1h 37min | Biography, Musical, Romance | 24 September 1952
Director: Irving Brecher
Stars: Betty Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Robert Keith.
Charles O'Curran ... choreographer
Jeni Le Gon ... Maid in 'Rose Room' Number (uncredited)
(she doesn't tap, just moves rhythmically with BH)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045171/
Watched online, mediocre print.
Biopic, which is just a distraction, since I don't trust the story.
~17 songs performed, many from the period (10's, 20's), some by Livingston & Evans for the film. The Soundtracks does not mention if anyone was dubbed, but this is RM's only Soundtrack credit, and BH just had vocal cord surgery, and sounded sweeter than usual.
This is RM's 5th of 34 films; his only other music/al was Glory Alley ('52), which I didn't find. Doesn't mean he can't sing; I can name singers who never sang on film (Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews).
The story bugs me, because the couple starts with his playing piano for her onstage. But he doesn't like being Mr. Blossom Seeley, so he tries to make it on his own, and flops. Then she trains him, and despite promising not to help him get a booking, secretly does.
So she retires to give his ego room to breathe? This is a post-war 50's anti-feminist message, constantly underlined within showbiz: 2-career couples can't survive; woman, step aside.
We have video of them performing together in '27 and in '35. So this is just social propaganda from the studios, trying to tamp women down into housewifery, despite sending more men off to war. Grr.
Perlberg-Seaton Prod., distr. Paramount, dir. Brecher; 6
