1h 22min | Musical | 27 September 1944 | Color
Director: Walter Lang
Stars: Carmen Miranda, Don Ameche, William Bendix, Vivian Blaine.
Seymour Felix ... dance stager
In the Tap! Appendix for Four Step Brothers in ch17.
Don't get excited to see Judy Holliday and Comden & Green in the cast. I only spotted Green, and then see ch13 below, and per the IMDb trivia, their number was cut prior to release. This is JH's 2nd screen credit. Adam's Rib ('49) and Born Yesterday ('50) are her 5th and 7th of 13.
Note that CM is top billed here, the first time among her American films.
Don't get excited to see Judy Holliday and Comden & Green in the cast. I only spotted Green, and then see ch13 below, and per the IMDb trivia, their number was cut prior to release. This is JH's 2nd screen credit. Adam's Rib ('49) and Born Yesterday ('50) are her 5th and 7th of 13.
Note that CM is top billed here, the first time among her American films.
Musical numbers (24 chapters with menu):
- ch2. I'm Just Wild About Harry perf.by CM in a peppermint outfit with some chorus dancers
- ch4. Sally & Tony De Marco dance (still don't like him)
- ch6. VB sings Swingin' Down the Lane
- ch11. This Is Our Lucky Day sung/danced outside their deli by the De Marcos, then passed through the neighborhood; very brief
- ch13. It's All for Art's Sake production sung/danced by VB, WB et al at the fund-raising ball. If you pause at the right moment, while the chariot is being wheeled off camera, we see the 4 Revuers: Hammer, Comden, Holliday, Green in the center of other revelers. Don't blink; they only get to mouth the song title, it's last line.
- ch14. I Like to Be Loved by You sung/wiggled by CM onstage at the party. Her gown is black (bodice) and white (hat, shoulders, skirt) with gold trim, jewelry and shoes; very Miranda-esque
- ch16. Whispering sung by VB on patio to DA
- ch17. DA plays the concerto (Whispering) for the maestro; transitions to ...
- ch17. jive version It Goes to Your Toes danced by Four Step Brothers. Lots of leaping/tumbling to land in splits. Good.
- ch22. Finale begins: the concerto in performance, conducted by the maestro as part of the big show
- ch23. Give Me a Band and a Bandana sung by CM with her band. Now her outfit is black and magenta (including the palms of her black gloves): gorgeous. She looks very comfortable in her gold platform shoes (now with black/magenta poms over the toes). The number grows to large male and female chorus in red outfits with black trim.
- ch24. Whispering reprised by VB preceded by a brief top-hatted soft shoe by 4 men.
Plenty of music performed. Plenty of colorful costumes.
The plot is rather sour, since nearly everyone is trying to cheat my fave, DA. But it all seems to work out in the end. When I said (in some past post) that I wanted to see more WB in comedies, this doesn't qualify well. He does some cute takes at the fund-raiser, but otherwise he's part of the sour nature of the film.
Fox, dir. Lang; 7
