BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Ed Uyeshima You have to love Debbie Reynolds. Whether it's her youthful zeal in "Singin' in the Rain", her over-the-top turn as Grace's ditzy diva mother Bobbi on "Will & Grace", or her daughter Carrie's vituperative portrayal of her (and Shirley MacLaine's tough-minded interpretation) in the roman-à-clef, "Postcards from the Edge", Reynolds keeps on ticking with her enduring, all-American brand of foot-stomping peppiness. Based on the 1960 Broadway hit, this overlong 1964 musical is arguably her career highpoint since it's a true star vehicle and one of the last of MGM's big musicals that yielded a profit. The 2000 DVD does the film justice with a nice print that captures the vibrancy of the colors and the bombast of the musical arrangements. However, despite a musical score from Meredith Wilson ("The Music Man"), the problem remains that it's just not a very memorable entertainment. It certainly isn't for lack of Reynolds' all-cylinders-on approach.Directed by Charles Walters and written by Helen Deutsch, the story is a fictionalized biopic of the legendary Molly Brown, an ill-mannered, illiterate backwoods girl intent on leaving her small town of Leadville to marry rich. She meets John Brown, who for no obvious reason is smitten with her, as he teaches her to read and she entertains the miners at the local tavern. They marry, strike it rich in silver and gold mines, and move to fashionable Pennsylvania Avenue in Denver. Shunned by the social register, they go to Europe where Molly is so embraced by royalty that she brings them back to Denver. The Browns hold a big society party which turns into a brawl, and they separate. Coming back from another European trip, Molly becomes a survivor of the Titanic as she keeps the spirits of her fellow passengers up as they await rescue. Yes, this is the same Molly Brown that Kathy Bates portrays in the 1997 mega-hit.Fresh off "The Music Man", Wilson has written a score that doesn't feature anything close to the gems of his previous hit with "Belly Up the Bar, Boys!" the only one with enough rowdy energy to be considered rousing. In a role ironically slated for MacLaine, Reynolds is rambunctious and performs with exhausting brio, but there's no getting around the fact that Molly is a superficially driven character. I also find it amusing how contemporary she looks in her final scenes. Translating his Broadway role, Harve Presnell evokes Howard Keel's baritone and barrel-chested virility as her husband. With the decline of musicals, he didn't really find success in movies until he played the doomed father-in-law in "Fargo" over three decades later. Titanic aficionados will be disappointed that this part of the story is given short shrift toward the end with recycled footage from 1958's "A Night to Remember". The DVD has the original theatrical trailer and a silly vintage short about the making of one of Reynolds' gowns. Only for fans of movie musicals.

Hayes595 "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is a well written, well acted movie. But for some reason, every time I watch this movie, it reminds me of another brilliant movie before this: Gone With the Wind. "TUMB" is, to sum it up, a movie about a women that doesn't want to live without money...much like Scarlett O'Hara. Molly ends up changing her views and personality because of the money, and who she wants to impress. But of course, "TUMB" is unique it its own way, and should be more recognized. Molly is a likable character, and has a very funny personality, while what she says is hilarious. JJ Brown, her husband is as likable as well, but we should have seen much more of him. In the end it turns into a likable romance classic, that you will easily remember for a long time to come.

tedg The movie musical by this time was already breathing its last. Perhaps all genres go through a life cycle and eventually fade away, or so most observers believe. But I think there was a more fundamental shift at work, a shift in how we see film stories. Musicals demand that we enter a work that wavers between reality (in the story) and a stylized non-reality where a song-and-dance theatrical entertainment is presented. Since the 60s, we've been unwilling to shift realities without one of the explicit conventions that have evolved, some quite sophisticated.They tried something like one of these conventions by having an onstage "band" whenever Christmas and gang appeared.But there are other interesting things about this project. First, that it really is rooted in reality, more so than others of its ilk. At least Molly Brown did live, and her life was roughly as depicted. Second, there was another fold with reality: a celebrity scandal involving the "good" Debbie and the "bad" Liz, with Debbie fighting back (as a pudgy 32 year old).But there's another level that is lost today. The 60's in particular and the decades before as well were periods when the American social conscience was in a "populist" camp. Movies and books reflected this: the rich were either evil, or selfish, or blind or simply stupid while the real wisdom and joy and meaning of America was found in its "ordinary" people.Many were the dramas that reduced things as they are here: genuine but rough, simple people contrasted with the stodgy, sober unimaginative rich. That was before the American scene shifted. Most people now consider themselves middle class and don't mind being a bit pretentious consumption-wise. What was "simple" and "genuine" has been co-opted by their commercial abstractions in various worlds ("country" and "hiphop" for example).The model for "Molly" has now shifted to the explicitly dumb but well-intentioned and pure- hearted as in "Legally Blond."Once again, we have a Technicolor redheaded heroine. She's no Charisse and danced with a loping wide athletic stance that Gene Kelly would famously criticize. Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

ptb-8 I was moaning the other day about stock footage in crucial scenes in some MGM pix: The EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN and THE LAST VOYAGE and then in the middle of this MOLLY BROWN extravaganza, well, there was more again!! In the title scene where Molly is on board - and then overboard- the Titanic..what do MGM use to show the ship pierced and then sink...25 seconds of black and white footage tinted sepia all lifted from the Fox 1953 version of TITANIC. Outrageous! And in a film with such other lavish appointments they skimp on the main scene! Just incredible. As a musical "Beverly Hillbillies" (which came first?) with continuous yelling in the first 4 reels and lots of "lil Abner' level punchy comedy this film is a lot of fun. Debbie looks like DOLLY and why not...it is all a Denver version of how Dolly looked was as well. Without the Levi (haha). But this damned stock footage at THE most crucial scene. I remember seeing it in 1964 and felt even as a 10 year old that they skimped on that scene because it was SO short. Well 40 years later now I realise why. Yes I agree with someone who said it would have been great casting to have seen Reynolds as Molly again in the James Cameron TITANIC given her role here. Yet another obvious disappointment and another missed opportunity. MOLLY BROWN is a lot of fun, my only reservations being Harve Presnell bellowing about Colorado and that infuriating crap footage. Yes it is half a musical too.