyin' Jones. My favorite by far is Billie Hayes, who replaced Charlotte Rae as Mammy on Broadway. I hope she was as much fun as she is here. "Formidable" doesn't begin to describe this tough-minded witch of a hillbilly. You can certainly see why she'd go on to play a more obvious witch in the even stranger world of Sid Kroft over a decade later. The Technicolor is gorgeous, a riot of rainbow colors mixed in every way that shouldn't work and amazingly does. Some really fun songs too, including the hit "I'm Past My Prime" for Kaye and Leslie Parrish.

The Numbers: We open over the credits with "A Typical Day," as the residents of Dogpatch introduce themselves and their unique home. Abner and the younger men of the town sing about what they'd do "If I Had My Druthers." Marryin' Sam leads the towns folk in a rousing salute to local hero "Jubilation T. Cornpone," which is heard briefly again in the finale after Dogpatch is saved. "Don't That Take the Rag Offen the Bush" and "Room Enough for Us" are numbers for the townspeople before and after learning they have to evacuate their home. 

Abner finally admits that yes, he does kinda have feelings for "Namely You," Daisy Mae. "What's Good for General Bullmoose" is performed by his lackeys several times, usually whenever he's come up with another nefarious idea. Every woman in town chases after the closest thing to eligible males during the wild Sadie Hawkins Day Ballet, including Appasionata and Daisy Mae. Daisy laments that "I'm Past My Prime," ignoring the fact that Marryin' Sam is more interested in taking her to the altar. "I Wish It Could Be Otherwise" is Abner and Daisy's big ballad right before she's supposed to marry Earthquake McGoon. The ladies of Dogpatch demand "Put Em' Back" twice, in the lab after they find out their men are now stronger but also less romantic, and in the finale, leading to "The Matrimonial Stomp" with Marryin' Sam.

Trivia: Look for Jerry Lewis in a cameo as Dogpatch resident Itchy McRabbit, and Donna Douglas (later Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies), Valerie Harper, and Beth Howland as three of the Dogpatch ladies who later catch themselves husbands. 

Lil' Abner debuted on Broadway in 1956 and was a hit, running over a year. As mentioned, Charlotte Rae was the original Mammy but left early in the show's run, Tina Louise was Appasionata Von Climax, and Edie Adams was Daisy Mae. It's only returned to New York in an Encores concert since then, but is fairly popular with regional and high school theaters. 

The film cut a couple of numbers from the original show, including a really nice ballad for Abner and Daisy, "Love In a Home," a number for the scientists "Oh Happy Day," and one for General Bullmoose, "Progress Is the Root of All Evil." 

What I Don't Like: The stage origins of this one show all too plainly. Everything is filmed flat and looks like the stage play it's based on. The sets are about as fake as you can get, which admittedly does go with the comic book vibe. As in many musicals of the 1950's, the chorus numbers really have nothing to do with anything - "Rag Offen the Bush" and "Room Enough for Us" come out of nowhere and contribute nothing to the story. Also, if you don't go in for broad comedy or hillbilly comedy, or you don't know much about the mid-late 50's, you'll probably want to hurry elsewhere quickly. 

The Big Finale: This is funny and tuneful enough to get a recommendation if you love wacky hillbilly comedies or the big, bold, bright musicals of the 50's and 60's. 

Home Media: Don't be fooled - this one is currently DVD-only. Plex is listed as having it online, but they really show the non-musical, black and white 1940 film version. (Which admittedly has a few virtues of its own, including Buster Keaton as Native Lonesome Polecat.)

DVD

Happy Mother's Day! - Three Daring Daughters

MGM, 1948

Starring Jeanette MacDonald, Jose Iturbi, Jane Powell, and Edward Arnold

Directed by Fred M. Wilcox

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's celebrate a day devoted to mothers with a movie about a mother and her very devoted offspring. Jeanette MacDonald's last starring role had been in the spy comedy Cairo in 1942. She was last seen in a cameo in Universal's big wartime revue Follow the Boys in 1944. This was intended to be a bit of a comeback for her after she spent time focusing on opera. For Jane Powell, this was her third movie, and her second of five times she'd try to play matchmaker to a single parent. How does the story of a harried mother who marries a concert pianist on a trip, only to discover her daughters want to get her together with her ex-husband, look in a time when divorce and blended families are far more common? Let's begin at the graduation ceremony of older teen Tess Morgan (Powell), who is disappointed when she sees an empty chair in the audience that should be filled by her mother Louise (MacDonald), and find out...

The Story: Louise is late because she fainted at her job as an editor for Modern Design Magazine. Dr. Cannon (Harry Davenport) insists that she takes a vacation alone to help her nerves. She takes a month-long cruise to Cuba. On board, she meets concert pianist Jose Iturbi (Himself), who is playing with the ship's orchestra. They end up falling in love and marrying. Trouble is, Louise told the girls their father was a wonderful man, when he was really a bad father who abandoned his wife and daughters. She didn't want them to feel bad about their father, but her trying to protect them backfires when they go to their father's boss Robert Nelson (Arnold) and ask him to bring their father back so he can re-marry her. They're shocked when she finally admits she married Iturbi and try to drive him away, until they realize just how much in love Louise and her new husband are.

The Song and Dance: This is charmingly low-key for a big MGM musical in the late 40's. It's mostly just MacDonald, the three young ladies, and Iturbi, with Arnold occasionally tossing in blustery reactions as the girls beg him to get their father home or keep him from coming and interrupt his meals. MacDonald is warm and affectionate with the girls, and you can understand why they adore her so much, they try to interfere with her love life. I especially love the sweet scene when the girls call their mother shipboard to serenade her on her birthday. There's some lovely costumes too, with lavish gowns for MacDonald in Cuba and attractive teen and kids' clothing for the girls. 

The Numbers: We open with the young ladies of Miss Drake's School for Girls singing their "Alma Mater" as Tess tries to ask her youngest sister Alix (Elinor Donahue) where their mother is. She finally arrives in time to see Tess perform "Passipied." "The Dickey Bird" is heard three times. The first time has the three girls playing it for their mother, who joins in. The second is in the finale; Iturbi joins in here as well. Tess sings "Flurette" to get Morgan's attention from his meal when the girls first descend on his mansion. 

Iturbi's first solo is "Lieberstraum," which he plays on the ship with an orchestra. He plays "Where There's Love" for Louise the next night. She also briefly performs "You Made Me Love You." His real-life wife Amparo joins him for the "Rumanian Rhapsody In A, Opus 11 No.1" at the big Cuban concert. The girls adorably sing "Happy Birthday" and part of "Dickey Bird" over the phone for their touched and impressed mother. The only chorus number is the brief "Ritual Fire Dance" at the show in Cuba. The dancers sing "Happy Birthday" in Spanish for Louise here, too. 

After Louise and Iturbi return from the cruise, they think he's there to audition Tess. She sings "Juliet's Waltz" from Romeo et Juliet for him. Iturbi conducts the "Allegro Appasinato, Opus 10" with a huge classical orchestra at a concert hall. Louise's second song with Iturbi as she rehearses with him at the concert hall is "Sweethearts."  The girls play "Route 66" at home, claiming Iturbi knows nothing about modern music. Iturbi repeats it and plays it quite well, swing and all. Tess sings "Springtide" with her mother to apologize for driving Iturbi away and calling their father without permission. 

What I Don't Like: The story occasionally edges into something more annoying than cute, especially in the second half. On one hand, what the girls did stepped out of bounds, and the older ones in particular were modern levels of bratty about it. On the other hand, Louise should not have lied about their father, whether she was trying to protect them or not. The complicated story is basically sitcom fluff that would turn up in every other family comedy of the 80's and 90's. Iturbi is no more interesting wooing a woman closer to his own age than he was as the object of Jane Powell's affection in Holiday In Mexico two years before. 

The Big Finale: Just sweet enough to be charming Mother's Day viewing with your own Mom this Sunday.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Michael (2026)

Lionsgate/Universal, 2026

Starring Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, and Miles Teller

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Music and Lyrics by Michael Jackson and others

I have a more personal connection here than I do to most musical biographies. I grew up alongside Michael Jackson's solo career. Off the Wall debuted four months after I was born. Thriller was one of the first albums I remember my family buying. We had Bad on cassette and Dangerous on CD in later years. I heard the stories about Jackson, about his bizarre behavior, how he was isolated, how he was a genius, about the infamous Pepsi accident...but as an 9-year-old when this movie ends in 1988, I cared nothing about all of that. I only knew I loved his songs, just like millions of other kids then. Does this movie fill in the gaps? We begin at a major concert and a man coming out for a number before fading into the past. Let's head to Gary, Indiana, as one small boy looks longingly out at the children playing in the snow, and find out...

The Story: That little boy is Michael Jackson (Juliano Krue Valdi), the youngest of the 8 Jackson children. Their father Joe Jackson (Domingo) is grooming them to go on the stage as a rock act, determined that they should have more than his grueling job in the steel mills. He pushes Michael and his sons hard and treats them rough, including using the strap when they speak against not having normal childhoods. The rehearsals pay off. They get bigger and bigger gigs, eventually landing a deal with Motown Records as The Jackson 5. Michael is delighted to learn all aspects of the record business from Motown's owner Berry Gordy (Laurenz Tate), but his father doesn't like sharing his son with other father figures.

The Jackson 5 rise to the top as one of the biggest artists on the Motown label, but despite them now having a far more lavish home, Michael is becoming more and more isolated. He loves the many pets his parents buy him, including a giraffe and a llama, but has no friends his own age. Gordy encourages Michael to go out on his own, but Joseph is afraid of what that would mean for the family and keeps him touring with the Jackson 5.

By 1979, Michael (Jackson) is a boy in a grown man's body who still loves toys and collects unique pets, including a chimp named Bubbles (Lily Colucci) he saved from a testing facility. He's even more eager to go solo after leaving Motown for Columbia's Epic Records label. Despite the tremendous success of his Off the Wall and Thriller albums and Michael having his new lawyer John Branca (Teller) fire his father via fax, Joseph is still convinced Michael is a little boy who will never leave the family. When the Pepsi commercial he talks Michael into doing with his brothers goes wrong and Michael ends up in the hospital, Michael has the time to reconsider his life, where it's headed, and just how loyal he should be to his abusive father. 

The Song and Dance: For all the cliches, there's some terrific performances here. Yes, Jaafar is Jackson's nephew, but he's wonderful as his uncle, ably capturing his slightly dorky little-boy mannerisms, his vanity over his nose and his skin disorder, and even giving us a hint of the bizarre paranoia and obsession with children that eventually took over his life in the 90's. Long and Domingo may be even better as Michael's soft-spoken mother who protests how he's treated and his dominating father who sees his sons as his ticket out of Gary and poverty...as long as they stay together. Jackson's real-life family had input on this, assuring that the costumes and sets are perfect reflections of what Jackson wore and where he lived.

The Numbers: We open with Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" in 1988 at a sold-out concert in London. After we fade in on 1964, we get the Jackson 5 rehearsing "Big Boy," and seeing what a taskmaster Joseph was. "Oh How Happy" is their first montage number as we see Joseph getting them bigger and better gigs. "I'll Be There" is the song that gets them into Motown. They try to get Michael to record "You've Changed," but he can't stop dancing, even in place. "Stand" gives us their act through the years, as we move from polished home-made brocade vests to late 60's Paisley-and-fringe. Michael's thrilled to see Gladys Knight (Liv Symone) and the Pips perform their huge hit "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," but their "Never Can Say Goodbye" is an even bigger success. 

The Jackson 5 has a string of hits in the early-mid 70's, including "ABC," "Who's Lovin' You," and "I Want You Back." By 1979, Michael is a grown man, and it's becoming obvious that he's by far the most popular of the group. He gets his father to let him make Off the Wall for Epic Records after his solo ode to his pet rat "Ben" is a surprise success. "Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough" and "I Can't Help It" are a smash, but Joseph would rather his son continue to record songs like "Rockin' Robin," "The Love You Save," and "We've Got a Good Thing Going" with his brothers.

Michael finally breaks from his family, hiring gang members from LA to dance in his "Beat It" video and turning "Thriller" into a dynamic horror tribute. His incredible performance of "Billie Jean" on the Motown at 25 TV special cements his popularity. He's heard humming "Smile," a song written by his idol Charlie Chaplin, before his father turns up again with his proposals. "Billie Jean" is briefly reprised during the Pepsi commercial before the pyrotechnics set fire to Michael's hair. The movie ends with Michael singing with his brothers before we return to "Human Nature" and "Bad" in London for Michael's first solo tour.

Trivia: This movie was originally supposed to come out in 2024, but it was delayed to 2025 due to the screen writer's strike in 2023. Heavy re-writes when the ending had to be reshot forced it to be moved to April 2026.

The movie was originally supposed to end with the allegations of child abuse Michael had to deal with in 1993, but the family protested, and due to a legal clause, it had to be re-written. Janet Jackson, Michael's younger sister, respectfully asked to be left out as well, and Diana Ross had to be written out due to legal clauses.

This is far from the only musical dealing with Michael Jackson's career. There's a stage jukebox biography running on Broadway at press time, MJ - The Musical, that starts in 1992 during the Dangerous World Tour and discusses some of the same topics as the film. We also have three TV projects, The Jacksons: An American Dream miniseries from 1992, Man In the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story from 2004, and the Lifetime drama Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland from 2017. 

What I Don't Like: See the family involvement above. On one hand, I'm kind of glad this ends on a relatively positive note, especially after the real-life burn accident. On the other hand, they leave out a good chunk of Michael's history by stopping at 1988. Yes, those child abuse accusations were real, but so was Michael's continuing success. He had some of his biggest hits from 1988 onwards, including "Black and White," "Heal the World," "Will You Be There," and "You Rock My World." There's also the fact that, good performances aside, a lot of this comes off as bland, ridiculously cliched (even for a movie musical biopic), and way too campy, especially for something that lasts two hours. 

The Big Finale: Yes, it's cliched to high heck and a little on the bland side, but it's still worth checking out for the great music and performances if you're a huge Michael Jackson fan or are like me and remember when he was the King of Pop, the biggest performer on Earth.

Home Media: No word on when the movie will be on physical media, but the soundtrack is currently available. 

Vinyl Soundtrack

Daddy Long Legs (1955)

20th Century Fox, 1955

Starring Fred Astaire, Leslie Caron, Fred Clark, and Thelma Ritter

Directed by Jean Negulesco

Music and Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

This week, we jump ahead to the 1950's for one of my favorite underrated musicals. Leslie Caron was one of the most popular stars of the decade, in and out of musicals. She started the decade in the Oscar-winning An American In Paris with Gene Kelly, and while Lili wasn't a huge hit, her personal notices were glowing. Astaire personally asked her to star alongside him in this updated musical version of the 1912 novel of the same name. We've already seen it done once at this blog, as the adorable Shirley Temple vehicle Curly Top in 1935. How different is this version from that previous one? Let's begin at the home of millionaire Jervis Pendleton III (Astaire) as we see people touring his home and find out...

The Story: Jervis is on assignment in France when he stops at an orphanage to use their telephone. While there, he sees 18-year-old Julie Andre (Caron) working with the younger children and is enchanted with her vivacity, her creativity, and her intelligence. Over the protests of his fussy aide Griggs (Clark), he arranges for her to attend college in the United States with his niece Linda (Terry Moore). To avoid a scandal, he says he'll keep a hands-off approach, and she can write to him about her progress once a month. 

Jervis doesn't even look at Julie's letters at first, until his secretary Alice Pritchard (Thelma Ritter) brings them to his attention. Julie calls him her benefactor "Daddy Long Legs," after the long shadow the orphans saw when he was first in France, but she's getting tired of never hearing from him. He finally connects with her at a school dance while visiting Linda with her mother Gertrude (Kathryn Giveny) and falls for her, taking her out on the town and sending the boy who is interested in her to work in Bolivia. Griggs points out their rather large age difference, which makes Jarvis flee for several long business trips. Julie, however, is almost finished with college. She thinks she still hasn't met her "Daddy Long Legs" and wonders if he or Jervis really love her. It's Alice who finally convinces the men that age matters less than love, companionship, and compatibility. 

The Song and Dance: For all the trouble they had making this - Fred Astaire's wife died right before filming began and they almost replaced him, the studio originally wanted Mitzi Gaynor for Julie - it actually came out quite well. Astaire and Caron work better than you might think. Like Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face two years later, Caron's warm, airy persona helps to transcend their age differences. The Technicolor glows here, especially in Caron's two witty dream ballets and the gorgeous 50's gowns, tutus, and suits for Astaire and Clark. Mercer's songs are lovely too. "Something's Gotta Give" was nominated for an Oscar and has since become a jazz standard.

The Numbers: We open with Jervis showing off his drumming skills to an annoyed Griggs in the instrumental drum-and-dance routine "History of the Beat." Julie teaches the orphans that "C-A-T Spells Cat" as Jervis watches them in delight at the orphanage. She wanders around the outdoor classroom in shock and delight as an offscreen chorus sings about her "Daddy Long Legs" after she's told she'll be going to college in the US. "Welcome Egghead" the other college girls tease when Julie arrives. "Julie's Dream Ballet" is the first of two instrumental ballets. Julie imagines what her "Daddy Long Legs" looks like. Jervis dances as a Texas millionaire doing a square dance, a sensual playboy after all the ladies, or Julie's guardian angel. 

"The Sluefoot" is the big chorus number at the dance, with Ray Anthony and His Orchestra and the Pied Pipers. Jervis and Julie turn the intimate dance into a delightful moment. Jervis brings her to New York, where he sings "Something's Gotta Give" at the penthouse he sets her up in, and they dance together. This is followed by the instrumental "Dancing Through Life" ballet as the two kick up their heels in all of the fashionable Manhattan clubs. Julie's dream of meeting her benefactor becomes a "Nightmare Ballet" as she dreams of dancing for Jervis in a Paris ballet, encountering him in a smoky cafe in Hong Kong, and chasing him through carnival in Rio. The movie ends with the brief "Dream" as Julie finally realizes who her benefactor is. 

Trivia: This would be the only movie Caron or Astaire made for 20th Century Fox.

If Astaire looks a little red-eyed and upset at a few junctures...well, see the death of his beloved wife mentioned above. They pushed back filming to give him more room to process his grief.

This is the third version of Daddy Long Legs 20th Century Fox made, and the fourth time the 1912 children's novel made it to the big screen. In addition to Curly Top, Mary Pickford did a silent version in 1919, while Janet Gaynor would appear in a non-musical sound remake in 1931. It would become a London stage musical, Love From Judy, in 1952. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, while the age difference doesn't bother me, some people may find 50-something Astaire dancing with 20-something Caron (and kissing her in the end, a rarity for Astaire's films) to be a tad creepy. Second, this movie, for all the lovely art direction and costumes, didn't really need the lavish Cinemascope. It's really an intimate four-person story at its core. We have the one chorus number in "Sluefoot." Most of the songs are duets, solos, or ballets. Clark and Ritter are the only ones besides Astaire and Caron who even remotely register. We barely see Caron's roommates, which is a shame because they're pretty funny when we do meet them, and Kelly Brown as Jimmy McBride barely registers as window dressing.

The Big Finale: The age difference aside, this is a must-see if you're a fan of Astaire, Caron, or the big lavish ballet-filled musicals of the 1950's. 

Home Media: The DVD and Blu-Ray are hard-to-find and often pricey at this writing. Your best bet would be streaming. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Tin Pan Alley

20th Century Fox, 1940

Starring Alice Faye, Betty Grable, John Payne, and Jack Oakie

Directed by Walter Lang

Music and Lyrics by various

Tin Pan Alley marks a turning point for 20th Century Fox musicals. They'd been doing the same Busby Berkeley imitations as the rest of Hollywood since 1933, but the wild success of Alexander's Ragtime Band set the tone for their musicals through the mid-50's. It also made Faye one of their biggest stars. Here, she's joined by Grable, who had been banging around Hollywood for a decade at that point, comedian Jack Oakie, and relative newcomer John Payne for another "through the years" tale. This one revolves around the famous lane in New York where songwriters had their offices from the turn of the 20th century until well into the 60's. Does the story of two Tin Pan Alley songwriters who fall for a vaudeville sister act still go over today, or should it be given the hook? Let's begin, not on Tin Pan Alley, but in the boxing ring, where Francis "Skeets" Harrigan (Payne) is finishing a match, and find out...

The Story: Harrigan only boxes to pick up extra cash. He and his friend Harry Calhoun (Oakie) are songwriters with ambitions of setting up their own publishing house. They're very impressed with vaudeville sister act Katie (Faye) and Lily (Grable) Blane. Neither woman is especially impressed with them. Dancer Lily auditions for a series of increasingly bigger and more amorous producers, but Harrigan convinces singer Katie to stay with them after they turn a lovelorn songwriter's (Elisha Cook Jr.) little melancholy tune into a huge hit. 

Harrigan and Calhoun do get their publishing empire, thanks to Katie being able to plug their songs. She's impressed with the big patriotic number "America, I Love You" and is furious when Harrigan reluctantly lets star Nora Bayes (Esther Ralston) sing it instead. They talk her out of going to Chicago, but the "America" number is the last straw. She joins Lily in England, where they're a hit on the West End. Having lost their empire and their ability to sniff out a hit song, Harrigan and Calhoun join the Army when America enters World War I. Harrigan thinks he has no chance with Katie when he sees she now has a fiancee, Captain Reggie Carstair (John Loder), but Lily knows which man her sister really wants.

The Song and Dance: It's a shame Grable and Faye would never star together again. They're warm, funny, and believable as sisters. They even kind of look alike. I actually wish they got to spend even more time together. Payne is even better as the less-goofy half of the songwriting team. He's one of the few men in these Fox musicals who can hold up his end of the musical chores, and in fact may be the best thing about this. He and Faye have a warm rapport that makes it all the more heartbreaking when she takes off for London. 

The Numbers: Oakie gives us our first song, writing and dancing to "Dixie" as Harrigan plays. The Blane Sisters' first song is their attractive hula and tap routine to "In the Land of Sweet Aloha." It's enough to convince Harrigan and Calhoun that they are the ladies to put over their songs. Joe Cobb's (Cook) funeral instrumental waltz turns into the sole new song, the now-standard "You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby." We get a (thankfully) brief shot of a minstrel group in burnt cork makeup performing it, then a stripper on a moon, then two tap dancers doing a soft shoe, then Katie with the chorus boys. Katie's not happy when Harrigan insists she sing "On Moonlight Bay" at a nightclub to one-up a rival publishing house. They were supposed to be out together. 

Grable has more fun showing off her famous legs with the chorus to the tune of "Honeysuckle Rose." Katie and Harrigan start off singing "America, I Love You" together, but everyone on Tin Pan Alley (including the Roberts Brothers and the Brian Sisters) end up joining in. Despite how energetically Calhoun puts it over, Harrigan still rejects Cobb's "Good-Bye Broadway, Hello France." Rotund Billy Gilbert is "The Sheik of Araby," in a huge chorus number with the Blanes and girls in harem costumes that were so brief, they ended up having to reshoot it. The Nicholas Brothers have a fabulous dance routine right in the middle of it. The movie ends with the doughboys arriving home as Calhoun finally figures out the lyrics to the song he'd been struggling with throughout the film, "K-K-K-Katy." 

Trivia: Several songs were cut from this movie, including Grable's "When You Were a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose" and "Get Out and Get Under" for Grable, Faye, and Oakie, were cut from the film. Both sequences survive; "Get Out and Get Under" can be found on the 1994 video release. 

What I Don't Like: "Sheik of Araby" aside, this is actually pretty small-scale for a big 40's musical. It's even in black and white. Despite how well she works with her friend Faye, Grable's part almost feels like an afterthought. She's barely in a good chunk of the movie. Most of it revolves around Harrigan trying to push his songs and Katie either getting tired of it or resigning herself to it, both of which get pretty annoying after a while. You wish we could see more of the sister act and what made them such a hit together and less of Harrigan and Katie chasing each other. 

The Big Finale: There's enough that's good here to recommend for fans of the four leads or the smaller-scale musicals of the 30's and 40's. 

Home Media: Alas, the only place you can find this at press time is YouTube, in a blurry copy that seems to have been recorded off of AMC sometime in the late 90's.

YouTube

Happy Passover! - Fiddler On the Roof

United Artists, 1971

Starring Chaim Topol, Norma Crane, Rosalind Harris, and Leonard Frey

Directed by Norman Jewison

Music by Jerry Bock; Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

We celebrate the last day of Passover, the Jewish spring holiday celebrating the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt, with one of the most famous movies about the Jewish faith ever made. The Broadway musical adaptation of the book Tevye and His Daughters by Sholem Aleichem was one of the biggest hit shows of the 60's, and the first to run over 3,000 performances. United Artists eagerly bought this and Man of La Mancha, another dark mid-60's stage hit, with an eye for a big roadshow adaptation. They knew they were taking a big risk after too many huge epic roadshow musicals in the late 60's and early 70's failed to make their money back, but they still threw everything they had into making this one as realistic and gritty as possible in a musical. Did they succeed, or should this one be sent to Siberia? Let's begin with Tevye the milkman (Topol) as he introduces the people of the Russian Jewish village of Anatevka and their "Traditions" and find out...

The Story: Tevye is hoping Yente the Matchmaker (Molly Picon) will find good husbands for his older daughters Tzeitel (Harris), Hodel (Michele Marsh), and Chava (Neva Small). His daughters have their own ideas. Tzeitel is promised to wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf (Paul Mann), but she falls for Motel (Frey), a poor but ambitious tailor. Tevye eventually gives in and agrees to the marriage, and finds a way to convince his wife Golde (Crane) that they're made for each other, too. He's less happy when Hodel falls for the handsome revolutionary Perchick (Paul Michael Glaser) but eventually accepts the marriage, even when Hodel follows her husband to Siberia after he's arrested. 

Tevye really hits the roof when book-loving Chava falls head over heels for Fyedka (Raymond Lovelock), a Russian Christian Orthodox scholar. Her eloping with him means she'll have to give up her faith. Her father thinks this is the worst of his problems, but then, the town's rabbi (Zvee Schooler) announces that their lives are about to be upended forever, and Hodel isn't the only one who is going to be "far from the home I love."

The Song and Dance: What I love about this movie is only The Sound of Music inhabits the world of the characters as much as this one does. The bleak landscape of Yugoslavia in the 1970's may not be much to look at, but it's as much of a character as Tevye and his family. The stunning cinematography, including gorgeous shots of that fiddler on the roof, won a deserved Oscar in 1972. Unlike most of the huge epic musicals that came out in the late 60's and early 70's, Fiddler really needs those three hours and the widescreen vistas to tell its entire story of how both a family and a town's "traditions" are upended by outside change. 

Topol was a bit of a controversial choice for Tevye after Zero Mostel won acclaim for the role on Broadway, but he's having so much fun shaking along to "If I Were a Rich Man" and is so lovely with his daughters, it's hard to complain now. Crane is equally good as his sensible wife Golde. Frey and Harris are especially touching as the adorably dorky tailor and the sweetly awkward young woman who loves him anyway.

The Numbers: We open with Tevye introducing us to the residents of Anatevka and their "Tradition" even before the credits begin. The fiddler (Tutte Lemkov) plays the overture over the credits while perched on that roof. The sisters dress and do the laundry as they sing about "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" and their hopes for their future husbands. Tevye really gets into wondering what he'd do "If I Were a Rich Man" in the barn, shaking and shimmying with absolute glee. Lazar Wolf joins Tevye's family for their "Sabbath Prayer." Wolf and Tevye announce "To Life" when they treat each other to drinks at the local bar and every man in town gets in on the spree, including the military and local students.

"Tevye's Monologue" is heard in his head as he recalls Tzeitel's childhood and realizes that she does love Motel and he wants her to be happy. Thrilled when Tevye agrees to their marriage, he hurries through the woods with Tzeitel, singing about their "Miracle of Miracles." The surreal "Tevye's Dream" is a black-and-white sequence where Tevye tells Golde about a dream he had where their ancestors and Lazar Wolf's wife claim Motel is the man for their daughter. Their wedding ceremony is a joyous occasion, including the touching "Sunrise, Sunset," men performing with bottles on their heads, and men and women dancing together holding hands for the first time in Anatevka...until local peasants, backed by the Tsar's men, attack and destroy the party.

After the fiddler performs the Entre'Acte, Tevye gives us a brief reprise of "Tradition" and explains what's changed. He has another monologue very similar to his first when Hodal insists on marrying Perchick. Feeling sentimental, he asks Golde "Do You Love Me?" Hodal admits at the train stop that while she does want to be with her husband, she's scared about being "Far From the Home I Love." There's a brief ballet segment shot in silhouette as we see Chava the way her father remembers her...and her in love now. His third monologue after Chava asks to marry Fydeka is briefer and far less congenital. It's one thing to go against an arranged marriage and follow a revolutionary, but very religious Tevye draws the line at giving up one's faith for love. The movie ends with the cast singing about their feelings on leaving their beloved "Anatevka." 

Trivia: Sadly, this would be Norma Crane's final film. She died of breast cancer two years after its release.

Fiddler On the Roof opened on Broadway in September 1964 and was a huge success, becoming the first Broadway show to run over 3,000 performances. Its stars Zero Mostel and Maria Karnilova won Tonys, as did the show as a whole. It was an equally big hit in London. The show been revived many times on both sides of the Atlantic since then, most recently on Broadway in 2015 and in London in 2019.

Two stage songs were cut from the film, a duet for Perchick and Hodel, "Now I Have Everything," and a number for Yente and the women of the town, "The Rumor/I Just Heard." Another song, "Any Day Now," was written for Perchick to replace "Everything," but was ultimately cut. 

What I Don't Like: This is not your typical lighthearted musical romp. This is a three-hour epic revolving around the fracturing of a family and of a society. It's not for someone who is looking for something more fun and upbeat. There's also that run time. Admittedly, once you get to the third daughter's marriage, you start looking at your watch and wishing some of this could have been trimmed. On the other hand, we don't get to know some folks as well as you'd like, including the rabbi and the hilarious Yente. 

The Big Finale: Families with older children and teens looking for thoughtful Passover viewing and who can handle the violence and fairly dark story and have time on their hands (or can split this into two night's viewing) may enjoy discovering Tevye, his family, and their "traditions." They may even be willing to discuss similar traditions and their importance in their own families.

Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, the latter usually for free with commercials.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Happy Easter! - The Tale of the Bunny Picnic

HBO, 1986

Voices of Steve Whitmire, Richard Hunt, Jim Henson, and Louise Gold

Directed by Jim Henson and David G Hiller

Music by Philip Balsam; Lyrics by Dennis Lee

This cable special is the closest Jim Henson got to doing something for Easter. He wanted to make another holiday program with realistic animals after the success of Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas on HBO in 1977. While that one was a bit gritty and bittersweet, he went with something a little more aimed at children here. This special also introduced Bean Bunny, who would later appear on the 80's version of Muppet Babies and still occasionally turns up in Muppet media to this day. How does this charming story of rabbits who learn compassion when they find out the dog who ruins their picnic isn't as bad as he seems look now? Let's begin with the bunnies singing about the beginning of spring and find out...

The Story: Bean Bunny (Whitmire) is known for his wild imagination and his goofy attempts to dream he's something else. He wants to help set up for the big spring Bunny Picnic, but his older brother Lugsy (Hunt) keeps telling him he's too little. He wanders off into the lettuce patch to daydream when he's chased out by the farmer's dog (Henson). Horrified, Bean tries to tell everyone what he saw, but they think it's just another imaginative story. 

It isn't until the dog attacks the Picnic that the bunnies finally admit Bean wasn't just imagining things. The rabbits try everything they can think of to shake him, until Bean comes up with an idea based on a puppet show put on by the Storyteller Bunny (Ron Mueck). That seems to do the trick, at least until the dog catches on. Bean escapes and saves his brother...but when they see the dog being abused by the mean farmer who owns him (Martin P. Robinson), they realize who the real villain is and decide to teach the bullying farmer a lesson.

The Song and Dance: Considering the sugary reputation this special in general and Bean Bunny in particular have, this was a lot better than I thought it would be. The songs are catchy, and Bean is a lot of fun, especially some of his wilder daydreams! I also like that the bad guy isn't who you think it's going to be. The dog is set up to be the villain until mid-way through, when you realize he's as scared as the rabbits and is just following orders. The ending with how they help him actually ends up being rather sweet. 

The Numbers: We open with the bunnies enthusiastically greeting the warmer weather in "Hello Sunshine." Poor Bean laments that no one will let people do anything special "When You're Little." The dog tells the bunnies "Run, Bunny, Run," because he's coming after them. The Storyteller encourages the bunnies to "Follow Me" as he sets up his puppet show. Bean's parents sing "The Bunny's Lullaby" to put their frightened children to sleep that night. The bunnies empower each other to help the dog and attack the farmer with "Drum of Time." "Hello Sunshine" reappears during the credits after we find out who the narrator was.

Trivia: The special originally opened with a live-action segment as Jim Henson explained what inspired the story. That has been cut from most current copies available, including the ones on video and YouTube. 

What I Don't Like: While it's not quite as cutesy as it's reputation would have it, it's still a lot more child-oriented and sweet than the gritty Emmett Otter or the slightly darker and wackier Muppet fairy tales. Those adorable bunnies may be just a little too precious, with their huge black button eyes, chubby cheeks, and breathless speeches. It's notable that, though this did well enough on cable and has turned up sporadically thereafter on HBO and video, it's not one of the better-known specials. Only Bean is even mildly remembered today.

The Big Finale: Charming and adorable springtime viewing for you and your younger children; older kids and teens may find it a tad too sugary. 

Home Media: As mentioned, the only place you can find this at press time is YouTube. 

YouTube

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

MGM, 1964

Starring Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Ed Begley, and Hermione Badderly

Directed by Charles Waters

Music and Lyrics by Meredith Wilson

We end our Women's History Month reviews with this rousing biography of one of Colorado's great ladies, featuring one of MGM's biggest stars of the late 50's and early 60's. Though the stage version wasn't quite as big of a hit as Wilson's The Music Man, it was still popular enough for MGM to option it as a huge vehicle for Reynolds and Presnell. Presnell was a big, strapping baritone not unlike Howard Keel the decade prior. MGM was willing to give him a big build-up and Reynolds the role of her career as the scrappy backwoods girl who rises first to Denver society, then to one of the heroines of the Titanic disaster. How does this story look today, especially as a far campier Titanic-based musical spoof prepares to hit Broadway next month? Let's begin with a tiny baby being flung along in raging rapids...and surviving...and see why this was so popular in the early 60's...

The Story: Brassy tomboy Molly Tobin (Reynolds) has big dreams. She heads to Leadville, Colorado to make enough money for a trip to Denver and marriage to a wealthy man. Her plans are derailed when she falls in love with Johnny Brown (Presnell), a poor miner with no desire to ever work the mine he owns. He's equally in love with Molly, teaching her to read and write and even building a cabin for her. 

When he does finally have a big strike at the mine, it propels them into Denver high society, just like Molly wished and hoped for. Denver high society, however, isn't ready for them. Gladys McGraw (Audrey Christie), the queen of wealthy Denver matrons, rejects them as being too vulgar. Mrs. McGraw's mother Buttercup Grogan (Badderly) suggests the duo go to Europe for some "polish." Molly loves it, but Johnny feels out of place among the princes and duchesses. Molly invites them to Denver, but Johnny brings his mining friends around too and ruin the introduction. 

Furious, Molly returns to Europe, only to realize she misses Johnny and Colorado. She returns on the S.S Titanic...and becomes not only one of the survivors when the ship hits an iceberg, but one who encouraged morale and kept at the captain to rescue more people. She returns to Denver as one of its greatest heroines, and to Johnny as the one man who could really keep up with her. 

The Song and Dance: Reynolds never had more fun than she did in this movie, especially the first half when she's brawling with her brothers, with drunk miners, and with J.J Brown. She had such a blast playing Molly, she got an Oscar nomination. Presnell and Begley nearly match her as the laid-back miner who preferred the simple life in Colorado to his wife's ambitions and her hilarious father. Gorgeous cinematography filmed in the actual Colorado and stunning costumes beautifully depicting backwoods Colorado and Denver and European high society in the 1900's and early 1910's help too.

The Numbers: We open with Molly brawling with her brothers, telling them "I Ain't Down Yet." She teaches herself to play "Belly Up to the Bar, Boys," competing with other local dancers and ladies of the evening for their attention. Johnny claims "Colorado, My Home" twice, in his introductory sequence when he's looking over his land, and later when he and Molly return to Colorado after their European trip. "I'll Never Say No," Johnny tells Molly as he teaches her to read and write, builds her a bigger cabin, and even gets the brass bed she wanted. "He's My Friend," says Buttercup, Mr. Tobin, Molly, and Johnny as half the royals in Europe sing awkwardly along. "Johnny's Soliloquy" is a brief reprise of "Colorado My Home" as he admits that he misses Molly.

Trivia: Molly Brown was no backwoods girl when she married "Leadville" Johnny Brown in 1886, but a spirited young lady of 18 who, indeed, had been looking for a wealthy husband. She actually ended up much-beloved in Denver society, as an early and ardent feminist and crusader for worker's rights. Yes, she not only survived the Titanic disaster, she pushed her lifeboat captain to look for more survivors, though the "unsinkable" nickname apparently didn't become more common until after her death in 1932. Unlike in the movie, she and Johnny legally separated, though Molly didn't remarry after Johnny's death in 1922. Their home in Denver and their summer home at Bear Creek, Colorado still exist today as museums.

The original Broadway show opened in 1960 with Tammy Grimes as Molly and Presnell as Johnny and ran for two years, pretty respectable for the time. Alas, despite the success of the film, it's rarely been seen again. It didn't make it to London until 2009. It was heavily reworked to include more of the real-life story of Molly Brown for a run at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 2014. This heavily revised version turned up briefly off-Broadway in 2020, and it's also available for regional productions. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, this takes forever to get where it's going. Those two hours can drag at times, especially during Molly's European jaunts in the second half. Second, note the historical inaccuracies above. This also isn't for people who like their musicals on the quieter or more introspective side. This musical is as noisy and brash as its heroine. Meredith Wilson's score isn't bad, but it's not quite at the level of The Music Man, either. And I wish we could have heard more of it. All but five numbers were cut. "He's My Friend" was written for the film (and has since been added to stage versions).

The Big Finale: If you love the brash, brassy musicals of the 50's and 60's or are a big fan of Reynolds, come on down and get to know the toughest, funniest lady to ever come out of Colorado.

Home Media: Easily found on all formats. The Blu-Ray is from the Warner Archives.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Somebody Loves Me

Paramount, 1952

Starring Betty Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Billie Bird, and Robert Keith

Directed by Irving Brecher

Music and Lyrics by various

We return to Woman's History Month with our second Betty Hutton biographical film. Hutton was still one of Paramount's biggest stars when she appeared in this film on one of the pioneering ladies of jazz. She's paired here with Ralph Meeker, then an up-and-coming leading man who was just coming off the original run of Mister Roberts. How well do they do as one of the most popular couples in vaudeville during the 1920's and 30's? Let's begin with Blossom Seely (Hutton) singing in a San Francisco nightclub in 1906...right before the San Francisco earthquake hits...and find out...

The Story: The first theater to reopen after the quake recovery is Grauman's Vaudeville. The manager said he'd put Blossom and her friend Essie (Bird) on the bill, but Blossom is last. Not only that, he gives her best song to the more refined headliner Nola Beach (Adele Jergens). Essie makes use of a banana and a hungry monkey to make sure Blossom gets that song. Not only does she get the spot, she's a sensation who becomes one of the top vaudeville headliners. 

While traveling in Paris, Blossom sees handsome Benny Fields (Meeker) and his buddies Forrest (Henry Slate) and Henry (Sid Tomack) performing at a club. She invites the guys to perform with her, but she really wants Benny. The other two go on without him after their number, which infuriates Blossom and Benny and causes Benny to break up the act. Blossom and Benny become a team, but he's consistently late for rehearsals and is always out with some girl...before he reveals that he wants to marry her. She's thrilled at first, but when she goes on vacation without him, he claims he married her for her fame. They break up, but he can't get bookings without her. She arranges for him to get a solo act...but he doesn't appreciate it until her friend Sam Doyle (Keith) points out how much she cares about him and wants him to be happy.

The Song and Dance: For all the Technicolor and lavish gowns for Hutton and Bird, I like how intimate this is compared to most biographies of this ilk. The focus is where it should be, on the two leads and Blossom's two best friends. Hutton herself is surprisingly subdued for her, though she does get to have fun tearing through two of Seely's signature numbers, "Toddlin' the Toledo" and "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans." Meeker matches her well as the tough guy who thinks he's marrying her for her fame, but ends up falling for her anyway. Oh, and look for Jack Benny introducing the two of them with a brief but hilarious routine with his violin. 

The Numbers: We open in that saloon in San Francisco with Blossom attempting the "Teasin' Rag" and "I Can't Tell You Why I Love You but I Do" before the earthquake hits. The more elegant Nola Beach sings "Honey, Oh My Honey" and starts "Toddlin' the Toledo" before a hungry monkey sits on her dress train. Blossom finishes the song in a far more energetic style. We then get a medley of "Dixie June," "San Francisco Bay," and "Smiles" for the doughboys in the trenches during World War I, ending with a major celebration after the end of the war. 

Meeker gets his first number on the ship to America, "I Cried for You." Their big number leads, with a stereotypical black maid dressing Blossom, leads into the more romantic "Rose Room." Blossom has way more fun with the black and yellow "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans." Forrest and Henry get into big trouble doing a number on their own afterwards, which leads to Benny breaking up the act. "Jealous" is a far simpler act, just the two of them at the piano...but it's a pretty accurate assessment of her feelings about his carousing. After they marry, she declares she'll "Love Him."

The one major chorus number is also the film's most problematic today. Hutton sings "Wang-Wang Blues," "Mister Banjo Man," and "Dixie Dreams" in blackface. Her rendition of "Dixie Dreams" is lovely, but it's also hard to separate it from the racial connotations. Benny's "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry" is drowned out by a noisy and indifferent audience and two comics who tear off his clothes. They sing "On Your Own Little Feet" together in her room, then he reprises "Dixie June." He reprises the number with chorus girls at the theater, along with "Thanks to You." They finish with "Somebody Loves Me."

Trivia: Unlike many film biographies, this one had a happy ending in real-life and on-screen. Seeley did go into retirement after the death of vaudeville in the mid-30's. The relative success of this film pushed her and Fields back out into the limelight. They performed together on stage, record, and television until his death in 1959. She would continue into the 60's as a solo act, becoming one of the great female jazz singers of the 20th century until her death in 1974. 

Hutton was pretty much the only person who wasn't dubbed. Meeker was dubbed by Pat Morgan, Adele Jergens by Barbara Ames, Sid Tomack by Le Clark, and Henry Slate by Jack Baker. 

Film debut of character actor Nick Adams.

Hutton's last movie for Paramount.

What I Don't Like: First of all, see all that dubbing above. Couldn't they have found someone whose singing voice actually sounded like it belonged to Meeker? Morgan's voice is way too deep to be Meeker's. Second, this is about as typical of a biography as you can get. Meeker usually did film noir or drama and is not the first person you think as a leading man in a musical, and Hutton is oddly subdued for her. (She'd just come from surgery to remove growths on her throat, which explains a lot about her performance.) It has some bright spots and good songs, but is largely pretty ho-hum. 

The Big Finale: This is mainly for major fans of Hutton or the big 50's biographical musicals. 

Home Media: Which makes it just as well that the only place you can currently find it is YouTube.

YouTube

Happy St. Patrick's Day! - Song O' My Heart

Fox Film Corporation, 1930

Starring John McCormack, Maureen O'Sullivan, Alice Joyce, and John Garrick

Directed by Victor Borzage

Music and Lyrics by various

Top O' the evenin' lads an' lasses! This year, we go way far back and celebrate St. Patrick's Day with one of the great Irish tenors of the early 20th century. John McCormack was known for being the quintessential Irish singer, with his beefy appearance, ringing tones, and frequently sentimental choice of material. His popularity had dropped off somewhat by 1930, but he was still well-known enough for Fox to offer him his choice of material and pay him the princely sum of $200,000 to star in the film. Is this operetta drama worthy of McCormack's artistry, or should it be left at home? Let's start with two frequent gossips at the Irish village where Sean O'Conlon (McCormack), lives, Peter (J.M Kerrigan) and Rafferty (J. Farrell MacDonald) and find out...

The Story: Sean has retired to the village despite his promising career to be near his beloved Mary (Joyce), and her two children, teenager Eileen (O'Sullivan) and young son Tad (Tommy Clifford). He had once loved Mary, but her sour Aunt Elizabeth (Emily Fitzroy) convinced her to marry for money. Her husband abandoned them and left them high and dry, forcing them to move back in with strict Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth doesn't approve of Fergus (Garrick), the handsome young man whom Eileen is in love with. Fergus is poor, and leaves the US to make money to support her. To help Mary and her children, producer Fullerton (Edward Martindel) convinces Sean to go on a concert tour in America. The tour is a great success, until tragedy forces Sean to return to the country and people he's always loved the most.

The Song and Dance: I do give this some credit for being one of the better-shot and more unique films of its era. McCormack's presence assures that there are no huge, out-of-place chorus numbers or goofy backstage drama. It was partially filmed in the real Ireland for Fox's experimental widescreen "Grandeur" format, and that shows in the decent cinematography for the early talkies era. The cast is pretty accurate, too. O'Sullivan kicked off a six-decade career with her winsome performance here. Kerrigan and MacDonald have a high time as two village men whose comments bookend the action. It almost feels like an early preview of The Quiet Man in black and white, with a lot of the same attention to detail that marked John Ford's later magnum opus.

The Numbers: Our first number is "Then You'll Remember Me," which Sean performs at his home with his usual accompanist Vincent (his real-life long-time pianist Edwin Schinder). The children of the village beg him for a fairy tale about a princess or a leprechaun, which turns into "A Fairy Story By the Fire." Sean performs "Just for Today" accompanied by the organ at the village church as Mary wistfully listens outside its walls. He delights his friends in the town with the traditional comic number "Kitty My Love, Will You Marry Me?" at his home and sings "The Rose of Tralee" for Mary after the party. She hears him sing it again in her mind after he leaves just before her death.

Sean's first number in the big concert sequence is "Plasir d'Amour." "Little Boy Blue" is accompanied by heartbreaking images of stuffed animals and toy soldiers covered in cobwebs waiting for their young owner to play with them again. This is followed by "Ireland, Mother Ireland." After Fullerton gets the word of Mary's death, he keeps it from Sean until he's sung "I Hear You Calling Me." The film ends with Sean singing "I Feel You Near Me" for his new family, Tad and kindly neighbor Mona (Effie Ellsler). 

Trivia: As mentioned, this was filmed in regular 35 millimeter film and Fox's experimental 70 millimeter "Grandeur" film. Most movie theaters at the time weren't set up for widescreen film, and the Grandeur version was never seen and is currently lost. 

First film for Maureen O'Sullivan and last film for Alice Joyce.

What I Don't Like: First of all, there's McCormack himself. He's a genial presence, but he's no actor and is in over his head with some of the more melodramatic sequences. There's also the fact that the Irish stereotypes are even more thick on the ground here than they are in Quiet Man, without that film's stunning color or often hilarious script. There's also the simple fact that this is straight melodrama only a step above some of the weepy Al Jolson sob stories from the late 20's and early 30's. It's not for people looking for something more upbeat, or those who aren't opera or McCormack fans. This is pretty much a concert with an Irish soap opera surrounding it.

The Big Finale: Mainly for fans of McCormack or the more melodramatic films of the early talkie era.

Home Media: Thanks to it now being in the public domain, it can be easily found on streaming for free with commercials.

Tubi

The Roku Channel

Incendiary Blonde

Paramount, 1945

Starring Betty Hutton, Arturo de Cordova, Bill Goodwin, and Barry Fitzgerald

Directed by George Marshall

Music and Lyrics by various

Our first of three Women's History Month movies is also the first of two vehicles we'll be seeing featuring energetic comedienne Betty Hutton. Of the four biographies she appeared in, this one might suit her the most. Texas Guinin lived a colorful life from the late 1900's through the early 1930's, working everything from rodeos to Broadway to films, ending up as "queen of the nightclubs" in the 20's, singing and talking to the customers in her own lavish speakeasies. How well does the film do with depicting her wild Roaring Twenties world? Let's begin with the rodeo coming to Waco, Texas, and find out...

The Story: Texas Gunian (Hutton) may be a goofy tomboy, but she's no fool. The new owner of the rodeo, Bill Romero Kilgallon (de Cordova), is so impressed when she manages to stay on a bucking bronco, he hires her on the spot...and she holds out for more money. Press agent Tim Callahan (Goodwin) is even more so after he sees her act "rescuing" a child. She's in love with Kilgallon, but he's married to an invalid. She ends up going off to become a Broadway star with Callahan, but then follows her old friend Cherokee Jim (Charlie Ruggles) to Hollywood to become a movie star. 

She does well, getting back together with Bill to make their own features, but Bill runs afoul of gangsters and ends up convincing Texas to sell out and get the money. Back in New York, Texas has few prospects until she inadvertently discovers how well she can handle a nightclub crowd. Her songs and talking directly to them jazzes up speakeasy-goers and brings in the crowds. Unfortunately, they also attract gangster Joe Cadden (Albert Dekker), who takes over the club and Texas' contract. Texas is still a smash, and with Bill's wife having passed on, she's hoping to marry him...but his getting caught between warring gangsters and her realizing she has a terminal illness makes them realize how impossible that is.

The Song and Dance: When she's allowed to do the rip-roaring comedy that she does best, Hutton has way too much fun here. This may be the biographical role that suited her best. Guinan was a tough-talking tomboy who lived one of the most colorful lives of the early 20th century, not too far from Hutton herself. She really throws herself into Guinan's trademark nightclub patter and that bucking bronco in the opening. Great production, too, with gorgeous Edith Head costumes and some nice Technicolor cinematography, especially in the first half.

The Numbers: We open with Texas singing "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" with her siblings as they watch the rodeo parade. We get  montage of Texas moving up from chorus line cutie to featured dancer to a star with shows based around her, including the (rather stereotypical) African spoof "Oh By Jingo" with her shaking her hips in feathers among "natives." "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" is a more romantic roundelay, with Hutton in a massive lavender gown and picture hat singing to a handsome leading man. 

Texas joins three acrobats throwing each other around to ad-lib and get herself kicked out of the show...but them throwing her around turns out to be so hilarious, she ends up staying in the show. She gets the energetic "Row Row Row," turning a fur coat and a table into a boat and sweetheart, while black pianist Maurice Rocco earns the contract Texas gives him with his incredible instrumental "Darktown Strutters Ball." Texas sings "It Had to Be You" on New Year's Eve, right before she and Bill are supposed to get married.

What I Don't Like: It's true that Texas Guinan did start out in wild west shows, she did make silent movies at her own production company (and two sound features, one of which is currently lost), and she was "the queen of the nightclubs" who resurrected her career singing and mingling with the crowds in the speakeasies she owned. Her life was even more colorful than that, with her clubs frequently getting raided, her telling truth-skirting interviews to the press, and her living with two men for years without marrying either. Her only known legal husband bore no resemblance to either de Cordova or Goodwin, both of whom are dull in thankless love interest roles. Only Fitzgerald as her Irish father who is even more inclined to embroider the truth comes anywhere near Hutton.

The Big Finale: Despite the heavy cliches, this is colorful enough to rate a look if you're a fan of Hutton or the big bright Technicolor musicals of the mid-late 40's.

Home Media: To my knowledge, this is currently only available on YouTube in a blurry copy taped from a TCM showing. 

YouTube