Happy 4th of July! - The Fleet's In

Paramount, 1942

Starring William Holden, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, and Betty Hutton

Directed by Victor Scherzinger

Music by Victor Scherzinger; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Let's celebrate America's 250th anniversary honoring the US Navy with this rare classic from early in the World War II years. Holden was a true golden boy in the early 40's, having become a star in the 1939 film version of Golden Boy and earned an Oscar nomination in 1940 for Our Town. What he wasn't was a musical star - in fact, this would be his only musical - which is likely why he's surrounded by some of Paramount's most popular musical performers of the war years. Lamour had been popular since the mid-30's, but Bracken and Hutton were up-and-coming comedians and would have their biggest hits during and directly after the war years. How do they all come together in this wacky romantic comedy where a sailor tries to kiss a standoffish nightclub singer to win a bet? Let's begin with another singer, movie star Diana Golden (Betty Jane Rhodes), performing the title song in a nightclub populated by sailors, and find out...

The Story: Diana kisses shy sailor Casey Kirby (Holden) as a publicity stunt. His shipmates, including his best friend Barney Waters (Bracken) are now convinced he's a ladies' man. They make a bet that he can't kiss frigid singer the Countess (Lamour) while on leave. Waters has his own problems. He's being pursued by the Countess' noisy roommate Bessie (Hutton), and he made the bet against his friend Spike's (Gil Lamb) watch. If he doesn't win that bet, Spike will thrash him within an inch of his life. Casey does everything he can to woo the Countess...but to his surprise, finds himself falling in love with her for real. She does, too, until Bessie and her friend Cissie (Cass Daley) spill the beans about the bet. Now Casey has three days to convince the Countess his love is on the level, before they get thrown out...or worse, land in jail.

The Song and Dance: Sweetly sincere Holden does tend to come off better than most leading men who appear opposite musical ladies. He's certainly enjoying himself more than most of the non-singing guys at 20th Century Fox did as the gob who finds himself falling for this lovely lady in spite of himself. Lamour has even more fun playing opposite him as the standoffish Countess. Mercer and Schertzinger came up with a terrific score, too. Three of the songs - "I Remember You," "Tangerine," and "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In a Hurry" - are now standards. 

The Song and Dance: We open with the title song over the credits before revealing that Diana Golden is singing it at a nightclub. Eddie Bracken reprises it with the sailors on their way back to their ship. Their first trip to the Swingland dance club provides our next numbers. Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell introduce "Tangerine" with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra. The Countess steps up next for "When You Hear the Time Signal." Bessie next tears into several sailors while performing "If You Build a Better Mousetrap." (Eberly and O'Connell reprise this later in a version that's less damaging to the sailors.) Barney joins the Countess and Bob Eberly for "Not Mine" in the nightclub. 

The Countess gets the honor of introducing "I Remember You" accompanied by Eberly, O'Connell, and Jimmy Dorsey at the sailors' weenie roast. Dancers Lorraine and Rognan do a spoof ballroom number to an instrumental version later at the club. Bessie blasts "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In a Hurry" in her idea of a tap costume, while Cissie finishes with "Tomorrow You Belong to Uncle Sammy" and Spike does his own acrobatic instrumental dance. 

Trivia: This is based on the 1933 non-musical play Sailor Beware. Paramount would remake it under that title as a vehicle for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 1952. 

Victor Schertzinger's last film. He died in October 1941, four months before the movie was released. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, the plot is annoying. If the Countess would stop and listen (and if Bessie would close her mouth for five seconds and listen), they'd know that Casey doesn't really want to go through with it, either. They both pretty much say it's distasteful, and it is. A little of Bracken and Hutton can go a long way, especially when Hutton is in bombastic mode. Bracken spends most of the movie whining, and Hutton spends most of it yelling at him and throwing him around. 

The Big Finale: In the end, this is worth checking out as you dodge the heat this 4th of July for the good cast and music alone. 

Home Media: Alas, the only place you can find this online at present is YouTube, but at least the TCM copy there is pretty decent.

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

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

Let's Dance

Paramount, 1950

Starring Betty Hutton, Fred Astaire, Roland Young, and Ruth Warrick

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser  

There were high hopes for this one in 1950. Astaire just had a major hit with Easter Parade two years before; Hutton got the lead in Annie Get Your Gun after Judy Garland bowed out. Songwriter Frank Loesser had hits with the Oscar-winning "Baby It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter and the wildly popular Guys and Dolls on Broadway. Paramount tossed them all into this unusually dark story about a comedienne who desperately wants to keep her son and gets help from her former dance partner. Is it still meaningful today, or should it be taken away? Let's begin with Hutton in full belting mode, singing for the troops during World War II, and find out...

The Story: Don Elwood (Astaire) thinks Kitty O'Neil (Hutton) is going to marry him, but she ends up wed to a handsome and wealthy soldier. Five years later, the solider is dead after being shot down. Lively Kitty lives with his family, raising his son Richard (Gregory Moffat), but feels constrained by his disapproving family. Snooty Aunt Serena (Luclile Watson) wants Richard to stay with them, but Kitty won't give up her last line to her soldier and insists he stay with her.

Fed up with Serena's meddling, Kitty flees to New York with Richard. Don gets Kitty a job as a cigarette girl at the nightclub where he works. To Kitty's horror, Serena has sent two lawyers to get Richard back from her. Don takes her on as his partner to give her more stable employment. The lawyers are concerned by all the time Richard spends backstage and away from school, but the nightclub staff admit they have no trouble keeping an eye on him. Don once again tries to get her married, but it ends with them fighting and Kitty falling for another rich man, Timothy Bryant (Sheppard Strudwick). After Don ends the wedding and Serena gets Richard back, Kitty takes off with the boy yet again...but this time, Don has the means to make Serena understand how much the boy means to all of them, and to get Kitty to see how much they all mean to each other.

The Song and Dance: An unusually thoughtful musical for this era, with Hutton making a wonderful mother. She's hilarious with Moffatt, especially when he asks her where she's going and she exclaims "Crazy!" (My mother used to say the same thing to my siblings and me.) The story of a mother's devotion and how found families are often far kinder and more supportive than our actual ones is surprisingly heartfelt, and even a little dark, despite Hutton's noisy antics. Watson and Barton MacLane stand out among the supporting cast as the frigid aunt who thinks she knows best - or better than Kitty - and the owner of the nightclub who is as surprised as anyone when he gets attached to the kid.

The Numbers: We start off with Hutton doing what she does best, blaring the rapid-fire patter number "Can't Stop Talking About Him" while accompanied by an air raid siren - and more than matching its wail. Astaire comes out later for a more romantic dance. He has a creative solo number where he glides around the piano during a rehearsal in the nightclub that's by far his best moment. Richie is delighted to hear his stocks and bonds-based rendition of "Jack and the Beanstalk." 

The hilarious "Oh Them Dudes" has Hutton and Astaire dressed as cowpokes and clowning while complaining how TV made their do-se-dos look all fancy-fied. Hutton tries to be seductive to Timothy, insisting "Why Fight This Feeling?" The film ends with the charming "Tunnel of Love," as Kitty and Don come together in the nightclub for this charming seaside-based dance routine.

What I Don't Like: The story is honestly a little too dark and complex for a light-hearted musical. The courtroom scenes and stuffy lawyers bog down a lot of the middle section and turn what should have been a fun romp into an almost two-hour slog. Astaire could have had more to do than one solo and the brief "Jack" routine. This is really Hutton's show. Frank Loesser's score is charming but hardly among his best work. And to tell the truth, Hutton's brash and forceful personality really doesn't fit all that well with the more charming and graceful Astaire. They dance all right together, but her pushiness and neediness crowds out his elegance. 

The Big Finale: Worth seeing once for some decent numbers alone if you're a fan of either star and have time on your hands.

Home Media: Easily found on streaming and disc; just released on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

The Stork Club

Paramount, 1945

Starring Betty Hutton, Barry Fitzgerald, Robert Benchley, and Don DeFore

Directed by Hal Walker

Music and Lyrics by various

This week, we explore the career of brash comedienne Betty Hutton with two of her lesser-known vehicles. The Stork Club in New York was more than just a nightclub. From 1929 until its closing in 1965, it was where the elite mixed and mingled, where the beautiful people danced the night away to lively big band music under the watchful eye of owner Sherman Billingsley. It was so well-regarded in this era as a symbol of wealth and status, maybe it was inevitable that a movie would be made around it. How does the story of a humble hat check girl working at the Club who comes into sudden wealth look nowadays, with the real-life Club long-gone? Let's begin with a kindly old gentleman (Fitzgerald) in rumpled clothing ruminating about how his life has taken a bad turn and find out...

The Story: Brash Judy Peabody (Hutton) jumps into the water to rescue the gentleman after he accidentally falls off. Turns out the gentleman is millionaire J.B Bates, who was lost in gloomy thoughts about his wife Edith (Mary Young) leaving him. She thinks he's a tramp and offers him a job at the Stork Club. He doesn't do well as a busboy, but he's still so impressed with her compassion, he has his lawyer Curtis (Benchley) anonymously set her up with an unlimited line of credit and a big, beautiful new apartment. She and her best friend Gwen (Iris Adrian) go on a buying spree, grabbing furs when it's too hot to wear them and buying everything in the dress store. 

Judy's boyfriend Danny (DeFore), who has just returned from the war, doesn't like this one bit. He likes it even less when she offers the apartment next to hers to him and his band. He thinks she has a sugar daddy on the side. She just wants to sing with his band. He's even more suspicious when she thinks J.D is homeless and lets him live with her. After she finally figures out who gave her the money and why Danny is angry, she takes it on herself to bring J.D back with Edith...and teach everyone involved, including Danny, a lesson in love, trust, and communication.

The Song and Dance: With a story that slight, the songs - and Hutton's wild delivery of them - are the highlights here. The songs really are charming ("Doctor, Lawyer, Indiana Chief" became a pop hit), and Fitzgerald is so adorably rumpled as the lost old millionaire looking for someone to support, you can understand why Judy's heart went out to him. Mary Young is equally adorable as his sweet wife who is far tougher than she looks, and Adrian revels in her sarcastic wisecracks as Judy's supportive friend who both questions the bounty and eagerly shares in it. Hutton's obviously having a ball as the kind-hearted singer and hat check girl whose well-meaning aid to a nice old man gets her into more trouble than she ever would have believed.

The Numbers: Judy's first number with the band at the Stork Club highlights her raucous spirit. "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" describes how she doesn't care what the guy she loves does, as long as they love each other. It's a lively number with members of the band acting as chorus boys. We don't get another song until she's rehearsing with Danny's band at their new apartment, but it's the similar "I'm a Square In the Social Circle," reflecting her attitudes towards the upper crust who mostly patronize the Stork Club. 

J.B requests "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree," a favorite waltz of his and Edith's. It's performed again in the end when Judy gets him and Edith back together. Her performance of the ballad "I'll Have a Dozen Hearts" isn't appreciated by an angry Danny. She sings it with male band singer Andy Russell later. Russell also gets a solo on another ballad, "Love Me."

What I Don't Like: The story is, as Irishman Fitzgerald would likely say, a load of malarkey. It's silly piffle that mainly serves as an excuse for Hutton to play off Fitzgerald and raise the roof with the band. Danny comes off as a grouchy, ungrateful jerk who won't even try to listen to his girlfriend when he's nice to her and gives him a place for his band to work. Doesn't help that Hutton has little chemistry with DeFore - she's more believably compassionate with Fitzgerald and Adrian than with him. 

The Big Finale: Harmless watch on a spring afternoon if you're a fan of Hutton or 40's musicals.

Home Media: It's in the public domain, so you can find it anywhere. It's currently free on Tubi, but in a substandard print.

DVD

Tubi

Musicals on TV - Satins and Spurs

NBC, 1954

Starring Betty Hutton, Kevin McCarthy, Guy Raymond, and Gus Chandler

Directed by Max Liebman and Charles O'Curran

Music by Jay Livingston; Lyrics by Ray Evans

Westerns and musicals ruled the airwaves during television's first flush of popularity in the 50's and 60's. Prime-time was saturated with every variation on the oater you could imagine, from kids' shows to hard-hitting dramatic westerns to satires of them. Musicals too were at their zenith in the mid-50's. Most of the television industry still centered around New York then, making it easy to bring in stage stars and film scenes from the latest Broadway smash. Westerns and musicals came together for the first 90 minute color "spectacular," featuring movie comedienne Betty Hutton as a cowgirl who falls for a photographer. How does this look today? Let's begin on a very stage-bound Broadway and find out...

The Story: Rodeo rider Cindy Smathers (Hutton) and her cowhands Tex (Raymond) and Dick (Josh Wheeler) have come to New York to play a big rodeo at Madison Square Garden. Cindy's manager Ollie (Edwin Phillips) insists on her doing a big publicity stunt for her show. Life Magazine sends photographer Tony Barton (McCarthy) and his assistant Ursula (Mary Ellen Kay) to do an extensive photo shoot on a cowgirl loose in the big city. Loud, brash Cindy isn't like the haughty models Tony is used to dealing with, and Cindy's tired of Tony complaining about her not being a lady. Love - and Life Magazine - win out when Cindy sees her picture in the papers and realizes that maybe New York and Tony aren't so bad after all.

The Song and Dance: Hutton tries her hardest with the fluffy story in this live show. She's obviously having a ball, whether she's singing about her grandfather's exploits in the Wild West or trying to learn how to talk "fancy" from a record. Some of the mid-50's costumes are gorgeous, too, especially those evening gowns and ballet dresses at the fashion house, not to mention Hutton's spangled cowgirl costumes and her heavily beaded poncho that she calls a dressing gown. Her idea of being "slinky" is hilarious, too. 

Favorite Number: We open with a jazzy ballet depicting everyday New Yorkers in Times Square, including three gamblers and their ladies. This leads straight into Cindy's entrance with her boys, "We're a Different Kind." They stick out like a sore thumb in their glittery western outfits, brandishing their pistols as a brass band joins in at Madison Square Garden. Cindy jumps up and down on the bed in her hotel room as she tells Tony and Ursula about her grandfather "Wildcat Smathers," to their general shock and annoyance.

Cindy arrives at the big fashion house in time for a showing of evening gowns that turns into an elegant ballet, with three young women introducing gowns called "Ballerina." Cindy and her boys are more interested in tell them how she may be a cowgirl but "A Girl Is Still a Girl." Genevieve, a real-life French chanteuse, appropriately sings a French number at the night club, "Donne-Moi." The high-class night club crowd is less impressed with Cindy's brayed "Little Rock Rhythm and Roll." Her flop there leads Cindy and Tony into the combative "I've Had Enough of You." 

Upset after Tony tries to turn her into a lady, Cindy wanders into a rainstorm, watching happy couples and sadly lamenting "Nobody Cares." Tex reprises "Little Rock Rhythm," first with a country group, then as a jazzier instrumental number for a group of far hipper dancers at a local restaurant. Tex takes over again,  his eccentric dance bringing it back to country. Dick puts out a far gentler desire to be "Back Home" for the group. Tony finally convinces Cindy that "You're So Right for Me"in a charming duet. It ends with the now-Broadway star Cindy performing the big finale "Hey Boys" with a group of tap-dancing sailors. Hutton concludes everything by stepping out of character to reprise "You're So Right for Me" in front of the camera.

Trivia:  The show concludes with Steve Allen taking the audience around the then-new NBC color studios in Brooklyn. NBC would continue to film programming at those studios until 2014. The buildings are now a children's home and family services and a self-storage facility. 

Yes, this was originally broadcast in color for those very few who had it in 1954. 

What I Don't Like: This looks less like a TV spectacular and more like something a couple of producers threw together to fill air time between bigger shows. Some of the songs are charming and the costumes - what little can be seen of them in the degrading kinetoscope copy at YouTube - are lovely, but the sets are obviously fake with absolutely no real New York flavor. Most of the numbers go on for too long, and the big dance pieces and that random ballet at the fashion show feel tacked on and have nothing to do with anything.

McCarthy has all the charm of a dead fish, acts about as well as one, and has no chemistry with Hutton. He would work out far better back in Hollywood two years later as the scientist who discovers the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hutton, for her part, is trying too hard. Her brash personality is way too big for the small screen. The big screen could barely contain it in the 40's. Much like her character here, she was just too noisy and rowdy for the genteel TV audiences of the 1950's. 

The Big Finale: TV history aside, unless you're a really huge fan of Hutton or the big, brash comic musicals of the 50's and 60's, I'd pass on this one. 

Home Media: Only available in a degrading and washed-out copy on YouTube at the moment.

YouTube

Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

MGM, 1950

Starring Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Keenan Wynn, and Louis Calhern

Directed by George Sidney

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Let's start the week of the 4th of July by celebrating some real-life American legends. Annie Oakley was a real person who toured the world with her rival, and then husband, Frank Butler doing trick shots in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. MGM bought the rights to the hit Broadway musical as soon as it's run ended.

The filming was anything but smooth. The original Annie, Judy Garland, was suffering from exhaustion an dealing with her drug problems and was eventually replaced by brash Hutton. They went through three directors and two Buffalo Bills after the first actor in the role, Frank Morgan, died shortly after filming began. For all that, how did the story of Annie, Frank, and their contemptuous relationship come off today? Let's begin with the arrival of Buffalo Bill's (Calhoun) Wild West Show to a small town in Ohio and find out...

The Story: Annie Oakley (Hutton) is the best shot in all of Ohio. She's so good, she accidentally shoots the bird off the hat belonging to Dolly Tate (Benay Venuta), one of the female performers in the Wild West Show. Manager Charlie Davenport (Wynn) offers her $5 to beat the show's major star Frank Butler (Keel) at a marksmanship competition. 

When Annie beats him hands down, Davenport and Butler convince her to audition for the Wild West Show. She's an unqualified success, and Frank is smitten...at least until Annie's star eclipses his own. He ends up joining Pawnee Bill's (Edward Arnold) show when he sees Annie's increasing popularity. 

Buffalo Bill's show tours Europe, and Annie is a smash with all the heads of state. She's even adopted into Chief Sitting Bull's (J. Carrol Naish) tribe. Frank's not as impressed and challenges her to another shooting competition. Annie's ready to beat him again, until Sitting Bull reminds her that "you can't get a man with a gun," or a relationship without sacrifice. 

The Song and Dance: For all the trouble they had making this movie, it didn't turn out too badly. I actually think charming Calhoun works out better as Buffalo Bill than blustery Morgan would have anyway. You believe Calhoun would go out and shoot buffalo and tame the west. Keel makes a smashing debut as Butler, equally believable singing and as the tough marksman who finds himself falling for the backwoods gal. 

The costumes in particular are gorgeous, from the ruffly dresses and ribbon-trimmed hats for the ladies who crowd around Frank in the opening to Annie's scarlet gown worn at the reception in England. Sidney does pretty well for someone who was brought in at the last moment to replace Busby Berkeley, especially with more intimate numbers like "They Say It's Wonderful" and the hilarious "Anything You Can Do." 

Favorite Number: We open with Dolly, Frank, and Charlie explaining how "Colonel Buffalo Bill" tamed the west and got their show together. Annie and her siblings explain how she's such a good shot in "Doin' What Comes Naturally." Frank tells Annie that "The Girl That I Marry" will be a dainty lady who will be pretty in his arms. Annie realizes after he leaves that "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun." 

Charlie, Buffalo Bill, and Frank tell Annie that "There's No Business Like Show Business" when she hesitates on joining the Wild West Show. We hear this famous anthem twice more, when Annie sees herself solo on the posters for the first time, and in the big finale as the two shows come together. She and Frank admit "They Say It's Wonderful" to fall in love, while Frank tells the men at the show that "My Defences are Down." "I'm an Indian Too" is the exhausting ritual that brings Annie into the Native tribe...or would, if she didn't try to hide from them! She exuberantly performs "I've Got the Sun In the Morning" for the heads of state in England. After challenging her to another marksmanship competition, Annie claims "Anything You Can Do," she can do, too, though Frank doesn't buy it.

Trivia: Judy Garland filmed "Doin' What Comes Naturally" and "I'm an Indian Too" before she was dropped from the production. They still exist and can be found on the DVD and Blu-Ray, along with a cut Hutton number, "Let's Go West Again." 

The original Broadway cast of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946 featured Ethel Merman in the title role and Ray Middleton as Frank. It was a smash hit, running over four years. There would be two short-lived revivals in 1958 and 1966, the latter featuring Merman. The heavily revised 1999 Broadway revival with Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat also ran for four years, nearly as long as the original. It's been seen in London at least three times. The 1947 production with Dolores Gray outran the Broadway show, but three revivals were short-lived.

Annie made it to TV twice, in 1957 with Mary Martin, and in 1967 with Merman. Alas, the Merman version seems to be lost except for one clip and its audio. The Martin version does exist, and I'll likely cover it sometime later this year. 

Annie Oakley was a sharp-shooter in the 1880's and 1890's who did travel and perform with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She did marry rival Frank Butler...but unlike what you see here, Frank knew his wife was the better shot and stepped down to manage her career. 

What I Don't Like: There's a reason the book for the 1999 revival was so heavily re-written. This show is neither good to its female characters, nor the Natives. In fact, one thing they got right in the 1999 revival was having Annie and Frank tie in that final match. It's more interesting and historically accurate. Hutton tries way too hard. Her belting and clowning works for comic numbers like "Indian Too" and "I've Got the Sun In the Morning," but her "Doin' What Comes Naturally" lacks intimacy, and she has no chemistry whatsoever with Keel except for when they're sparring in "Anything You Can Do." 

In the original show and 1999 revival, Dolly's sister Winnie and her boyfriend Tommy had a pair of major numbers that covered scene changes. They and their songs were deemed extraneous in 1950 and 1966 were deleted. Other songs that didn't make it into the film version include the ballad "I Got Lost In His Arms" for Annie, Frank's introductory number "I'm a Bad, Bad Man," and Annie's "Moonshine Lullaby" that she sings to her siblings on the train. Surprised they didn't retain at least the lovely "Lost In His Arms," which would have been gorgeous on Hutton and Garland. 

The Big Finale: Even with the multitude of problems and dated script, this is still worth checking out for fans of Berlin, Hutton, Keel, or the big MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's. 

Home Media: Legal troubles kept this off home media until the 1999 revival's overwhelming success prompted Warner Bros to finally release it in 2000. It's currently disc-only from the Warner Archives.

DVD

DVD - Silver Screen Icons: Broadway Musicals

Blu-Ray

Star Spangled Rhythm

Paramount, 1942
Starring Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Victor Moore, and Walter Abel
Directed by George Marshall and others
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

During World War II, almost every studio in Hollywood filmed at least one all-star semi-revue as morale boosters for the troops. This one was Paramount's contribution, a nutty confection showcasing not only the studio's top performers, but it's two of its most popular directors...and the studio itself. How does all that flag-waving look now? Let's head to the entrance to Paramount, as a group of sailors prepare to spend a memorable day on shore, and find out...

The Story: William "Pop" Webster (Moore) was once a major western star during the silent era, but is now a guard at the main gate of Paramount. He's told his sailor son Johnny (Bracken) that he's an Executive Vice President In Charge of Production. Johnny brags about it to all of his buddies when they turn up on shore leave, demanding a tour. Studio switchboard operator Polly Judson (Hutton) thinks he's cute and manages to set up Pop in place of the real producer B.G DeSoto (Abel). Not only is DeSoto convinced that studio spies are trying to keep him out, but Pop goes ahead and claims that he can put on a big show for the Navy. Now Polly has to round up all the stars on the lot and get them into one big show, so she can get married to her gob and Pop can keep up the illusion.

The Song and Dance: If you love the movies and stars of the 40's, have I got a treat for you. Paramount stuffed almost everyone on the lot into this film, even people like Veronica Lake, Alan Ladd, and Susan Hayward who usually specialized in non-musical drama. Its also an invaluable glimpse at real-life directors Preston Sturges (whose career as a comedy king peaked in the early-mid 40's) and Cecil B. Demille (whose big hit Reap the Wild Wind is mentioned several times) and the Paramount lot in 1942.

Favorite Number: Two numbers here were among the biggest hit songs of the war years. Mary Martin, Dick Powell, and a quartet of singing dining car waiters sing "Hit the Road to Dreamland" in a sequence supposedly filmed for a movie in production. Johnny Johnston sings "That Old Black Magic" in the background as ballerina Vera Zorina dances in a romantic snow-covered landscape, only to appear briefly at the barracks in the end as part of his dream.

Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour, and Veronica Lake spoof their images in "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang"...and then Arthur Treacher, Sterling Holloway, and Walter Catlett come on in drag to maximize the laughs. Marjorie Reynolds of Holiday Inn joins Betty Jane Rhodes and Dona Drake to salute what happens "On the Swing Shift." Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and ballet troupe owner Katherine Dunham show why he's "Sharp as a Tack" in a nice dance routine. Bing Crosby, Paramount's top star at the time, finishes off with the ultra-patriotic salute to the flag, "Old Glory."

Trivia: This was the first film appearance of Bing Crosby's son Gary Crosby.

What I Don't Like: The thin story is just a lame excuse to throw everyone at the studio together for skits and songs. While most of the numbers still go over pretty well, the skits are dated and annoying, especially the one about how (men think) women play cards. This is also a movie of its time. There's tons of references to other Paramount movies and stars of the early 40's. If you don't know anything about the war years, you may be more lost than amused.

The Big Finale: Worth seeing for the numbers alone if you love 40's musicals or the stars or films of the war years.

Home Media: Easily found as part of the made-to-order Universal Vault series and on two Bob Hope DVD collections.

DVD - Universal Vault
DVD - My Favorite Blonde/Star Spangled Rhythm
DVD - Bob Hope: The Ultimate Movie Collection

Happy Memorial Day! - Here Comes the Waves

Paramount, 1944
Starring Betty Hutton, Bing Crosby, Sonny Tufts, and Ann Doran
Directed by Mark Sandrich
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

During World War II, for the first time, the Armed Services recruited women as well as men. Women took the places of men on the homefront, teaching them to fly, doing office work, engineering parachutes, and driving delivery vehicles. The WAVES were a real group, the United States Naval Reserve, and many women did leave their jobs and homes to volunteer. What happens to a pair of twins who decide to join those ranks in order to meet a handsome singer who is determined to follow his father's footsteps? Let's head to Los Angeles, where the WAVES are signing people up, to find out...

The Story: Rosemary Allison (Hutton) enlists her and twin sister Susie (Hutton) into the WAVES, despite them being very different. Rosemary is a smart and serious brunette; Susie is a noisy, scatterbrained blonde. Susie is obsessed with singer Johnny Cabot (Crosby), to the point where she brings her collection of his records with her to the barracks and listen to them while she bathes. She's beyond thrilled when she and her sister meet her idol at a club while on leave. Johnny, however, is far more interested in Rosemary than her sister.

He's trying to get his friend Windy (Tufts) to get him into the Navy, so he can serve on the same boat as his father. Susie's horrified at the idea of him getting killed and sends in a suggestion that he star in and direct a show to aid WAVES recruitment. Johnny thinks it was Windy's idea, and Rosemary thinks it was Johnny's and that he's more interested in himself than the show. Windy finds out it was Susie's idea, and first tries to get Johnny to think Rosemary's not into him, then have to figure out how to keep him with the show when he's determined to be on that ship.

The Song and Dance: The fun thing about this one is how it acknowledges and plays with Bing's fame in the 30's and early 40's. Most people think of girls drooling over recording stars as being a relatively recent thing, but as this movie points out, it's been around for decades. Yes, Bing was a teen idol, and yes, he was so popular that women would faint dead away if they spoke to him. Susie's not the only one obsessed with him, either. We see women collapse just from him singing "That Old Black Magic" at a concert, and his popularity with the ladies is also used as a plot point when Susie calls out to the ladies on the street to mob him and keep him from fleeing the show.

Favorite Number: "The Navy Song" in the opening serves to introduce the viewer to the WAVES program as we see women recruiting for the group, and then to the Allisons and their very different personalities when they pick up the song for their nightclub act. Bing gets two decent ballads, "Let's Take the Long Way Home" as he accompanies Rosemary back to the barracks, and the romantic idol "I Promise You" in the show, this time with Rosemary in a white dress and flower in her hair as they swear to always be faithful. Hutton and the WAVES chorus spoofs female and male sailor stereotypes as she claims "There's a Fellow Waiting in Poughkeepsie"...and in every port around the world and Johnny and Windy prepare for their dates.

What I Don't Like: The film itself is pretty much one long recruitment advertisement for the WAVES. Hutton's role isn't well-written - Susie comes off as annoying and clingy, Rosemary as frigid and obnoxious when she refuses to listen to Johnny's honest explanation about the letter. The movie's best-known (and Oscar-nominated) song, "Acc-en-tu-ate the Positive," is unfortunately introduced in a clumsy blackface number featuring Bing and Tufts as a pair of lazy black stereotypes. The movie's big finale, it's title number, is also strangely dull, with the women just marching onstage in time to the music. They could have least have done some more effects or marched into the audience or something.

The Big Finale: Necessary only for major fans of Crosby, Hutton, or 40's musicals. Everyone else would probably be better-off looking for Crosby's commercial recording of "Acc-en-tu-ate the Positive."

Home Media: Currently available as part of the made-to-order Universal Vault collection or on several Bing Crosby DVD sets.

DVD - Universal Vault
DVD - Bing Crosby: Screen Legends Collection
DVD - Bing Crosby: The Silver Screen Collection

The Perils of Pauline (1947)

Paramount, 1947
Starring Betty Hutton, John Lund, Constance Collier, and Billy DeWolfe
Directed by George Marshall
Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser

Our second Women's History biography takes us further back into the annals of film. Serials, those blood-and-thunder action stories told in 15 to 20 minute bites that kept audiences coming back for more, were popular from the 1910's through the 50's, but hit their peak just before and during World War I. Pearl White was known as the Queen of the Serials. She starred in what's probably the most famous of them, The Perils of Pauline, and would continue to astonish audiences with her amazing stunts through the early 20's. How well does this movie from a quarter of a century later tell the story of Pearl and the hectic world of early silent films? Let's head to a sweatshop in a Midwestern town and find out...

The Story: Pearl White (Hutton) would do anything to become a major dramatic actress. She delivers a costume to grand dame actress Julia Gibbs (Collier) so she can watch her work. She eventually joins the troupe and falls for Mike (Lund), it's director and lead actor. Pearl tries, but can't reign in her natural expressiveness. Mike finally bawls her out after she's too cold to speak her lines in a south seas melodrama. She tells him off and walks out, followed by Gibbs.

Gibbs lands her an audition with her agents, but there's no work. They suggest Julia get a part in the movies...which turns out to be a role that requires her to be pelted with pies. Furious, Pearl jumps on the pie-throwers, shoving aside several movie sets and even a lion in her fury. The director George "Mac" McGuire (William Demerest) is so impressed, he puts her into a serial. That serial is The Perils of Pauline, one of the biggest hits of 1914. One serial leads to another, and soon, Pearl is one of the most popular stars in Hollywood.

Mike, meanwhile, can't find work in the legitimate theater and ends up barking at a carnival. His old friend Timmy (DeWolfe) tells him there's work for him in the movies. Pearl offers him a job, to his horror. He finally takes it for the money, but can't figure out that movies and theater are two different mediums, and silent movies require the kind of grand gestures he once told Pearl to avoid. He asks Pearl to marry him while doing a stunt in a hot-air balloon that gets away, but calls it off when the press emphasizes Pearl and not him. He joins World War I; she makes war serials. Serials go out of fashion after the war, so she goes to Paris for a nightclub show. It's a hit, but she damages her back in an accident. She won't be able to do the kind of stunts she's known for...but Mike's still there for her...

The Song and Dance: Hutton's the last person I'd associate with a big budget semi-musical about a silent movie queen, but she's having a great time whenever Pearl's called on to goof off onstage or show her athletic prowess. Paramount added even more authenticity by giving several silent stars cameos, including William Farnum as a western hero in the set Pearl storms through and comedians Chester Conklin, James Finlayson, and Hank Mann as the chefs who toss the pies at Julia. Speaking of Julia, Collier is also quite good as the aging actress who encourages Pearl's career.

Favorite Number: We start off seeing what Hutton can really do as Pearl sings about how she loves "My Sewing Machine" and hates the nasty boss who keeps her chained to a dead-end job. "I Wish I Didn't Love You So," the ballad Pearl sings for her audition, was nominated for an Oscar. The big one here is "Papa, Don't Preach To Me," the huge glamorous pink and blue chorus routine at the Casino de Paris. It's a lot more boisterous than usual for a big chorus number, with Hutton belting to the skies and dancing with abandon.

Trivia: Pearl White actually started acting at the age of 6. By 13, she rode horses in a circus. She did take jobs like one at the sweatshop to support her family, but ultimately ended up joining many different theater companies before settling in Hollywood and becoming a star. She did hurt her back, which pained her for the rest of her life, but the accident occurred on the set of Perils of Pauline. After serials fell out of favor in the early 20's, she moved to Paris, did start a nightclub act, and never came back to the US. She had short-lived marriages to two actors, neither of whom were named Mike Farrington.

"Poor Pauline" is a genuine hit song about White at the height of her fame in 1914.

What I Don't Like: Pearl's real story is far more interesting than the tripe they have here. When they focus on Hutton's clowning, telling people off, and the actual business of making serials and plays, the movie's not bad. Once again, the romantic melodrama, other than the genuinely funny and original sequence in the hot air balloon, really drags things down. Lund's too dull to suggest a driven actor and has no chemistry with Hutton.

I wish this was more of a flat-out musical...or even better, a musical version of the actual Perils of Pauline. The songs aren't bad. It would be nice if there were more of them, and sung by other people besides Hutton and the offscreen male chorus who perform "Poor Pauline" as she rises to fame.

The Big Finale: If you love Hutton or silent comedy, this is worth rescuing from the train tracks at least once.

Home Media: As a public domain film, it's easily found on DVD and online. Streaming service Tubi currently has it for free.

DVD
Tubi