Du Barry Was a Lady

This film is best-appreciated if seen as a series of skits and songs, a vehicle for the actors. It provides a chance to see Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien and Zero Mostel in comedic action. Gene Kelly only does one solo dance number, but his agility as The Black Arrow foreshadows greater roles like that of D'Artagnan. And seeing Tommy Dorsey dressed up and dancing (or trying to) with the rest of the cast is delightful! There are funny parts as well as parts that presume themselves funny and come off as annoying, but the movie is fun to watch if you don't expect it to be a masterpiece.

When MGM bought the rights to Cole Porter's DuBarry Was A Lady for the Arthur Freed unit as per usual the naughty Porter score was completely emasculated and songs old and new from a variety of sources were interpolated into the film. It was like his lyric of Friendship, a perfect blendship.

If you're attentive however you can hear at least two of the songs played as background music, When Love Beckoned and Well Did You Evah which was later interpolated by MGM into High Society for that never to be forgotten duet with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Only Friendship, Do I Love You Do I and Katie Went To Haiti made the final cut in the score.

Sad also that Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr did not get to repeat the roles they did on Broadway and Darryl Zanuck would not let Betty Grable come over from 20th Century Fox. Ethel only did two of her Broadway roles for the movies, Call Me Madam and Anything Goes and Lahr for whatever reason after the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard Of Oz was given a whole of mediocre parts.

It was said that Merman was not film box office, but certainly Lucille Ball wasn't either at that time. Red Skelton was however, his career was on the rise and so television's two most famous redheads got to team on the big screen.

Lucy is the star of a nightclub chorus and Red is the hat check man who hits the lottery. He's been crushing out on Lucy for forever, but now that he's rich he thinks she might give him a second look. He puts the big moves on her. but she can only see hoofer Gene Kelly. Still his money is tantalizing.

When Red tries to slip Gene a mickey finn he winds up drinking it himself and dreams he's back in the court of Louis XV as Louis XV with Lucy as the notorious Madame DuBarry. And Kelly turns up as the dashing rebel the Black Arrow, rival for the affections of the Madame.

In both the modern and period story MGM packed a lot of entertainment in the 89 minute running time. What court or nightclub would not like to have Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra as its personal band? There are some nice solos by drummer Buddy Rich and singing with the Pied Pipers are Jo Stafford and newly arrived vocalist Dick Haymes.

Virginia O'Brien contributes a few numbers. She never did any acting roles of note, but was always welcome in an MGM production for her singing and devastating dead pan delivery of a song. Making his big screen debut as the nightclub fortune teller was Zero Mostel with just a trace of his zaniness in play.

This was one of the few films that Gene Kelly was in that he really did not have control of his material yet. Nevertheless his Black Arrow persona was a hint of what you saw later in a high flying dance number in Anchors Aweigh and in The Three Musketeers and The Pirate.

A thin plot is just an excuse to hang a lot of comedy and musical entertainment. But what I would have given to see Merman and Lahr do a faithful adaption on screen.

On reviewer said that only a 5th grade child could appreciate this movie. Well, when I first saw it-the year of it's release-I was a 2nd grade child. Red Skelton's prat falls and his mugging seemed hilarious to me-then! Otherwise, I was clueless as to what was going on.

What stayed in my memory for decades after was the dazzling color, This was probably the first technicolor movie I had even seen. Technicolor movies were still scarce and a great novelty. Thus, the color itself was enough to etch this film in my memory. Also, all the color was amped up beyond any connection to real life, and the sets, the clothing and even Lucy's hair were bright and saturated color. Wow!

Now, unfortunately, the movie lacks wit and it drags a bit. I now worry that Skelton might injure himself in one of his multitudinous falls. Lucy is not at all funny, and, despite her showy looks, not a whit sexy. Virginia O'Brien is very good. Too bad she didn't have more songs. No one in the movie seemed to have any more of an idea of who Dubarry was and what her relationship to Louis X IV was than I did at the age of seven. The music was good and Ziggy Elman and Buddy Rich were happily prominent..

When a bunch of young women parade in front of the camera, you can expect that one or two go on to some movie fame. I spotted Marilyn Maxwell and Hillary Brooke in this movie. It had enough to keep me watching, and it brought back colorful memories of a distant world to me.

Nightclub singer dreams of marrying into money but is in love with a poor fellow. Fluffy musical comedy plays like a variety show, with minimal plot holding together musical numbers and comedy skits. The film looks good in Technicolor, with red hairs of Skelton and Ball (dyed for this film and kept so thereafter) featured prominently. It's nothing special, but it's not terribly painful to watch either. Lucy mostly plays it straight while Skelton provides the comedy as a hat check man who wins the sweepstakes and woos Lucy. In only his second film, Kelly completes an unlikely love triangle as Lucy's poor and sullen boyfriend.

The movie was slow action. At points, almost boring. But for someone who wants to see up-coming and major stars of this time period, this movie has many. From Ball, Skelton, Kelly, and even O'Brien, Mostel, and finally Tommy Dorsey and his band, this movie has the stars. A good sample of their earlier works.