Frankie and Johnny (1966)

United Artists, 1966

Starring Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, Harry Morgan, and Nancy Kovack

Directed by Fredrick de Cordova

Music and Lyrics by various

Our next western heads to the Mississippi River for another historical comedy adventure. Elvis Presley's southern heritage and his "dangerous" reputation may have been the inspiration for this version of one of the most famous "she done him wrong" songs of all time. How did this tragic ballad look played as a comic historical-set riverboat romp? Let's begin on that riverboat with compulsive gambler Johnny (Presley) and find out...

The Story: Johnny would do anything to have one lucky payout. He's borrowed money from everyone, including his best friend Cully (Morgan) and his girl Frankie (Douglas), and now he needs just a little more to get that one lucky break. He learns from a gypsy and her tea leaves (Naomi Stevens) that a beautiful redhead will give him good luck. He never expected that redhead to be Nellie Bly (Kovack), his boss Clint Braden's (Anthony Einsley) ex-girlfriend. She touches the chips while he's at the roulette wheel. He keeps winning, and now he thinks the gypsy was right. This doesn't tickle Frankie, Braden, or Braden's current girlfriend Mitzi (Sue Ann Langdon). 

Frankie tries shooting Johnny when Cully's performing his latest song, prompting him to turn it into a ballad. It's a big hit with a Broadway producer, who suggests they take the show to New York. Johnny wants to earn the money to go east at a masked ball in New Orleans. Nellie, Frankie, and Mitzi inadvertently wear the same costume, playing a trick on Johnny to make him think the wrong girl is bringing him luck. Braden thinks Johnny is still after Nellie and orders his goon Blackie (Robert Strauss) to switch bullets on Frankie's gun in the number and make the song a reality. Johnny, however, isn't out of luck yet...

The Song and Dance: Elvis is backed by a lavish production for his films and a not-bad supporting cast. Morgan and Audrey Christie are the stand-outs as Johnny's henpecked best friend and his wife who knows better than to let him get away with anything, and Kovack makes a sly and witty Nellie. The costumes are gorgeous, a riot of rainbow stripes, checks, ruffles, and sequins. We even get shooting in the real New Orleans during the ball sequence. 

The Numbers: We open with Elvis inviting us to "Come Along" over the credits. "Petunia the Gardener's Daughter" is Frankie and Johnny's first number on the riverboat, with Frankie prancing in a short pink dress among huge smiling cardboard flowers. "Chesay" is our first major chorus number, a salute to the gypsy drink that supposedly gives good luck. Elvis believes he's "What Every Woman Lives For" on the riverboat. "Frankie and Johnny" is heard twice as a chorus number. The first time, there's only blanks in that gun. The second in the finale is when Blackie replaces the blank with a real bullet. 

"Look Out Broadway" says the cast as they sing about how they're going to make it in New York. Elvis sings about his "Beginner's Luck" before attempting to win money for the trip east. The traditional "Down By the Riverside" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" are the riverboat troupe's parade in New Orleans to announce their arrival. Elvis' "Shout It Out" in New Orleans is an incongruous full-on rock number among the somewhat more historically-accurate number. Elvis laments his "Hard Luck" in New Orleans, then begs Frankie to "Please Don't Stop Loving Me." He says "Everybody Come Aboard" for the last show.

Trivia: Eileen Wilson dubbed Donna Douglas. 

What I Don't Like: On one hand, I appreciate that this isn't a typical Elvis vehicle, with costumes and a supporting cast far above the norm for his movies. On the other hand, the story is more than a little ridiculous...and what does Elvis being a gambler and their going to Broadway really have to do with the song "Frankie and Johnny?"Anyone could tell you they're not really going to kill off Elvis in the end, either. This is not going to have the same tragic ending as the song. Speaking of, the new songs aren't horrible, but they're not terribly memorable, either. 

The Big Finale: One of Elvis' more interesting films is still worth checking out for his fans or fans of big 60's musicals. 

Home Media: The DVDs are currently expensive, but like most of Elvis' movies, this can be found pretty much anywhere on streaming, often free with commercials.

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Pardners

Paramount, 1956

Starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lori Nelson, and John Baragrey

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

We're staying out west with two more popular comedians who ironically also began at Paramount. By 1956, rumors abounded that Martin and Lewis were breaking up their very profitable partnership and going solo. This movie was one way they denied those rumors. How does this remake of the Bing Crosby vehicle Rhythm On the Range look nowadays? Let's begin out west, as Matilda Kinglsey (Agnes Moorehead) flees the K Ranch with her son Wade Jr shortly before bandits kill her husband Wade (Lewis) and his partner Slim Mosley (Martin) and find out...

The Story: Wade Jr. (Lewis) longs to be a cowboy in the real wild West, but his mother would rather he marry a formidable girl from a wealthy family. He's impressed with the son of Slim (Martin), who is a ranch hand at the K-Ranch, and his cousin Carol (Lori Nelson), who runs it, and follows them to the rodeo. Slim wants to win a bull named Cuddles and replenish their stock after a raid, but Wade's bungling costs him the top prize. Feeling guilty and still wanting to see the authentic West, Wade buys him Cuddles and inadvertently ends up following him there when he gets stranded on the train. Slim was annoyed with Wade at first, but finally warms up with him to the point where they agree to become partners like their fathers.

There's even more trouble when they do finally arrive at the K Ranch. Banker Dan Hollis (Baragrey) has been trying to buy the ranch and sell the land for a dam and asking Carol to marry him. She's not interested in selling or marrying him. Slim, hoping to avoid teasing, claims Wade is Killer Jones, the roughest, toughest man in the entire state. The townspeople dub Wade their new sheriff, but because they think he's the one who stopped a runaway stagecoach. It was really Slim, who has to help keep Wade from ending up like all the other sheriffs in town and dig up the dirt on who is really after the K Ranch and its holdings.

The Song and Dance: You'd never know Martn and Lewis were having problems by this point with hilarious performances here. Martin has more to do, for once, and runs with it, especially in the second half when he's supposed to be protecting Wade and making him look like a lawman. Though this starts out relatively similar to Rhythm On the Range, once they get Cuddles to the ranch, it becomes a whole different - and frankly, far more interesting - story. The focus on Martin, Lewis, and Lewis' antics as a mama's boy who learns to take care of himself also keeps this from degenerating into a series of unrelated specialty numbers like Rhythm did near the end of the film. Not to mention, this feels a lot more like an actual western complete with bandits, shoot-outs, and land-grabbing schemes.

The Numbers: "The Wind, The Wind" is Slim's song at the rodeo, which he performs to win enough money for Cuddles after Wade's antics end with him dropping out of the bucking bronco race. "Buckskin Beauty" is Wade's song once he's out west. They declare themselves "Pardners," first on the way out west with Cuddles, and later in the finale. Slim sings "Me N' You N' the Moon" later for Carol when they're at the ranch.

Trivia: Taurog also directed Rhythm on the Range. 

What I Don't Like: Martin and Lewis are really the only ones who have much to do. Nelson and Jackie Loughery as the saloon dancer Wade falls for barely register as much more than love interests. Both Hollises are pretty obvious villains, too. Where this really falters is with the music. Rhythm on the Range produced the standard "I'm an Old Cowhand" and had a few other decent songs. None of the four numbers here get anywhere close to that, though "The Wind The Wind" is mildly interesting.

The Big Finale: One of Martin and Lewis' better later vehicles is worth checking out for fans of theirs or of 50's comedy.

Home Media: Only on DVD in the US as part of a collection of Martin and Lewis movies, though the solo Blu-Ray is due on September 12th. At the moment, you may be better off streaming this. Like most Martin-Lewis titles, this can currently be found for free with commercials at the Paramount-owned Pluto TV.

DVD - Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection Volume 2

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Go West (1940)

MGM, 1940

Starring Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx, John Carroll, Diana Lewis, and Walter Woolf King

Directed by Edward Buzzell

Music by Bronislau Kaper; Lyrics by Gus Kahn

Saddle up, pardners, 'cause we're going west this week with some of your favorite comedians. We kick off our look at the funny side of the Old West with one of the Marx Brothers' later movies. It's also their only film with a non-contemporary setting and the only time they played with western tropes. How well do the Marx Brothers deal with land-grabbers and family feuds? Let's begin with swindler S. Quenton Quayle (Groucho) as he attempts to buy a train ticket west and find out...

The Story: Quayle loses his ticket money to a pair of even smarter swindlers, brothers Joe (Chico) and Rusty Panello (Harpo). The brothers in turn use that money to buy Dead Man's Gulch from old prospector Dan Wilson (Tully Marshall), who claims it has no gold. As it turns out, it's valuable in another way. Terry Turner (Carroll), the son of Wilson's long-time rival, went to New York to attempt to convince the railroad to buy Dead Man's Gulch. He's convinced them that the gulch is the only route through the mountains linking east and west. He's also in love with Wilson's granddaughter Eve (Lewis), who wishes to marry him no matter what her grandfather thinks. 

After the railroad agrees to buy the property, Quayle attempts to swindle it away from the Panellos. Corrupt railroad executive John Beecher (King) and saloon owner Red Baxter (Robert Barrat) use saloon singer Lulubelle (June MacCloy) to charm the deed off them. Now it's up to Quayle and the Panellos to make sure that deed gets to the railroad officials in New York, even if they have to tear the train apart to keep it going to its destination!

The Song and Dance: This wound up being really cute, probably one of the Brothers' better later efforts. Chico and Harpo in particular have some nice moments. Harpo tearing up the train to keep the engine moving in the finale is one highlight. Groucho both ducking and enjoying Lulubelle's advances are another. King is almost as good here as he was in Night at the Opera and continues to play well off the Marxes, his bluster more than matching their anarchy.

The Numbers: We start over the credits with "As If I Didn't Know." Groucho joins Lulubelle onstage for "You Can't Argue With Love." "Ridin' the Range" has the Marxes joining in with Carroll as they discuss their devotion to their new western home. Eve sings the old Stephen Foster number "Beautiful Dreamer" at home. Chico performs "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" and "The Woodpecker Song" on the piano, while Harpo gets "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water) for the Natives whom they have to convince to give up their claim on the land.

What I Don't Like: Not one of the Marxes' better movies. Carroll is particularly dull in a thankless role, and Lewis isn't much more interesting and is too nasal to pass for a western heroine. Although it doesn't hit the lows of their next movie after this The Big Store, it's still not one of their best efforts. Only the train finale is really vintage Marx Brothers madness.

The Big Finale: Mainly for fans of the Marx Brothers or comic westerns.

Home Media: On DVD and streaming from the Warner Archive.

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Musicals on TV - Annie Get Your Gun (1957)

NBC, 1957

Starring Mary Martin, John Raitt, Retta Shaw, and Donald Burr

Directed by Vincent J. Donehue

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Three years after Satins and Spurs failed to catch on, NBC tried another musical western, this time a Broadway adaptation with a somewhat more likely performer. Native Texan Mary Martin had been a stage star since the late 30's. She was a huge success in the 1947 national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, winning a special Tony for "bringing Broadway to the masses." After her Peter Pan was a ratings smash in 1955 and 1956, they returned to another role she was associated with. Does her version come off better than the 1950 theatrical release with Betty Hutton? Let's head to Ohio, where Buffalo Bill's (William O'Neal) Wild West Show has just gotten into town, and find out...

The Story: Annie Oakley (Martin) is the best shot in all of Ohio. She's so good, she shoots the stuffed bird off the hat belonging to Frank Butler's assistant Dolly Tate (Shaw). Manager Charlie Davenport (Burr) talks her into a marksmanship competition with their shooting star Frank Butler (Raitt) for them to win rooms at the local hotel. 

After Annie beats Frank hands-down, Charlie and Frank convince her to join the show as another assistant. Frank is so delighted with her work, he's smitten with the straightforward young woman, until Charlie gives her an act of her own. She's heartbroken when he takes Dolly and her daughter Winnie (Barbara Luckey) and joins Pawnee Bill's (Robert Nash) rival show. Sitting Bull (Zachary Charles), on the other hand, adopts her into his tribe. 

When Buffalo Bill's European tour produces acclaim but no profit, Sitting Bull comes up with the idea of putting the two shows together. Annie and Frank are all for it...until they start arguing about who's the better shot again. The duo finally take part in one last competition to see for once and for all who really is the best sharpshooter in the world.

The Song and Dance: At the very least, we get some songs that didn't make the cut in the film version and more of a sense of what this was originally like onstage. Raitt is a sexy and very manly Frank Butler and sings better than most of them. Reta Shaw makes the most of Dolly Tate's expanded role, including her reaction when Annie shoots that bird off her hat and her trying to sabotage her gun in the finale. Mary Martin sounds wonderful. Her "I Got Lost In His Arms" is especially lovely, and she works great with the kids. 

Favorite Number: We open with the crowds cheering "Colonel Buffalo Bill" as Charlie and Dolly tout the delights of the Wild West Show. Frank claims "I'm a Bad, Bad Man" to the ladies as he boasts about being thrown out of half the towns in the Midwest. Annie and her siblings say they're only "Doin' What Comes Naturally" when she brings perfectly shot poultry to the hotel owner. Frank tells her that she's not enough woman for him. "The Girl That I Marry" will be feminine through and through. Annie laments that "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun." 

Charlie, Frank, and Buffalo Bill convince Annie to join them with Irving Berlin's show business anthem, "There's No Business Like Show Business." After singing her siblings and two Native children to sleep with "Moonshine Lullaby," Annie's thrilled when Frank says he'll give her billing. They discuss how "They Say It's Wonderful" to be in love. Frank for his part can't believe "My Defenses are Down" and he's fallen for this straight-shooting hillbilly. Annie reprises "Show Business" in the spotlight in front of her image on the poster. Sitting Bull and his tribe literally kidnap her to appear in their big elaborate tribal dance. Annie seems more dazed by their "I'm an Indian Too" than anything.

Annie readily admits she's fallen for Frank, even if he isn't happy about her being a star. "I Got Lost In His Arms," she realizes when they arrive in New York. She sings "I Got the Sun In the Morning" with the crowd at the reception for Pawnee Bill's show after there's talk of merging the two Bills. She and Frank are less thrilled at their competition. Annie points out that "Anything You Can Do," she can do better - including trick shooting.

Trivia: This, too, was broadcast in color for those few who had color TVs in 1957. It was filmed at NBC's new color-equipped studios in Burbank and broadcast to New York. Unlike the Brooklyn studios, the Burbank Studios continue to be used for television filming, though they're no longer owned by NBC.

This would get a TV remake in 1967 based around the 1966 Lincoln Center revival, this time with original stage star Ethel Merman. Alas, that version remains lost at the moment other than one brief clip of her singing "I Got the Sun In the Morning." 

What I Don't Like: First of all, the problems inherent in most versions of Annie pertain to this one, too. It still doesn't treat women and especially Natives well. The Native Americans are still played for comic relief, the lyrics on "I'm an Indian Too" are still condescending, and it's obvious even in the black and white kinetoscope currently available that they're all played by white actors in bad red makeup. It's also very far from historically accurate. In real life, Annie was a soft-spoken and gentle woman who did needlepoint, and Frank quickly realized she was the better shot and stepped down to become her manager. 

Martin is too dainty and feminine to make a great Annie. She does better after Annie cleans up than in the opening when she's supposed to be a hillbilly. Though this does retain the characters of Winnie Tate and Tommy Keller, it eliminates their songs "I'll Share It All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?" leaving Barbara Luckey and Norman Edwards with nothing to do. And yeah, this is obviously a TV production, with cardboard sets and minimal movement besides two good dance routines on "I've Got the Sun In the Morning" and "I'm an Indian Too." 

The Big Finale: If you love Martin or Annie Get Your Gun, this is worth seeing as a recording of most of the original show prior to that 1966 revamp. 

Home Media: It is on DVD and Blu-Ray, but VAI's discs tend to be expensive. Your best bet currently may be YouTube.

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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.

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Rio Rita (1942)

MGM, 1942

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson, and John Carroll

Directed by S. Sylvan Simon

Music and Lyrics by various

Our second Abbott and Costello vehicle takes us south of the border and across Culver City to a very different studio. Apparently, MGM originally wanted to hire them, but Universal snapped them up first. They placated their rivals by allowing them to make three movies with the duo, of which this was the first. MGM opted to drop them in this lavish remake of the 1929 RKO operetta hit with Wheeler and Woosley and Bebe Daniels as the title character; it was also Grayson's first leading role. How does the story of two guys who find themselves dodging Nazis in a Mexican resort look today? Let's begin with those two guys, Doc (Abbott) and Wishy (Costello) and find out...

The Story: The two pet-store workers are stranded on the border of Mexico and Texas and are trying to get out. They stow away in the trunk of a car that belongs to popular singer Ricardo Montera (Carroll), who is on his way to the Hotel Vista del Rio for a major radio show. Wishy snags a basket of apples that turn out to be miniature radios. They belong to spies who infiltrated the hotel and intend to use the radio show to send coded messages. 

Rita Winslow (Grayson), the hotel's owner, is concerned about recent incidents and hires the duo as house detectives. She'd love for them to throw Ricardo out if the show wasn't a big deal. He was a childhood sweetheart, but left to start his career. The spies do finally get their hands on Wishy, Doc, and the codebook, but it's Wishy who finally has the last laugh.

The Song and Dance: Abbott and Costello are given the chance to see what they can do with a larger budget. While not one of MGM's blockbuster extravaganzas, this is still far above what Universal was doing with them at the time, with some genuinely funny set pieces like the knock-down, drag-out finale. The costumes are especially nice, with Grayson sporting gorgeous gowns and everyone in nifty modern Mexico-meets-Hollywood Latin fantasy costumes. Carroll, at the least, understood the turf - he played Zorro in a serial five years before - and partners Grayson well in "Long Before You Came Along." 

Favorite Number: We hear the title song over the credits and at the hotel, when Ricardo performs it. "The Rangers' Song" is mainly heard over the radio. The other major chorus number is the nifty "Brazilian Dance," with ladies in swirling ruffled Carmen Miranda-style dresses doing high kicks and big twirls for the crowds. "Long Before You Came Along" is the big duet for Rita and Ricardo after he finally gets a chance to really talk to her. "Ombres Legeres," aka "The Shadow Song," is Rita's big number at the party before the radio broadcast. Ricardo tries flirting with her, but she thinks he's chasing another woman and spreads among the other men.

What I Don't Like: First of all, as anyone who has seen the 1929 RKO Rita knows, this has nothing to do with the original Broadway show or the early sound movie besides the title song, "The Rangers' Song," two comedians and two operetta lovers south of the border, and more action than usual for a musical. I am going to admit that I actually prefer Abbott and Costello's stowaway side story over Wheeler and Woosley's slightly distasteful divorce plot, but the entire thing with the spies taking over the hotel is just too ridiculous, even for the early 40's. I think Abbott and Costello work better without MGM's frippery. Their largess and random songs get in the way more often than not, including a goofy spinning car in the beginning that doesn't pay off. 

The Big Finale: Once again, not this team's absolute best, but worth a look if you're a fan of them or Grayson.

Home Media: On streaming and DVD, the latter in a remastered edition from the Warner Archives.

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Rhythm on the Range

Paramount, 1936

Starring Bing Crosby, Frances Farmer, Bob Burns, and Martha Raye

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music and Lyrics by various

We return to the laid-back world of crooner Bing Crosby with our first two reviews this week. It's not well-remembered nowadays, but Crosby had a strong influence on country music. Though this would be his only musical western, he frequently incorporated western music and country songs into his act, introducing it to audiences outside its usual rural demographics. He became one of the earliest singing cowboys in this entry, just as more authentic cowboy Gene Autry was becoming popular. How does this story of a runaway heiress who falls for a rodeo rider while fleeing out west look now? Let's start not on the range, but at a modern penthouse prepared for a wedding, and find out...

The Story: Doris Halliday (Farmer) is tired of settling for dull but wealthy men. Her Aunt Penelope (Lucile Gleason) wonders why she's marrying someone she doesn't love. Hoping to find a tougher breed of man, Doris stows away on a boxcar with cowboy Jeff Larrabee (Crosby) and his just-bought steer Cuddles. 

Neither Cuddles nor Jeff take to Doris at first, especially after Cuddles chases her in a red scarf and they end up stranded. Doris makes up for it by snaring a car and trailer to take them west. When they arrive, they learn that Jeff's partner Buck (Burns) is now engaged to the very aggressive Emma Mazda (Raye), whom he met on the train. He thinks Jeff should do the same with Doris, but Aunt Penelope worries that Jeff is a gold-digger. Doris knows what real gold-digging is like, and she's ready to tell Jeff she loves him for real.

The Song and Dance: This is really more of a musical than a western, but as such, it has a lot of good moments. Bing's not the most believable cowboy in the world. He does much better crooning "I'm an Old Cowhand" than dealing with the cows. Bob Burns looks and sounds more like a country sidekick. He's especially funny early-on in New York, putting one over on the city slickers. Raye makes a very funny debut as the noisy city gal who falls for Burns while looking for her brother out west. She has some of the best moments in the second half, including jumping around Burns near a freshly-dug well and her exuberant performance of "Mr. Paganini." We also get some rare outdoor shooting for the time at the Alabama Hills in the Sierra Nevada and in New York.

Favorite Number: Our first number is Jeff singing the ballad "Empty Saddles" during the Madison Square Garden rodeo, one of two standards to come from this film. We get many reactions from the touched cowboys around the arena as they remember their own friends they lost. He sings "Roundup Lullaby" to Doris in the boxcar and laments "I Can't Escape From You" after that car she stole busts a tire. He admonishes Cuddles to "Settle Down You Cattle."

The majority of the songs are performed after they've all arrived at the ranch during an engagement party for Buck and Emma. "Mr. Paganini" is Emma's energetic satire of opera, noisily comparing it to swing music. She also briefly gets "Love In Bloom." Jeff joins Russian cowboy Mischa (Leonard Kinsky) for the Russian drinking song "Drink It Down." Look for Louis Prima and Roy Rogers with the Sons of the Pioneers in this number, "One More Ride," and the other big hit from this movie, "I'm an Old Cowhand." 

Trivia: Film debut of Martha Raye; first major role for Bob Burns. We even get to see his famous "bazooka" home-made musical instrument when he's fleecing the cowboys at Madison Square Garden.

Though the arena sequences were filmed at Madison Square Garden in New York City, it's not the current Garden that hosts concerts, the Knicks, and the Rangers. This one was the third version, which was demolished in 1968 after the current arena was built. 

What I Don't Like: Even Rogers' 40's and 50's vehicles have more west in them than this. This is less a western than a cross between a Bing Crosby movie and the runaway heiress screwball comedies that were popular in the 30's. Troubled Farmer is at least a little bit more interesting than most of the women Bing crooned to in his movies, but other than stealing the car, she doesn't have that much to do. As is common for Bing's vehicles in the 30s, the film stops cold so Raye, Burns, Crosby, and the Sons of the Pioneers can do unrelated numbers. 

The Big Finale: Fun for fans of Bing, country music, or those wondering where all those singing cowboy films of the 30's, 40's, and 50's got their start. 

Home Media: Not officially online, but it can be easily found on DVD, on its own and as part of two Bing Crosby sets.

DVD - Universal Vault

DVD - Rhythm on the Range/Rhythm On the River

DVD - Bing Crosby: The Silver Screen Collection - The 30's

Fancy Pants

Paramount, 1950

Starring Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Jack Kirkwood, and Lea Penman

Directed by George Marshall

Music by Jay Livingston; Lyrics by Ray Evans

Let's head back to the US for our next wild west tale. Ruggles of Red Gap was an even less-traditional take on westerns. The version most people are familiar with from 1935 features Charles Laughton as the butler who is won in a poker game by rich Americans and brought to America. This version pushes the accent even further on comedy, with Bob Hope as the butler and Lucille Ball as one of his newly wealthy employers. How well do they pull it off? Let's begin in England, 1850, where actor George Van Basingwell (Hugh French) wants to show off to a pair of visiting rich Americans, and find out...

The Story: George hopes to impress Effie Floud (Penman) and her tough daughter Agatha (Ball) by borrowing a mansion and having the cast of the drawing room comedy he's appearing pose as his aristocratic family. American actor Arthur Tyler (Hope) is so hopeless playing their butler that they fire him, but Effie is impressed and hires him on the spot to teach manners to Agatha and her husband Mike (Kirkwood). 

The rough and tumble western town where the Flouds live misunderstand Effie saying Arthur is a "gentleman's gentleman" and assume he's an Earl. He's really hopeless at being a butler and an aristocrat and stands out like a sore thumb among the tough cowboys and ranchers. Agatha and her suitor Carl Belknap (Bruce Cabot) make fun of him, but Agatha comes to admire him after he seems to hold his own in a bar fight. She manages to bring him back when none other than Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander) comes to see this unusual newcomer. Arthur has to figure out how to get through a fox hunt and look aristocratic, before the whole country figures out what's going on.

The Song and Dance: Hope gets the lion's share of the gags as the actor who gets not one, but two roles of a lifetime playing an English butler and a rich Earl. He's especially hilarious in the second half, when he's telling tall tales to the locals about his non-existent adventures and tries his hardest to dodge that fox hunt. Ball has her moments as the vulgar daughter who is more at home out west in buckskins and playing pool than stuffed into a striped gown. The production is gorgeous, too, with terrific period gowns for the ladies and gorgeous color. 

Favorite Number: Hope kicks off with "I'm a Butler" as he admires his costume and shows what he's supposed to do for the (fictional) British family. Ball (dubbed by Annette Warren) sings "Hey Fancy Pants!" twice, once over the credits, and once later with Cabot and the cowboys as they make fun of Arthur's high-falutin' ways. "Home Cookin'" has Ball, Hope, Kirkwood, and the family's Chinese chef (Joe Wong) singing about their idea of a home-cooked meal as they make a feast for Teddy Roosevelt.

Trivia: This is not the first or last time Ruggles of Red Gap was made into a musical. A stage version goes back to when the original novel was published in 1915. It would be adapted on TV for Producer's Showcase in 1957 with Michael Redgrave as Ruggles. 

What I Don't Like: Though Ball and Hope would work together three more times after this, they really don't have a lot of chemistry here. Ball doesn't get a lot of chances to do the physical comedy that's her stock in trade, either. And frankly, it doesn't have much in common with the original film and book besides a British butler who is brought to the US by a wealthy western family. In the book and more faithful film and TV adaptations, Ruggles a shy older British butler whom Floud wins in a poker game. Instead of running out, he learns about American customs and eventually opens his own restaurant. Belknap is a snooty relative, not a cowboy, and there's no daughter. 

The Big Finale: Enjoyable enough time-waster if you're a big fan of Hope or Ball.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Belle of the Yukon

International Pictures/RKO, 1944

Starring Randolph Scott, Dinah Shore, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Charles Winninger

Directed by William A. Seiter

Music and Lyrics by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke

We're ending the summer season beyond the Mississippi with two comic westerns. The presence of longtime western stalwart Randolph Scott makes this look like a typical oater, but the rest of the cast is more typical of a musical from this era. This would be one of the few film appearances of Gypsy Rose Lee, best known today as one of the most famous strippers in the world, and a rare film appearance by radio singer Dinah Shore in something other than a cameo. How does the unique story of a heist gone wrong during the Klondike Gold Rush look today? Let's start backstage with manager "Pop" Candless (Winninger) and his daughter Lettie (Shore) at Honest John's Saloon and find out...

The Story: Pop's goes to meet the saloon's newest attraction Belle De Valle (Lee). Also on the boat is Sam Slade (Bob Burns), who asks for Honest John himself. Honest John (Scott) was once Gentleman Jack, a gambler who just barely got out of Seattle before being arrested. He and Belle had a relationship, but they broke it off. John may claim to be an honest man, but he's really planning one last heist to get the gold dust out of the bank before his rival George (Robert Armstrong). Belle, however, finds out what's going on after he becomes the bank manager, and she's not about to let him put one over on the town.

Meanwhile, Lettie is in love with piano player Steve Atterbury (William Marshall). Pop doesn't think much of him, and he thinks even less when he receives a letter claiming Steve's married with children. Steve is kidnapped and dropped on a boat bound for Nome, but he still finds his way back to Lettie with more than one big surprise.

The Song and Dance: Even the opening spiel admits this is not your typical western or your typical musical. It comes off more as a Yukon-set heist caper with musical and romantic elements,and it's definitely unique in both genres. Scott gets a rare chance to stay in his natural cowboy element and still embrace comedy, and we get a rare chance to see what made the real Gypsy Rose Lee huge on the burlesque circuit. Winninger has a great time as the older man who wants in on the action...and for his daughter to be happy. There's some gorgeous Technicolor here, too, along with terrific costumes reflecting the real Yukon in 1899.

Favorite Number:  We don't get our first number until 10 minutes in, but it's Gypsy Rose Lee and the chorus in their gorgeous period gowns showing us how "Every Girl Is Different." We even get a lively solo from dancer Jane Hale as she joins the guys. Dinah Shore sings the other major numbers. She performs "I Can't Tell You Why I Love You" twice, with Marshall after he tells her he wrote it for her, and later onstage when she's heartbroken over him taking off. She also gets the hits "Like Someone In Love" and the Oscar-nominated "Sleigh Ride In July."

What I Don't Like: Saying the plot is flimsy is like saying the Gold Rush was a big deal in the Yukon. The plot barely makes sense, as a musical or a western. As the opening spiel points out, those who are looking for something more action-packed, darker, or more overtly musical need to go elsewhere. Shore and Marshall are basically there to sing and look pretty. Other than "Sleigh Ride In July," the songs are even flimsier than the script, and are basically there to give Shore and Lee more to do. 

The Big Finale: Worth seeing once for fans of the cast or 40's musicals or comic westerns.

Home Media: Easily found anywhere. It's currently on several free streaming sites, including Tubi.

DVD

Tubi

Family Fun Saturday - A Cinderella Story: Starstruck

Warner Bros, 2021

Starring Baliee Madison, Michael Evans Behling, April Telek, and Lillian Doucet-Rouche

Directed by Michelle Johnson

Music and Lyrics by various

The Cinderella Story movies were so popular with their target audience, they continued even when the pandemic raged. This is the most recent one to be released. In keeping up with the times, this one was released to streaming first, well before it debuted on disc. How does this version of the story differ from other retellings of Cinderella, or even from the other movies in this series? Well, for one thing, we start off on a farm, with Finley Tremaine (Madison) acting out a scene for the animals in her family's barn yard...

The Story: Finley dreams more of anything of becoming a great actress, but she's currently stuck on the farm, doing chores while her vain stepmother Valerian (Telek), spoiled and shallow stepsister Saffron (Doucet-Rouche), and cynical and lazy stepbrother Kale (Richard Harmon) let her wait on them hand and foot. They refuse to let her go to an audition for a western musical about Billy the Kid filming in her country town, but she manages to sneak on the set anyway. She impresses the director Trevor (Matty Finochio) with her singing and fancy rope tricks, until she has to chase her pig John Ham and ends up in the mud. 

Still hoping to land a role, she dresses as a cowboy and calls herself Huck. That not only gets her into the movie, it gives her a chance to befriend Jackson Stone (Behiling), the film's star. Unfortunately, Saffron and Valerian get roles as background extras, with Kale trying to weasel in as their manager. She has to dodge them and find a way to keep them from selling her farm, before she loses her beloved home and her dream.

The Song and Dance: The western theme gives this one a bit of a lift compared to some of the more typical movies in this series. This is the only Cinderella Story movie to end without a ball, fancy gowns, or some kind of a metaphorical glass slipper. She doesn't need them. No goofy and unnecessary best friend sidekicks, either, unless you count Finley's animals. The real focus is on her ambitions, not on romance.  There's decent shots of the wide open spaces of Vancouver, Canada, too. Madison and Behling aren't bad as the central couple. She's sweet and endearing, especially when talking to her animals. He's one of the better "prince charmings" in the series, even if it seems ridiculous that he can't see through her thin disguise. 

Favorite Number: Finley's "I want" song "My Own Story" is heard twice, in the opening as she sings of her acting dreams to the animals on the farm, and later when she's happy they're finally coming true. There's two brief instrumental dance routines for the chorus, a hoedown during the audition, and another number at the "saloon" during filming that ends with "Huck" showing off some amazing rope tricks. Finley claims "I Can't Be Stopped" as she shows off at the audition...but she can be, by her own pet pig John Ham. Valerian and Saffron attempt "We're Sisters" at the audition...but not only is their number absurd, it's obvious that they're terrible performers, and that the only reason Trevor keeps them around is as eye candy and comic relief. Jackson joins the chorus for the driving "Welcome to the Show" in the actual film as "Billy the Kid" and his men manage a fair bit of menace as they sing of their intention to take the opposition down.

What I Don't Like: How the heck does no one see through Finley's "Huck" disguise? You'd think Jackson would, at least. It's painfully obvious. This one does at least try for a shred of originality with its movie and farm backdrops. I also give them credit for going for a stepbrother here instead of the usual second stepsister. Harmon does have a few good moments dealing with John Ham and trying to convince Jackson to let him be his manager, but Telek and Doucet-Rouche have far less to play and aren't nearly as interesting. For all the attempts at unique touches, this still features most the cliches inherent in the Cinderella Story films, from the meet cute encounter to the dull music without a tinge of the country inherent in the setting. 

The Big Finale: While I enjoyed this a little more than the previous film in the series Christmas Wish, it's still mainly recommended as slumber party or birthday background fodder for 8 to 14 year olds. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming. 

DVD

Amazon Prime

Texas Carnival

MGM, 1951

Starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Howard Keel, and Ann Miller

Directed by Charles Walters

Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

In the 1950's and 60's, Americans became fascinated with Texas and other southwestern and mid-western states as oil production boomed and drillers became millionaires. How does the story of one such Texas oil man and the two carnival performers who become entangled with him look today? Let's begin on the midway of that carnival, as Cornelius "Corny" Quinell (Skelton) throws a pitch for the dunk booth featuring his beautiful partner Debbie Telford (Williams) and find out...

The Story: Corny and Debbie haven't had much luck at the carnival. Debbie's desperately hungry when Corny helps a drunk man with a cheating carny at another booth. The man turns out to be Texas rancher and oil man Dan Sabinas (Keenan Wynn). Sabinas calls him brother and even lets him return his car to the hotel he and his sister Marilla (Paula Raymond) are staying at. 

Turns out Marilla is out of town, and Sabinas drunkenly ends up in Mexico. When Corny and Debbie pull up in Sabinas' huge car, everyone thinks they're the millionaires. Corny decides he enjoys the luxury, and Debbie just likes being fed. Corny falls for Sunshine Jackson (Miller), the brassy daughter of the town sheriff. Debbie's interested in Sabinas' head foreman Slim Shelby (Keel). 

After Corny accidentally loses $17,000 in a poker game, the others enter him in a chuck wagon race to earn the money. Dan turns up mad as a hornet because someone's in his room. Corny tries to get him drunk again, but has to ride the race drunk with Debbie and Slim's help. 

The Song and Dance: Williams and Skelton come together for the third and final time in this noisy bit of fluff. Skelton's having a great time with his brand of wild slapstick and goofy facial expressions. Check out him getting drunk with Sabinas, or attempting to drive the chuck wagon as more and more of it ends up on the ground. The colorful western costumes, with their fringes and buckskins and gingham and elaborate embroidery, and brilliant Technicolor wide open spaces make the movie feel a lot more lavish than the small story would indicate. 

Favorite Number: We open with "The Carny's Pitch," as Corny encourages cowboys to throw a ball at Williams in a glitzy pink bathing suit and see if they can dunk her. "It's Dynamite" is Miller's big solo tap routine in the hotel ballroom as Sunshine shows what she thinks is a rich oil man what she can do as she taps on a piano. "Whoa, Emma" is the folksy ballad about a beloved mare for Slim and the cowboy chorus as they gather around the fire. Debbie's attempt at a speech during a party in the ballroom somehow turns into the film's sole large-scale production number, a wild version of "Deep In the Heart of Texas" with Miller and the chorus.

The film's best "number" and Williams' only swimming ballet doesn't actually take place in the water. Slim rescued the famished Debbie from drowning after she arrived at the hotel still hungry. His mind equates her with the water...which is why, in a nifty bit of special effects, she's seen as a swimming vision swishing around his hotel room in white gauze and silver glitter. She's his "underwater dream" as Williams put it in That's Entertainment III. 

What I Don't Like: This is awfully short for a major MGM musical. I wonder if they planned more numbers that either weren't filmed, or ended up on the cutting room floor. Williams surprisingly has no swimming routines besides the dream sequence and Slim rescuing Debbie from the pool. Other than her two big numbers, Miller is barely used. Keel doesn't really do much besides rescue Debbie, either. The title's a cheat, too. While the movie is set in Texas, it's only at the carnival in the first ten minutes or so and the last five minutes. It's mostly set at and around the hotel. The music is dull and the script even moreso. This is a bizarre bit of fluff that could have done with a little sharpening. 

The Big Finale: Probably best for fans of Skelton or those looking for a fun way to pass an hour on TCM.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, the former in a remastered edition from the Warner Archives.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - Paint Your Wagon

Paramount, 1969

Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Jean Seburg, and Harve Presnell

Directed by Joshua Logan

Music by Fredrick Loewe and Andre Previn; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

This one has a bit of a long history. Louis B. Mayer bought soon after the original Broadway show opened in 1951, but he was fired from MGM, and then passed away and was never able to do anything with it. Eddie Fisher bought it in 1964, intending to turn it into a big Cinerama film. Paramount picked it up after that, hoping to compete with other big musicals and westerns coming out around the same time. They lured Lee Marvin away from The Wild Bunch with a big million-dollar paycheck and Clint Eastwood for his cool factor after the success of the Italian Dollars trilogy. That neither man could sing apparently never crossed their minds...but maybe it should, given the results. What else went wrong with this tale of two miners and the bride between them? Let's start as miners head out west in search of gold and find out...

The Story: In gold-crazy 1849 California, Ben Runsom (Marvin) discovers the precious metal when he buries the brother of a man (Eastwood) who was found near death after a covered wagon crash. He stakes his claim, and takes in the fellow, calling him "Pardner." Tents the miners call No-Name City spring up around the gold mine. The men enjoy drunken revelry when they're not trying to wait out the frequent bouts of rain. 

Tired of not having female companionship, the men convince a Mormon (John Mitchum) to auction off one of his two wives. Ben is the ultimate winner of lovely Elizabeth (Seburg), who lays down the law when he tries to jump on her. She'll be his wife, if he makes her a real home, but she's nobody's property. She's delighted when he and the other miners do build her a cabin. After Ben joins the other miners in kidnapping six French tarts, she falls for Pardner as well. She likes both men so much, she convinces them both to be her husbands and all live together.

That works until the gold starts to run dry and Ben realizes how much three people eat. Ben hatches a scheme to tunnel under the city and gather the gold dust that falls through the cracks in the saloons. Meanwhile, a hot-under-the-collar preacher (Alan Dexter) gets the residents all fired up over the sin and degradation in the town, and Elizabeth rethinks the marriage arrangement when a family of settlers stay with them for the winter and think Pardner is her only husband.

The Song and Dance: At the very least, unlike Camelot, you can't say it's dull. There's enough plot here for six westerns. It was also filmed on real locations in Oregon and California, which adds authenticity and some nice cinematography to the gold rush plot. Some of the supporting cast works pretty well, too. Ray Walston gets a few good bits as Scottish miner "Mad" Jack Duncan, Harve Presnell lends his gorgeous baritone to gambler Rotten Luck Willie (and gets the best song in the score, "They Call the Wind Mariah"), and Tom Ligon has some funny moments late in the film as Horton Linty, the young son of the settlers whom Ben brings in on the tunnel scheme. 

Favorite Number: We open and close with long shots of the miners and the wagon train as they travel along, singing about how "I'm On My Way." Pardner sings about how "I Still See Elisa," even though he has no sweetheart. Country rock group The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and a passel of hippies turn the big number "Hand Me Down that Can 'O Beans" into a muddy mélange of jumping bodies and lots of drinking. Rotten Luck Willie passes the time during a rain storm with the stunning ballad "They Call the Wind Mariah." 

After they build the cabin, Elizabeth (dubbed by Anita Gordon) admits how happy she is in her new home "A Million Miles Away Beyond the Door." Pardner woos her with the gentle "I Talk to the Trees" after she wonders if he gets lonely. Willie and the chorus get the town riled for their new French ladies when "There's a Coach Comin' In." The preacher gets the town fired up in another way, ripping into "The Gospel of No-Name City" and how they're all going down there in a handbasket if they don't repent and soon. Ben wonders if it's time to say good-bye after Elizabeth kicks him out, as he and the chorus admit they're born under a "Wand'rn Star."

Trivia: Lee Marvin's rendition of "Wand'rin Star" was a surprise #1 hit in England and Australia and did fairly well on the charts in the US as well. 

The original 1951 production ran a year, not bad but no blockbuster. It actually did slightly better in London in 1953, running almost two years. It's never been seen again in New York or London, save for an off-Broadway Encores concert in 2015. 

It was the seventh-biggest hit movie at the box office in 1969, but the production and marketing costs were so great, it still didn't make its money back. 

It's probably best-known today for being represented in a segment from a Simpsons episode where Bart and Homer can't believe they're watching a musical with a singing Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood.

What I Don't Like: First of all, let's discuss the leads. Marvin at least looks the part of a grizzled old prospector, and his real-life heavy drinking that caused so many delays on the set is certainly authentic to the character. However, "Wand'rin Star" aside, he's no great shakes as a singer, and his scenery-chewing worked better in the overtly spoofy Cat Ballou than it does here. Eastwood's thin singing voice does "I Talk to the Trees" and "I Still See Elisa" no favors, and he just seems bored. Seburg is only slightly more animated. Her character is a blend of Ben's daughter and the Mormon wife from the show, and they never figure out how to play her. She comes off as alternately feisty, sensible, and frigid, depending on what the script requires.

While the movie's look is a little more colorful than Camelot, it still doesn't work with the tone of the film. The scenery is too gritty and real for the miners' slapstick antics, especially when they start tunneling in the second half. In fact, the movie has no idea what kind of a western it wants to be. Seburg and Eastwood are playing gentle romance, Martin thinks he's back in Cat Ballou, and the rest of the cast doesn't have enough to do to balance them out. The ending is less of an ending and more "we couldn't figure out how to finish this, let's just destroy the set." There's also the entire incident with the Mormon being rather sexist, too, even if Elizabeth did enter into the auction of her own free will. 

Oh, and the only thing left of the original show are about half the songs, Ben Rumson, the Gold Rush setting, the opening with Ben staking his claim during a funeral, and a Mormon auctioning off one of his wives. Originally, Pardner was a Hispanic miner in love with Ben's daughter, the Mormon's wife ran off with another miner, and Ben passed away in the end. 

The Big Finale: For all the problems, the movie does have small following of fans who remember seeing it when it came out or on cable and enjoying the comedy and cast. I like it a lot more than the deadly dull Camelot, but it's still recommended mainly for major fans of Eastwood or the epic musicals or westerns of the 1960's. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming; it's currently free with ads at Pluto TV On Demand. 

DVD

Pluto TV On Demand

Girl Crazy (1943)

MGM, 1943

Starring Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Nancy Walker, and Rags Ragland

Directed by Norman Taurog and Busby Berkeley

Music by George Gershwin; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin

We leave New York and head out west for Mickey and Judy's last full film together. By 1943, Garland and Rooney were among MGM's top stars. Garland was gunning for more adult roles, and Arthur Freed wanted to remake the classic Gershwin stage musical after MGM acquired the rights in the late 30's. It's a bit different than the other Judy/Mickey movies in several ways, starting with the western college setting replacing the barns, backyards, and Broadway. It's also the second Broadway adaptation they appeared in after Babes In Arms. How close to the original show is this? Let's start in New York, as college playboy Danny Churchill (Rooney) goes out on the town with two luscious ladies, and find out...

The Story: Danny's wealthy newspaper owner father Danny Sr. (Henry O'Neil) is incensed when his son's antics with nightclub chorus girls land on the front pages of his own publications. Hoping to avoid more of such shenanigans and get him to focus on his schoolwork, he sends him to the all-male Cody College in Arizona. Danny manages to meet and fall for the only girl in the area, postmistress Ginger Gray (Garland), on his way there, but she dismisses him as a useless Easterner. 

She's right at first. He can't ride a horse, won't get up early, and thinks the other students' cowboy abilities are silly. He starts to change his tune when Ginger finally starts to return his interest. Things are finally starting to look up for Danny when the Governor announces the college may close due to lack of interest. He and Ginger come up with the idea for a big western rodeo and a Queen of the Rodeo pageant...but that means there will be more girls at the college, and Ginger will have more competition for Danny...

The Song and Dance: The Broadway pedigree, terrific Gershwin music, and a unique modern western-meets-High School Musical plot makes all the difference here. Helps that, unlike with Babes In Arms, they kept almost the entire original Broadway score. Location shooting at a real dessert ranch in California adds a great deal of authenticity to the western setting. Garland may have been overworked and over-medicated during filming, but it doesn't show in her delightfully sarcastic performance. Here, we come full circle - Rooney is now officially chasing her and showing her what he can do, but she's not buying. He's having a great time, especially trying to ride a horse during a camping trip. Rags Ragland actually puts in one of his best performances as the kindly cowpuncher who befriends Ginger and Danny.

Favorite Number: June Allyson channels her inner Merman to demand Danny and various sugar daddies "Treat Me Rough" at the nightclub. It gets even funnier when Danny ends up onstage and the chorus girls shove him around. Garland and the cowboys are "Bidin' My Time" in a laid-back routine during the campout. Danny asks Ginger "Can You Use Me?" when they're driving back to the college, literally climbing all over her jalopy while she's trying to drive. The cleaned-up cowboys tell Ginger at her birthday that there's no one like "Embraceable You" as they all want to dance with her at once. Danny joins Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra for a wild piano solo to the only additional song, "Fascinating Rhythm."

The film's two best numbers are at the end. Garland puts in a gorgeous performance of "But Not For Me" after she loses Queen of the Rodeo and thinks Danny's abandoned her and the college. We end with that massive version of "I Got Rhythm" that Berkeley and Garland feuded over during filming. You'd never know how much trouble that number caused. It's a literal blast, with Garland and Rooney dancing with multitudes of cowboys and cowgirls and running under the girls' ribbons as the boys set off their guns. 

Trivia: Film debuts of June Allyson and Richard E. Strickland (as Danny's rival at the college). 

Berkeley was fired after pushing the dancers too hard and feuding with Garland during the "I Got Rhythm" number. He was replaced by Norman Taurog; Charles Walters did the remaining numbers and appeared as a dancer. 

The original Broadway show debuted in 1930, with Ginger Rodgers in Garland's role and Ethel Merman as a performer who also comes out west. The pit orchestra alone included such later notables as Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and ironically, Tommy Dorsey. It came back to Broadway in 1992 in a heavily revised version, Crazy for You, that was an equally big hit. Neither has been seen on Broadway since, though the original turned up as off-Broadway concerts in 2001 and 2009. 

Remake of the 1931 Wheeler and Woosley musical by the same title. Would be remade in 1965 as Where the Boys Meet the Girls.

What I Don't Like: While this is a little bit more mature than Garland and Rooney's previous romps in the big city and suburbs, the story can still come off as a little cliched, especially if you've seen other musical college stories like Good News. Wish Nancy Walker, as Garland's mouthy cousin, had more to do. MGM never did figure out what to do with her. And why did they change Danny from being sent to a dude ranch to a western college? Wanted to go for the Good News vibe, or just thought Rooney looked a little too young to be running ranches? 

The Big Finale: Terrific numbers, a great Gershwin score, and some nice performances make this the best of the four Garland-Rooney movies. Highly recommended for fans of them or the MGM musicals of the 1940's. 

Home Media: Easy to find in all major formats; the solo discs are from the Warner Archives. It's currently on HBO Max with a subscription.

DVD

DVD - The Mickey & Judy Collection

DVD - TCM Greatest Classic Legends: Rooney & Garland

Blu-Ray

HBO Max

Cult Flops - Red Garters

Paramount, 1954

Starring Rosemary Clooney, Jack Carson, Guy Mitchell, and Gene Barry

Directed by George Marshall

Music by Jay Livingston; Lyrics by Ray Evans

Can't Help Singing wasn't the last time Hollywood attempted to mix westerns and musicals. This one trades romantic comedy trappings for a straight-on, stylized satire that makes it more closely resemble the limited animation of the time than a typical musical. The eye-popping sets and costumes were made to be seen as a 3D "theater" experience. By the time this finally came out, a year late, the 3D fad was on the wane, and the movie was released on the regular 2D screen. Audiences at the time didn't quite understand what they were going for...but how does this truly bizarre spoof look today? Let's begin with Paramount's spiel that flat-out tells you this isn't to be taken seriously and find out...

The Story: A stranger (Mitchell) arrives in fictional Lingo County, California, and ends up taking pretty young Susan Martinez De La Cruiz (Pat Crowley) to the local barbecue. Turns out the barbecue is also a funeral for local bad man Robin Randall, whom almost no one is unhappy to have seen shot in the back. Turns out the stranger is Reb Randall, Robin's brother, who is searching for his killer. He thinks it may have been Mexican local Rafael Montero (Barry), who was one of several men to have taken a shot at Randall the last time he was seen alive. 

Saloon singer Calaveras Kate (Clooney) just wishes her boyfriend and Susan's guardian Jason Carberry (Carson) would end this madness, but there's a strict "Code of the West" that says all men have to kill their brother's murderers, even if they weren't fond of the guy. Not to mention, the killing is good for Carberry's saloon business. When the visiting Judge Wallace Winthop (Reginal Owen) from Boston proves to be ineffectual at making Randall and the townspeople see to reason, Kate takes it on herself to stop the violence and make sure no one joins Robin six feet under.

The Song and Dance: Hoo boy, is this a weird one. The eye-popping two-dimensional sets, with primary colors that go on forever, is the real-stand out. It was made for 3D, to give the audience the sensation of watching the movie in a live theater. The flat cardboard buildings and brilliant colored walls and floors give the film a truly unique identity that you won't see anywhere else. Look for goofy little throwaway details like Reb's horse thinking he's human and hating his own species. 

Clooney comes off the best of the cast as Kate, who wishes Carburry would get his mind off codes and onto her. Owen and Carson also do relatively well as the prudish judge who doesn't understand all this macho western violence and the saloon owner who stands to profit off that "code."

Favorite Number: "Dime and Dollar" introduces us to Reb and the lemon-yellow set as he rides into town, singing about his horse and what he plans on doing. He and Kate argue about the differences between "Man and Women" at the barbecue funeral. Kate laments that Carburry has "Good Intentions" that often lead him to be overprotective of his ward. Rafael boasts of being a "Lady Killer" to most of the townspeople, but Judge Winthrop's daughter Sheila isn't impressed. When she finally admits she loves him, she claims "This Is Greater Than I Thought." 

Clooney does the spirited title song with the chorus in appropriately scanty scarlet costumes; a later instrumental version brings bartender Ginger Pete (Buddy Ebsen) in for a quick number with the girls. Kate's dark "Bad News" is a fairly touching rumination on how violence gets out of hand...and how loved ones deal with their grief when it does. 

What I Don't Like: If you're not into satire, westerns, or musicals, this is not the place for you. It's definitely not for someone looking for a darker or more sharply-plotted musical, either. There's a reason this flopped in 1954, despite earning an Oscar nomination for those sets. Even today, many people who aren't familiar with western or musical clichés probably won't be able to roll with the theatrical vibe they're going for. 

We also need to discuss the stereotypes. Once again, they're supposed to be part of the fun, but some folks today might find white people playing hot-blooded Latin lovers and comic Native squaws more offensive than funny. Cass Daley as Minnie Redwing does get some funny bits, especially in the second half, but she's mostly annoying.

The Big Finale: This is too weird to be for everyone, but if you love satire and can understand that this is basically a live-action 50's cartoon, you may find it as cute and (mostly) funny as I did. 

Home Media: Was re-released last June on made-to-order DVD from the Warner Archives; can be found streaming for free at Amazon.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Can't Help Singing

Universal, 1944

Starring Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, Akim Tamiroff, and David Bruce

Directed by Frank Ryan

Music by Jerome Kern; Lyrics by E.Y Harburg

Other than the 1936 Show Boat, Universal didn't really do any major musicals after the early talkie era...until they signed teen soprano Deanna Durbin later that year. Her first vehicle 100 Men and a Girl was such a massive hit, it helped save Universal from bankruptcy. By 1944, they were ready to give Durbin the full glamor treatment, with Technicolor, their most expensive production yet, outdoor location shooting, and a Jerome Kern score. How does this Gold Rush romance look today? To find out, we begin in Washington DC in 1844, just as a political rally begins, and find out...

The Story: Caroline Frost (Durbin) is the willful daughter of Senator Martin Frost (Ray Collins). She's so in love with Calvary officer Lt. Robert Latham (Bruce), she takes a train and a steamboat to follow him west after he's assigned to guard gold owned by wealthy Jake Carstairs (Thomas Gomez) in California. The only way for her to get to California is by wagon, but she's swindled out of her money almost as soon as she finds passage. She hitches up with notorious gambler Johnny Lawler (Paige) when it turns out he's bought part of the wagon, too. They also end up saddled with two stowaways who think there's money in her trunk, Prince Gregory Strovanosky (Tamiroff) and his servant Koppa (Leonid Kinsky). 

Hoping to join a wagon train, Johnny tells the leaders that Caroline is married to the prince. She's not thrilled about having to share her wagon and her quarters with Johnny...but realizes on the road that he's not such a bad fellow. She told Johnny she's engaged to Carstairs to get him off her back, but there's repercussions when they all make it to California and she realizes which man now truly has her heart.

The Song and Dance: I'm glad they took this outside. It was worth any headaches and delays in filming. Durbin looks gorgeous, singing with the real Utah and California glowing in the background. She has a great deal of fun here as the spoiled and naïve politician's daughter who learns a lot about herself and her own strengths during her long trek. Tamiroff and Kinsky have some nice moments as the two hustlers who are convinced there's gold in Caroline's trunk and keep trying to take off with it. Collins is even funnier as her blustery father, who is just as much of a fish out of water on the wild trails. The costumes and sets ably recreate the world of 1844, with its rickety wagons, grizzled prospectors, and tough ladies in hoopskirts as wide as the scenery.

Favorite Number: Of the many times we hear the title song, my favorite version is the sequence with Durbin singing it while she washes in a tub full of bubbles...not knowing that we're being introduced to Paige doing the same in the stall next-door. "Elbow Room" and "Swing Your Sweetheart" are the big chorus numbers for the folks on the wagon train. The first is sun as Durbin explores the group and they prepare to depart. The second is at night, as they enjoy music and a hearty meal by the fireplace. Durbin gets to introduce two lovely ballads. She sings "More and More" after she falls for Johnny, and later with Johnny before he sends her off with the train. "Any Moment Now" is the one she performs while exploring the glorious emerald scenery of Utah, looking like an angel against the rugged backdrops. 

Trivia: Durbin's only color film. 

What I Don't Like: At heart, this is a glorified romantic comedy set in the Wild West, with all the attendant clichés, from the runaway rich girl falling for the "bad" boy to their meeting cute in the saloon. It's western fluff that doesn't pretend to be anything else. Neither Paige nor Bruce match Durbin in charisma or vocals. Paige does try hard, but Bruce is so bland, you wonder what Caroline saw in him to begin with. 

The Big Finale: Worth hitting the trail for if you love Durbin, big 40's musicals, or are willing to give a musical western a shot.

Home Media: Currently DVD-only, as a solo Universal Vault title and as part of a Deanna Durbin collection.

DVD - Universal Vault

DVD - Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Pack

Golden Girl (1951)

20th Century Fox, 1951

Starring Mitzi Gaynor, Dale Robertson, Una Merkel, and Dennis Day

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Music and Lyrics by various

Many beloved entertainers of the 19th and early 20th centuries who existed before film and record could permanently capture their talents are all but forgotten today. Case in point is the titular subject of this biography. I never heard of Lotta Crabtree until I read about this movie in a book on classic films as a teenager. Is her story worth hearing now, almost 160 years after this movie's Civil War setting? Let's begin in the little California gold rush boom town of Rabbit's Creek as the dancing star Lola Montez (Carmen D'Antonio) is passing through and find out...

The Story: Charlotte "Lotta" Crabtree (Gaynor) is the schoolgirl daughter of Mary Ann (Merkel) and John Crabtree (James Barton), who own a boarding house in Rabbit Creek. Lotta wants nothing more than to be a great performer like her idol Montez. Determined to see her despite the protests of her mother and her guy friend Mart Taylor (Day), she goes out to the local saloon with handsome southern gambler Tom Richmond (Robertson). Her mother is mortified when Mart catches her. She's even more horrified when her husband gambles away their money and their boarding house. 

Lotta knows Lola earned a pile of money riding through miner's camps and playing for the men there. She, Mart, her mother, and a group of local musicians opt to do the same. It's here that Lotta develops her vivacious, child-like stage persona. Richmond follows the troupe from camp to camp, watching every performance. She falls in love with him, before he claims he's a gambler, and then a Confederate spy stealing gold for his cause. Lotta turns him away after that, but she can't forget him. Even after her father wins a theater in San Francisco, where she becomes the most popular dancing star in the west, and a tour that makes her the hottest thing going from coast to coast, he's always on her mind and in her heart.

The Song and Dance: The authentic California Gold Rush setting and numbers and Gaynor's excellent performance as Crabtree makes this one unique among musical biographies. I love the colorful period costumes, outdoor shooting, and lively routines to real songs of the time. Gaynor has a wonderful time as Lotta, dancing up a storm, making a passable stubborn teen, and even managing to pull off her dramatic scenes with Lotta and Tom late in the film. Merkel and Barton also have a lot of fun as Lotta's prudish mother who may not approve of her daughter's dancing, but knows a gambler when she sees one, and her easily swayed gambler father.

Favorite Number: We get to see Barton show off his own dancing chops with Gaynor in the charming "California Moon" in the opening sequence in the boarding house. Later, he joins her for Day sweetly performs the Oscar-nominated ballad "Never" as part of their first mining camp show, before he and Gaynor take over for the ruffles-and-parasol romp "On Sunday Morning." Hoping to get the miners to throw gold, Gaynor returns for a wild danced reprise in tights and a far shorter skirt, to the shock of her mother! She gets another sexy-cute number, "Kiss Me Quick and Go," with a male quartet a bit later, after she's discovered Tom's deception. 

Gaynor performs a heartfelt "Dixie" in the finale as a tribute to Alabama-born Tom. She's booed by the victorious Union crowds, until Mart reminds them that they're all one country now. 

Trivia: The fountain mentioned in the opening sequence that Lotta donated to the city of San Francisco still exists today, though in a different spot from where it was when this movie was filmed. 

Lotta did tour miner's camps before and during the Civil War...but she actually started in show business as early as 6, and her parents had no trouble with her choice of careers. Her father owned a bookshop in addition to the boarding house. Lola Montez was a family friend, and she died in 1861, before the movie starts. 

Gaynor would later call Golden Girl one of her favorites of her films. 

What I Don't Like: For all the authentic setting and music, the biography is a little too manufactured. In real life, Lotta Crabtree focused entirely on her career and never married, or even had a great romance like the one depicted with the fictional Tom Richmond. Doubt she ever carried gold for the Union, either, no matter how much of a lift that sequence gives the middle of the film. Day always came off a lot better on TV and radio than he did on film. He's just as annoying here as he was in other movies I've caught him in like Music In Manhattan. 

And despite being the film's more-or-less theme song, "Oh Dem Golden Slippers" wasn't written until 1879. 

The Big Finale: Charming western musical with enjoyable period numbers that's worth a watch if you love Gaynor or the big Technicolor films of the 1950's.

Home Media: DVD-only from the 20th Century Fox Cinema Archive.

DVD

Animation Celebration Saturday - Home on the Range

Disney, 2004

Voices of Rosanne Barr, Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, and Randy Quaid

Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Glenn Slater

Directed by Will Finn and John Sanford

By the mid-2000's, Disney was in the middle of a slump. They had overwhelming success with their historical and fairy-tale musicals the decade before...but then the animated film market became saturated with imitation musical fantasies. Their attempts to follow other paths were frequently ambitious, but with the exception of Dinosaur and Lilo and Stitch, largely unsuccessful. Home on the Range combines the "animals make a comic rescue" story of 101 Dalmatians and The Rescuers with the Alan Menken songs of Beauty and the Beast and sets the entire thing in the Wild West. How does the story of three cows who hope to turn in a cattle rustling gang look now? Let's begin with cowboys and settlers heading towards the farm A Little Patch of Heaven and find out...

The Story: Maggie (Barr) is the newest arrival at A Little Patch of Heaven, a "showcow" whose farm was sold after rustler Alameda Slim (Quaid) and his gang stole the cattle. Heaven is also in trouble. If it's owner Pearl Gesner (Carole Cook) doesn't come up with $750 in three days, she'll also lose her farm at auction. Maggie recruits Pearl's cows Grace (Tilly) and Mrs. Calloway (Dench) to find out about the local county fair. 

While in town, Maggie notices that the reward for capturing Alameda Slim is exactly what they need to pay off the farm. She suggests they capture Slim themselves and turn him in. Sweet Grace is game for anything, but proper Mrs. Calloway is less keen on the idea. They're also in competition with Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a horse who is thrilled to partner with his hero, bounty hunter Rico (Charles Dennis). It'll take a full farm's worth of critters (including an ornery jackrabbit named Lucky Jack and steers with crushes on Maggie and Grace) to reveal this yodeling bandit for the phony he is.

The Animation: About as cartoony as you'd expect a movie about cows trying to rustle a yodeling bandit would be. At times, the sharp edges and bright desert greens and dusty tans makes it more closely resemble a Disney animated short of the 50's and 60's than one of their more recent films. Some of the action sequences, especially when the cows are in town and towards the end with the train, are very well-done...but the mine cart chase towards the middle of the film is definitely done in CGI and clashes badly with the hand-drawn animation. 

The Song and Dance: This was a lot better - and funnier - than I expected. A decent script and nice songs really give this one life. There's also that all-star cast, with Tilly the stand-out as peaceful Grace, who hates violence and just wants everyone to get along. Not to mention, the plot is one of the more original I've seen in a western. How many westerns have been made from the cow's point of view and features a yodeling cattle rustler? 

Favorite Number: "A Little Patch of Heaven" introduces Maggie - and us - to Pearl's farm and the animals who live there. Bonnie Raitt performs the touching country-flavored ballad "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?" as Pearl sadly packs up to leave the farm and the animals wonder what happened to the cows. 

What I Don't Like: This is not one of Disney's grand fantasy adventures. It's a goofy western action musical about three cows who want to catch a yodeling outlaw and save their farm, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The wacky slapstick and modern references may annoy people who prefer their westerns and Disney movies to be a tad darker or more romantic. 

The Big Finale: Too silly and short for older kids, but younger guys who can handle some scary or sad moments and adults who enjoy westerns and the leading ladies may get a big cow kick out of this.

Home Media: Easy to find in all formats, often for under five dollars. Disney Plus has it for streaming with a subscription.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Disney Plus