1h 47min | Biography, Comedy, Musical | 17 May 1950 | Color
Directors: George Sidney, Busby Berkeley (uncredited)
Stars: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern, J. Carrol Naish, Edward Arnold, Keenan Wynn.
Robert Alton ... choreographer
Alex Romero ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)
Rated 7 on 2006-01-02. Surprisingly, I can let it ride.
I'm a non-fan of Betty Hutton, and pretty neutral on Howard Keel, but both are quite tolerable here. I think their personalities (overbearing-yet-insecure and arrogant-yet-underwhelming, respectively) work well with these characters, and/or were directed well, or both.
I think it's also the songs, specifically (all caps from the Soundtracks):
I GOT THE SUN IN THE MORNING
THEY SAY IT'S WONDERFUL
THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
out of the 12 songs listed.
One of the bothersome points: BH is doing her trick shooting in the Wild West show where Indians ambush a camp/wagon/whatever, and she's cutting flying arrows with her shots. Then she turns around and aims what seems to be the same gun at people and shoots at them. Are they supposed to be wearing armour under those buckskins? They didn't have kevlar in the Buffalo Bill show. Frankly, even the bullets shot at arrows must land somewhere, and it also seems like she was shooting toward the audience at times.
And yes, of course, it's troubling that BH is willing to lose a challenge she just demanded so that she can capture the man that she's angry with. Not to mention that HK is willing to accept that surrender. That bit of scripting is just too convenient, plus it's so very anti-feminist. Are they still having trouble getting women to let go of good jobs 4.5 years after the war?
Part of my high rating might be seeing the 2 surviving scenes from Judy Garland. They were pretty awful. I don't really picture her as this character, nor would she seem well-paired with HK, who's 1.5' taller than she (6'4" vs 4'11.5") and much bulkier. BH (5'4") did a good job and/or was well-matched with this character.
MGM, dir. Sidney, Berkeley; 7
