bmbdsm
This movie tells the story of the Five Donahues, a vaudeville family, and their trials and turmoils. Their eldest son, Steve, leaves the act to become a priest; although Terry and Molly, the parents, object, Katy, the daughter, gets them to change their mind, because Steve could eventually become something bigger than a priest. The youngest son, Tim, meets a beautiful blonde hatcheck girl named Vicky, who is trying to further her career and become a Broadway star. Unfortunately, Vicky isn't all that interested in Tim, as she is focused on her career. This leads to trouble for Tim and the family. Fortunately, in a big splashy finale, everything works out for the best.This is one of the best movie musicals (in my opinion), and it is a shame that this movie is not more well-known as it should be. It has several wonderful Irving Berlin songs expertly performed by the 20th Century Fox orchestra under the baton of Alfred Newman, and it sounds glorious in a rich stereophonic soundtrack. An all-star cast, featuring Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor, and Johnnie Ray, sing those classic songs to perfection, and provide energy to their songs, dances, and scenes. The musical numbers make good use of the wide CinemaScope screen. Seeing Ethel Merman perform the legendary title song (which she had earlier performed in Berlin's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN) is a thrilling moment, and Monroe displays sadly under-utilized musical talents. I wish she had done more musicals (her last one, LET'S MAKE LOVE, would come in 1960, and she had earlier done the more famous GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES in 1953). It also has one of the happiest of endings in any movie. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 10/10.
weezeralfalfa
By now, Fox's musical comedy stars of the -40s and very early '50s(Grable, Miranda, Blaine, Haver, Como) were gone or nearly gone. They needed new faces. In this extravaganza, we have a collection of 5 proved extraordinary musical comedy talents, plus a pop singer, whose film debut would also be his last. In addition, we have access to Irving Berlin's vast treasure chest of old songs, as well as a few new ones. Should be a shoe in for a classic! Marilyn Monroe was still a relatively new face, but already hot property.Her starring character is the only one not included in the Donahue vaudeville family, and clearly was written in later, as insurance for audience enthusiasm. As other reviewers have emphasized, she turned out to be the crown jewel in this film, with her 3 very sensual musical numbers and occasional inclusion in the dialog. She would be the only one of the 6 stars to do a future Fox musical comedy.Ethel Merman was a long time fixture on Broadway stages, with her more than ample vocal cords, brassy stage presence, and excellent comedic timing. She was also Berlin's favorite female interpretor of his songs. However, she had largely been avoided for film making, because she carried her brassy stage persona onto the screen, not everyone found her often rather harsh singing voice with vibrato to their liking, and she was considered relatively plain looking and heavy. Nonetheless, her Fox musical of the year before: "Call Me Madam" was considered a success, and Fox decided it was worthwhile to bring her back with another Berlin extravaganza.Unfortunately, Fox lost millions on the expensive film, and critics generally weren't kind. Today, it is generally considered a classic. Donald O'Connor had finally achieved long overdue fame in the MGM "Singing in the Rain", costarring with Gene Kelly. But, apparently MGM didn't feel they had long term room for O'Connor, along with Kelly and Astaire. Thus, aside from being loaned out for a few more musicals for Fox, MGM and Paramount, he was mostly stuck talking to a mule, however popular and profitable for his home studio of Universal.The previous year, he had costarred with Merman in Berlin's "Call Me Madam". In that film, and the present one, he was asked to play essentially toned down versions of Kelly or Astaire."Singing in the Rain" was unique in that we had both Kelly and O'Connor performing together, as well as individually. In these Fox films, O'Connor had no male dancer to partner with, although a great female dancer.In the present film, the nascent O'Connor-Monroe romance didn't look like it was more than a brief flirtation. He was much more comfortable with Vera-Ellen(in "Call Me Madam"), with Mitzi and Debbie Reynolds presumably somewhere in between. Mitzi Gaynor was another vastly underutilized talent in film. Whereas Monroe exuded her unique blend of smoldering sensuality and child-like innocence in her dialog and unbridled sensuality in her musical numbers, Mitzi was cute, pixie-like, a very lively dancer as well as a good singer: my kind of ideal stage woman! Here, we get to see her dancing, singing and comedic talent. In the "I'm Lazy" number, although Monroe is the central focus, Mitzi and O'Connor add considerably to the liveliness of the scene with their gymnastic and dance maneuvers around the reclining Monroe. She and O'Connor would again costar, with Bing Crosby, in the Paramount "Anything Goes" This would be Dan Dailey's last musical for Fox, after costarring with Betty Grable or June Haver in a number of musicals.Tall, easy going, likable, with good all around vaudevillian talents, he was Grable's favorite male costar, and ideal for his part, having played a similar role in "Mother Wore Tights". In this film, his vaudevillian talents were mostly displayed only in the first portion.I don't know why Johnny Ray, an eccentric pop singer of the times, was chosen to play one son. His partial deafness is said to partly explain his unusually intense style of singing. I didn't think his acting was bad. He just had to play the morally good son, who decides being a priest is his thing, and smiled a lot. His rendition of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" sounded rather bizarre, while his "If You Believe" was a spirited spiritual. They become less exotic-sounding with repeated viewings.Four of the songs had been included in the 1938 "Alexander's Ragtime Band", in which Merman also costarred. Besides the title song for that film, "When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves Alabam"(also done in "Easter Parade"), "Heat Wave", and "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" were again featured. However, Merman sang only the last in both films. Unfortunately, this was perhaps the worse sounding song she did here,with her voice sounding harsh, with excessive vibrato. The second of these was done twice in this film, with Mitzi doing a good job mimicking Merman's very different voice in the second version.The title song comes from Berlin's "Anne Get Your Gun", which Merman did on Broadway, but Betty Hutton did in the film. Sorry, but I much prefer Hutton's more exuberant(believe it or not!) version...Berlin composed several counterpoint duet songs. Merman did "Your Just in Love" with O'Connor in "Call Me Madam". Here, she does "Play a Simple Melody" with Dailey... O'Connor does his MGM-like solo dance to the ironic tune "A Man Chases a Girl Until She Catches Him", with a bit of help from an off stage Monroe: an interesting novelty dance worthy of MGM, in which the courtyard female statues sometimes come alive, after a coconut hits O'Connor on the head...Favorite comedy bit: Mitzi got rid of her unwanted date by having him hold both their drinks on the backs of his hands. Very clever!
Johntechwriter
That expression, jumping the shark, refers to doing what you've done well just that one time too many. Suddenly the spell is broken and can never be recast.I'm a fan of MM sex comedies like "Blondes" and "Millionaire" but this one came across as overblown and shallow. It left a bad taste in my mouth. It was the Donald O'Connor character that I couldn't abide. He seemed like the creepiest kind of low-life, plying women with liquor and lies to get them into bed. And when a film makes a sunshine boy like O'Connor seem sleazy, it's got to have something wrong. The cast, score, musical production, none better anywhere. What brings the film down is its screenplay. The story centers around what men will do to win MM's sexual favors, and how she plays on their schemes to get what she wants.I couldn't find romance here. Or wit, or the sense that the people involved were enjoying themselves. Quite the opposite -- all the overdone Berlin tunes can't hide the weariness that lies just beneath what is so superficial.
