1h 21min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 12 June 1953 | Color
Director: Henry Levin
Stars: Betty Grable, Dale Robertson, Thelma Ritter, John Carroll, Eddie Foy Jr.
Jack Cole ... choreographer
Bootleg, poor print during GV dance especially.
Definitely a musical: 8 of 10 songs in the Soundtracks have performers identified. But Fox is sabotaging Grable again by putting her 100 years back, where legs are not exposed (I don't remember seeing the costume in the poster drawing.) She gets down to camisole and bloomers that cover the whole leg, and gets wet, but it still reveals nothing.
Nor does she dance much. Even when we get ensemble dancing, with Jack Cole constrained to a non-exotic setting, non-exotic characters, she's an observer, not a participator.
When she dances with Gwen Verdon, GV's moves are tamed to meet BG and/or the era, and it's all too brief anyway.
DR is adorable. He seems calm and gentle, yet ready and able to fight when needed. He sings here, and it sounds like his voice. It doesn't sound like he could project on stage. But as beefcake goes, he's Grade A Prime.
The story is fascinating in 1 aspect: did women really hire out to be the cook/housekeeper on a 2-man canal boat: 1 man driving the horses that drag the boat through the canal, and 1 man aboard and steering? How did THAT not result in sexual harassment or worse? It's very close quarters. And she's one of many such women according to this script. She's "engaged" to the owner (JC) of her current boat, but he's gone from a lot of the film (in jail), so she can concentrate on new hire DR. And he's so hot headed and alcoholic, you immediately want her to dump him.
TR is welcome, as always, but doesn't contribute much here. She's got too much money and status in this role, and that's not the best use of TR.
So: too much modesty/clothing, too little dancing, but an interesting historical(?) factoid(?).
Fox, dir. Levin; 6
