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| Betty Grable |
WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME (1948). Director: Walter Lang.
Burlesque performers Bonny Kane (Betty Grable) and her husband Skid Johnson (Dan Dailey) have dreams of the big time when they learn that Skid has been offered a big part in a Broadway show. Bonny is happy with her husband's advancement but she isn't thrilled when she learns he'll be performing with her rival, a predatory blonde named Sylvia (Jean Wallace of The Big Combo). Skid has a more serious problem than Sylvia and that's his love of liquor. Will Bonny succumb to the charms of admirer and rich rancher Harvey Howell (Richard Arlen) or will she be able to overlook her husband's peccadilloes? And will Skid wind up in Bellevue's dipsomaniac ward or back on Broadway?
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| Dan Dailey and Betty Grable |
Although many might consider this another Betty Grable Musical and she is very good in the picture the fact remains that this is Dan Dailey's show from start to finish. Dailey earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his strong and demanding turn as the frustrated, sad, and alcoholic Skid, and he delivers in every scene, the charming ones as well as the more difficult moments. He gets good support from such cast members as June Havoc (of
My Sister Eileen) and Jack Oakie (of
Million Dollar Legs) as another burlesque team, James Gleason as theater owner Lefty Moore, and Arlen and Wallace. Betty isn't showcased all that well in a weird torch number in which her movements are more strange than sexy, but she does a nice job with a pretty new number entitled "By the Way." This is the third version of a play entitled "Burlesque," so there are plenty of cliches on hand, but the picture is smoothly directed, photographed in beautiful technicolor, and despite its dramatic moments, is colorful fun. I'll leave it to individual viewers to decide if the ending is a happy one or not. Dailey does an imitation of Ted Lewis at one point and Jack Oakie does Al Jolson.
Verdict: Dailey's fine performance gives this show biz drama some heft. ***.
Hi Bill - Betty and Dan were a GREAT romantic and song and dance team. You're right, he was very underrated as a performer. In the film of his I have in my collection, There's No Business Like Show Business, he more than holds his own opposite the formidable Ethel Merman as well as Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor, plus Johnnie Ray and the Adorable One MM.
ReplyDelete(That is a movie that is not bad at all for a Fox musical! I need to write about it one day!)
-Chris
Please do. I'd love to read your essay on that film. Yes, Dailey did quite a few musicals in his day. I've got two or three more waiting in my que. I've seen "There's No Business" more than once. How could I resist with the Adorable One in the cast?!
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