I loved your take on Betty Grable, JF. She definitely grows on me though I find some of the Fox musicals blur together for me. The Dolly Sisters (1945) was one that always stood out, in part because of the surreal costumes times two, not to mention all the loopy plot and songs. I always find something else to do when those blackface scenes are on in movies, though it does leave an awful taste in your mouth to think that something you enjoyed contained something so awful.
I agree about Betty's Fox musicals blurring together. This one certainly broke the mold! When it came out, newly returned vets probably sat there, drooling over the female pulchritude, happy to look at TWO gorgeous women and their scantily clad, perfect bodies for two hours while their wives' were drooling over the crazy surreal costumes and sets. No wonder I remember it from when I was a kid! It's got everything a nine year old appreciates! Bubbling hats, regency-by-way-of-flapper gowns, dutch girl outfits, feathers and fur, crazy double vision, bright colors, S.Z. Sakall....
I sat there during the blackface number and just couldn't make up my mind about it. I mean, it's almost no different than the lipstick number, "let's put the girls into some outlandish outfits and see what happens". At first I thought, "well, at least they are celebrating black beauty" But there's a whole other level to it that is horrifying. By having white women in blackface, with white ideas of beauty portrayed under the makeup... it just gets into truly disturbing territory. I usually don't get too upset at blackface in films, but this was complex and deeply uncomfortable for me. One of those "you want to look away but you can't" moments. Ah well.
I like June Haver a good deal, but I know what you mean--she was actually a decade younger and less experienced in show biz than Betty, not a particularly expressive actress, and, from most reports, not that eager to be a star.
I tried very hard to be objective about the two women and their personalities when watching. I also tried when writing about June Haver to be very kind. I like her, but when watching the film, I can't help but see how
real Betty seems in contrast. Poor Haver was probably shaking in her shoes. I do think that the way the two roles were written, it played to the advantages of each star, so it's very enjoyable to watch for either one.
As for the songs, they are what always bring me back to the Fox musicals and movies like Walsh's
The Strawberry Blonde. Tin Pan Alley brought us so many
great songs in that period between 1890 and 1920 or so, that it's always a pleasure to hear them all strung together. The musical directors of
The Dolly Sisters outdid themselves picking a mix of greats and ones that were silly enough to be engaging. I always get the feeling that the studios wanted folks out there in the audience to remember the songs fondly, and that they had a feeling themselves for those songwriters. They must have, or they wouldn't have made so many decent nostalgia films.
Now one more thing: I can't explain it, but when John Payne bent down and whispered in Betty's ear, "I'll buy you a cup of coffee" at the end, it was positively erotic! Can you explain, Dr. Favell?
Because Payne's HOT! hahahahaha! Well, I can't explain the eroticism, but it made me wonder if maybe he had a thing for Grable! That whisper, low enough to make you lean forward, but just barely loud enough for the mikes to pick it up, made me shiver! I think it's his voice. Maybe it's the way he nuzzles Betty's ear so intimately. Or maybe we've been looking at that picture of Payne with a noticeable bulge in his boxing trunks too much!
John Payne, like Betty, is someone who has grown on me over the last few years... and not just as a good looking man. He was far more than the simple good-natured love interest in all these lighthearted musicals and comedies. He's a sincere actor, like Betty, but there are hints in
The Dolly Sisters of the dark characters he would play later. I found him very appealing, very believable as the tortured Harry Fox. Wish they'd given him one other song to do, but perhaps Fox didn't write any others worth including.
One scene stands out for me: I LOVED it when Betty did the "I'm Burt" number for her friends in the theater.
OMG, Moira, I can't believe I forgot about the "I'm Burt" number! I loved it! It led me to believe the movie was going to have some great surprises in it... which never really materialized.
I suspect that it was the simple kind of number that Betty loved to do - baggy pants fun and yet there are complicated moves in it that she pulls off effortlessly and in perfect rhythm. Like with the hat! I don't know HOW you make a hat roll down your arm in rhythm. She really takes on a different style for the number and it works. After watching her in all these movies, I find she's a far, FAR better dancer than I ever gave her credit for, quite meticulous in her movement. AND she does that stuffy accent quite well in the Burt number, ending each word with extra syllabic oomph. It was certainly the highlight of the movie.
Mother Wore Tights was okay, but when Ben Mank. mentioned that James Cagney was almost cast in the Dan Dailey role, I almost fainted. How great would that have been? I am so miffed that it didn't happen.
I missed the intro! I like Dan Dailey, but it makes me want to cry that Jimmy Cagney didn't do this film. Wow. I can picture it in my minds eye so well.
I guess I am the only person who doesn't really get a kick out of How to Marry a Millionaire. I always think that Fred Clark would have been an "interesting challenge" as a possible fella and William Powell would have been a far better mate than the ones the women wound up with in this movie. I also hate the chilly, overlit color and the far away look of the CinemaScope. But don't let me rain on your parades.
I can understand that. Sometimes the draggy way the comedic beats are held in the film annoys me, like it was a stage play and they are counting it out with a hammer. But the charm of the ladies always wins me over in the end. I too think that Bacall was a fool to go with Cameron Mitchell when she could have had William Powell. What was that line Paul Newman used about Joanne Woodward? Why have hamburger when you could have steak every night? I can't stand Fred Clark in this movie. By the end, he certainly deserves his come-uppance.
I do like Betty and Carole Landis in I Wake Up Screaming, but they aren't why I enjoy this movie--it's the character actors dogpiling on each other for screen time: Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook, Frank Orth, Charles Lane, and--of course, the brilliant Laird Cregar really make this fun to see. Victor Mature was good too as the Broadway hustler who becomes almost human after exposure to an Everywoman, Hollywood-style: Betty Grable, the clear-eyed girl stenographer, with a very sturdy, blonde head on her shoulders--even if her sis was a bit of a tease (at least in male eyes).
Oh yeah, you had me at character actors.Absolutely! I love how the plot turns around the character actors and their connections with Landis. And Victor Mature is really good here! But you know how I feel about him. I Wake Up Screaming is
perfectly cast. The lighting just blows me away though, more than anything else. When Cregar stands over Mature and a plume of cigarette smoke envelops him, it makes me swoon. Black and White rarely gets any better. I love the way they mixed the glossiness of a big budget musical with the dark noir crime story and underpinnings. It works! I don't know how, but it does.