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.
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