Herbert Fields Movies

Eleven years after scoring one of the biggest hits on the Broadway stage, Irving Berlin's musical comedy Annie Get Your Gun was brought to television in a lavish, live two-hour color presentation. Mary Martin, who ironically had been offered the role before Ethel Merman made it her own back in 1946, stars as sharpshooter Annie Oakley, the rag-tag backwoods gal who became the toast of two continents as the main attraction of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. The libretto, by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, naturally takes many liberties with the facts, focusing on the tempestuous romance between the level-headed Annie and the arrogant, bombastic marksman Frank Butler (John Raitt). Most of the laughs are provided by the wheeling and dealing of Annie's PR man, Charlie Davenport (Donald Burr), and by another of Buffalo Bill's star performers, Indian medicine man Sitting Bull (Zachary Charles), who has become so "assimilated" by the trappings of showbiz that he can't even remember how to perform a simple scalping (needless to say, much of the humor involving Sitting Bull would considered politically incorrect today). The songs include such Berlin standards as "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," "The Girl That I Marry," "They Say It's Wonderful," "Sun in the Morning," "Anything You Can Do," and, of course, "There's No Business Like Show Business." This production of Annie Get Your Gun currently exists in black-and-white kinescope form, but though pictorial quality is rough, the entertainment value is unquestionable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Garland was originally slated to star in MGM's film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, but she was forced to pull out of the production due to illness (recently discovered out-takes reveal a gaunt, dazed Garland, obviously incapable of completing her duties). She was replaced by Betty Hutton who, once she overcame the resentment of her co-workers, turned in an excellent performance--perhaps the best of her career. Hutton is of course cast as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who ascends from dirty-faced backwoods gamin to the uppermost rungs of international stardom. Her mentor is Buffalo Bill, played by Louis Calhern (like Hutton, Calhern was a last-minute replacement: the original Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan, died before production began). Annie's great rival is arrogant marksman Frank Butler (Howard Keel) with whom she eventually falls in love. She goes so far as to lose an important shooting match to prove her affection--a scene that hardly strikes a blow for feminism, but this is, after all, a 1950 film. Of the stellar supporting cast, J. Carroll Naish stands out as Sitting Bull, whose shrewd business acumen is good for several laughs. Virtually all the Irving Berlin tunes were retained from the Broadway version, including "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "Anything You Can Do", "The Girl That I Marry", "My Defenses are Down", "They Say It's Wonderful" and the rousing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which was later tantalizingly excerpted in MGM's pastiche feature That's Entertainment II. Alas, due to a complicated legal tangle involving the estates of Irving Berlin and librettists Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun hasn't been shown on television in years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Dorothy Fields-Sigmund Romberg Broadway musical Up in Central Park has been retooled as a vehicle for a pleasantly plump Deanna Durbin. Set in New York in the 1870s, the film casts Durbin as hoydenish Irish immigrant Rosie Moore, who becomes the romantic bone of contention between muckraking newspaper reporter John Matthews (Dick Haymes) and corrupt but charming political boss Tweed (Vincent Price, considerably handsomer and slimmer than the real Tweed). With Rosie's help, John manages to expose Tweed's Tammany Hall shenanigans. Though only two songs have been retained from the original Broadway production, both Durbin and Haymes are afforded several opportunities to sing. Featured in the cast as Durbin's father is Albert Sharpe, who'd just completed a run in the smash New York musical Finian's Rainbow and who later played the title role in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). Best scene: The Currier & Ives ballet, one of the few holdovers from the stage version of Up in Central Park. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Cole Porter Broadway musical Something for the Boys was brought to the screen by 20th Century Fox with three new non-Porter tunes thrown in. The dated libretto (by Herbert and Dorothy Fields) involves a crumbling Southern plantation which is converted into a home for servicemen's wives. Running the operation are three cousins: Michael O'Shea, Vivian Blaine, and, from the South American branch of the family, Carmen Miranda. When money runs out, the threesome contrive to put on a fundraising show -- which of course looks far too expensive to break even, but since Carmen Miranda's in the picture, who knows. Perry Como makes his movie debut in Something for the Boys singing a handful of pleasant songs, while Judy Holliday shows up in a funny bit as a defense-plant welder with peculiar dental problems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cole Porter's musical hit Panama Hattie originally starred Ethel Merman on Broadway. But Merman was not a proven movie commodity, thus it was Ann Sothern who appeared in the film version as Hattie, brassy but golden-hearted proprietress of a Canal Zone hotel. Accustomed to dealing with such raucous cohorts as she-sick sailors Red (Red Skelton), Rags (Rags Ragland) and Rowdy (Ben Blue), Hattie isn't quite certain how to handle herself when she falls in love with wealthy and cultured Dick Bulliett (Dan Dailey Jr.) Socialite Leila Tree (Marsha Hunt), who'd previously set her cap for Dick, does her best to break up the romance, but Hattie is championed by Dick's kid sister Geraldine (Jackie Horner) and family butler Jenkins (Alan Mowbray). The play's original storyline, which shifted into gear when Hattie began picking up Nazi shortwave radio broadcast in the fillings of her teeth, is virtually nonexistent here, as is Porter's score, save for "I've Still Got My Health" and "Let's be Buddies" (Lena Horne does, however, show up to sing "Just One of Those Things", a carryover from an earlier Porter musical). A notoriously troubled production, Panama Hattie was completely refilmed after a disastrous preview, delaying its scheduled release by nearly a year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Burns and Gracie Allen made their last screen appearance together in the 1939 MGM musical Honolulu; indeed, it would be Burns' last film until his 1976 "comeback" in The Sunshine Boys. The nonsensical plotline is carried by Robert Young as famous movie star Brooks Mason, who wants to go to Honolulu for a long rest but can't shake off his throngs of adoring female fans. As luck would have, Mason has an exact double, a Hawaiian plantation owner named George Smith. Mason convinces Smith to switch identities, with the expected comedy-of-error complications as a result. Things get really complicated when Smith, posing as Mason, proposes marriage to lovely Dorothy March (Eleanor Powell), who then can't understand why the real Mason seems to be so fickle. Clearly in support, Burns and Allen are cast respectively as Mason's personal manager Joe Duffy and Dorothy's scatterbrained friend Millie de Grasse. The film contrives to separate George and Gracie for most of the footage, bringing them together in the last reel for a characteristic comedy routine about Gracie's dizzy relatives. Also on hand in a minor role is another comedy giant, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Highlights include a masquerade-party production number in which Gracie Allen is serenaded by the King's Men Quartet (disguised as the Marx Brothers), and Eleanor Powell's blackface stair-tap tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (Powell also performs a tap-dance hula, which scores on its novelty value alone!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Given the talent involved, The Joy of Living should have been far better than it is. Irene Dunne plays Maggie, a popular musical-comedy star saddled with a possessive, spendthrift family. Maggie would like to leave the house once in a while and experience "real life," but her parents (Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee), worried that they'll lose their meal ticket, refuse to allow her to do so. The Prince Charming who rescues Maggie from her folks is ship-owner Dan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) As a bonus, the footloose and fancy-free Dan teaches the repressed Maggie that "it's fun to be foolish." Apparently director Tay Garnett couldn't keep the production under control, and the cost ballooned to a then-staggering $1.1 million, resulting in a huge loss for RKO Radio. Some of the film's brighter moments are provided by Lucille Ball, Billy Gilbert, Jean Dixon and Franklin Pangborn, who like Dunne and Fairbanks all deserved funnier material than this. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love Before Breakfast was the scintillating title Universal chose over Spinster Dinner, the Faith Baldwin novel upon which this airy comedy is based. Carole Lombard is a Park Avenue beauty squired by Preston S. Foster and Cesar Romero. Since neither gentleman is a prize catch, Lombard is fey and fickle throughout the film. That's all there is to Love Before Breakfast, which might have been completely forgotten had it not been for a famous 1930s-era painting in which a detailed poster for the film is the focus of attention. There's one iconoclastic alteration in the painting: Carole Lombard has been given a black eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the 1951 Cary Grant film of the same name, People Will Talk was another of Paramount's moneymaking comedies starring Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland. This time the middle-aged pair try to patch up the marriage of their daughter (Leila Hyams) and son-in-law (Dean Jagger, with hair). They do this to quell the local gossip mongers, who have been set abuzz by the fact that daughter has come home alone. Ruggles and Boland stage a fake fight, hoping to shame their daughter into returning to her husband--and, as expected, the phony quarrel turns into the genuine article. People Will Talk was coscripted by Broadwayite Herbert Fields, the son of famed 1890s comedian Lew Fields and brother of lyricist Dorothy Fields. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, a coal stoker for a ship finds himself turned into a singing sensation when someone hears him lustily singing in the bins one day. He ends up being convinced to go to work as a singer in a floating cafe. Soon he finds himself romantically involved with two women, a socialite and another singer. Songs include: "Fatal Fascination," "I Won't Take No For An Answer," "It's A Great Life," "I Lost My Heart," "Lazybones Gotta Job Now" (Harlan Thompson, Lewis E.Gensler), "Change Your Mind" (Ray Noble), and "My Home Town" (Eddie Davis). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Samson Raphaelson's stage play, Accent on Youth focuses on a May-December romance. Herbert Marshall (46 years old at the time) is a successful middle-aged playwright; Constance Cummings is his young secretary, who prefers the company of mature men. She sets her cap on marrying the playwright, while he fends off her attentions. By the time Marshall has grown fond enough of Constance to propose, she has changed her mind and fallen for a man her own age. Accent on Youth was remade as Mr. Music (50) and But Not For Me (59), with, respectively, 49-year-old Bing Crosby and 58-year-old Clark Gable as the "elderly" hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The musical picture that ended Lou Brock's career as an RKO Radio producer, Down to Their Last Yacht is almost festive in its awfulness. The nonsensical plot finds a group of impoverished socialites (including Sidney Blackmer and Marjorie Gateson) trying to raise money by renting out their yacht, offering themselves as crew members. When a nouveau riche family charters the yacht, everyone is marooned on the tropical island of Malakomokalu. Here blonde jungle queen Mary Boland rules the roost, demanding that the shipwrecked men make love to her and the island's hootchy-kootchy native girls, or suffer the consequence of being fed to the sharks. Once regarded as the worst film ever made by RKO, this legendary flop is actually a lot of fun in a "high camp" sort of way, with the love scene between Mary Boland and Sterling Holloway a particular highlight. Two future co-stars of Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland, Felix Knight and Marie Wilson (her film debut), have small roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical, based on a long-running Broadway hit from 1927, a sailor finds himself the object of a cafe owner's affections. Singin', dancin', and mayhem ensues. Songs include: Sometimes I'm Happy," "Hallelujah," "Why, Oh Why," "Keeping Myself For You," "More Than You Know," "Billy Rose," "I Know That You Know," and "Sez You--Sez Me" ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide