Monday, January 22, 2018

Moon Over Miami (1941), 8

Sisters Kay and Barbara arrive in Miami from Texas looking for rich husbands.
1h 31min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 4 July 1941
Director: Walter Lang
Stars: Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Haley, Condos Brothers, Hermes Pan.
Hermes Pan ... dances staged by
Angela Blue ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)


Oft remade story (* means non-musical): The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)*, Three Blind Mice (1938)*, Moon Over Miami (1941), Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)*. (See the Connections page for links to each.) The plot differs a LOT from How to Marry a Millionaire ('53), also starring BG with Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall, starting with these women are friends and a stranger, not sisters and an aunt.

Here, only BG is aiming to marry a millionaire. Her sister thinks you should marry for love. Her aunt is more concerned with not risking the money they have to seek a fortune.

Very good dance movie: in the Tap! Appendix for Condos Brothers, Betty Grable, Hermes Pan.

  • Condos Bros dance twice: once with Betty Grable (Ch 6), where all are in unison well, and once (Ch 22) in Seminole Indian costumes and wigs. They didn't do the 5-tap wing with BG, but they do in the Seminole number. They're just amazing. (Again, onscreen credit is only Condos Brothers, but IMDb has Frank and Harry.) 
  • Also probably in the Seminole number: Jack Cole & Co, which includes an IMDb-only Cast credit for Jack Cole. If he's actually onscreen, he's not featured. The dance moves are not as exotic as when he choreographs future dances.
  • Charlotte Greenwood does her rubber-hipped high kicks in Ch 12 when she & Jack Haley dance.
  • In Ch 17, BG dances alone, with the couples ensemble, and then with Hermes Pan. This is the film where he puts up his hand as though waiting for hers, and she doesn't match him. It's only a moment, but it jumps out at me.
None of the dancing does anything to illuminate characters or story. No explanation is offered for why BG is such a good dancer. But it's really good stuff.

Carole Landis does no dancing here; does she in other films? She sings a bit, but nothing solo.

This is the film where CG talks about "guaca-mala sauce", eventually producing a jar of red stuff.

BG wears a grey coat with fur trim that might have been what she wore in Down Argentine Way ('40). I said in That Night in Rio ('41) that AF had a peignoir that looked like BG's in DAW, but maybe it was just the same design of skirt as this coat.

Previously rated 8, and I'll leave it there. If I hadn't just seen the Condos Bros In the Navy (4 films ago), I might be more ecstatic.

Fox, dir. Lang; 8
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