Du Barry Was a Lady

MGM bought a seventeen song musical comedy, threw out thirteen songs ("It Ain't Etiquette", "Well, Did You Evah", and "But In The Morning, No" can still be heard as backg round music) and had five studio composers take care of the rest of the score ("Salome" is their best contribution).

The plot--Film takes place in a nightclub. Louis (Skelton) is in love with May (Lucille Ball). After he accidentally drinks a Mickey, he dreams he's back in 1743 France, where he is Louis XV, and May is Madame DuBarry.

To me, Skelton is unbearable when he plays stupid; here, he takes forever to get the idea he's back in France, and tramples jokes into the ground. I don't know if that's his fault or the fault of director Del Ruth.

Ball is good as May/Madame DuBarry. She saves the second half of the film with her comedy skills where she makes a fool out of Louis XV. She is dubbed for most of her songs, but her real voice can be heard in the song "Friendship".

Gene Kelly is good as Alec/The Black Arrow. He has the best song ("Do I Love You") and an excellent dance number on the nightclub stage.

Virginia O'Brien makes "Salome" a memorable song. Look for Marilyn Maxwell in a bit , and Lana Turner in an uncredited bit.

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 Roy Del Ruth directed romp "Du Barry Was Lady" from 1943 I suggest is one of the most imitated of all cinematic musicals. Its sincere main storyline involving dancer lovestruck Gene Kelly with gorgeous Lucille Ball and funnnyman Red Skelton with Virginia O'Brien is solidly presented. But this Sam Goldwyn style extravagance then blossoms out to include an extended dream-fantasy sequence. The later frenetic pageant stars all the characters in a royal French misadventure with Kelly as a rebel against the corrupt King, Ball as the infamous Du Barry who falls for the handsome "Black Arrow", her chief enemy, and Red Skelton as the dreamer and inept french King Louis XV. The immense cast also includes Rags Ragland, an early Zero Mostel as the Swami, powerful Douglass Dumbrille as Kelly's rival, Donald Meek, George Givot, talented actress Louise Beavers as a lovable but bossy maid, Niagara, and the Tommy Dorsey orchestra with the Pied Pipers, at this time including Dick Haymes and Jo Stafford, plus the Goldwyn Girls. The script for this expensive and lovely musical excuse for two hours' entertainment was supplied from a play by Herbert Fields and Buddy DeSylva, adapted by Nancy Hamilton. the screenplay was provided by Irving Brecher, with additional dialogue by Wilkie Mahoney. If the viewer looks closely, one can perhaps spot Marilyn Maxwell as a Goldwyn Girl, Ava Gardner (somwhere in the background), and fine actors Emory Parnell, Kay Aldridge and Grace Albertson in bit parts. Dorsey's orchestra is given several fine numbers, featuring his many talented sidemen. But the film belongs to the Kelly-Ball mismatch and to Red Skelton, being pursued by O'Brien. The producer was Arthur Freed, who employed Karl Freund's lucid cinematography, memorable art direction of the great Cedric Gibbons, Edmund Willis's elaborate set decorations done with Henry Grace, Gile Steel's male costumes and lovely female counterparts designed by Irene Sharaff, Sydney Guilaroff's difficult hair styles and Jack Dawn's inspired makeup. Music I suggest dominates much of the film; so, mention should be made of the orchestrations by Leo Arnaud and Axel Stordahl, done with George Bassman and music adaptor Roger Edens. Sy Oliver was also involved in orchestrations along with musical director George E. Stoll. Charles Waters is credited with the choreography, including several very fine production numbers. After not having seen the film for many years, I found its theatrical basis only a bit confining--the entire main film takes place in a large nightclub the performances more than adequate and the technicolor of this production absolutely lovely. Ball is much better in the French dream sequence I judge than in the more dramatic central plot; Kelly and Skelton acquit themselves very winningly; and Dumbrille and Mostel dominate every scene they are allowed to play. This can be a most enjoyable film, I suggest, for those in the mood for pure entertainment with a stronger story line than is usual for such 1930s and 1940s extravaganzas staged by Hollywood's studio tsars.

Now don't get me wrong, `Dubarry Was A Lady' Is not the best Movie Musical I 've ever seen, but it is one of the prettiest. I can't figure out how they where able to achieve such a creamy coloration in the film but the rich pastels used on the sets and costumes are just stunning. There are some wonderful big band numbers with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra, featuring Dick Haymes. And a campy `Salmome' number by Virginia O'Brien. Gene Kelly looks great and does one nice dance routine, but he mostly sits around mooning over Lucille Ball. Speaking of Lucille Ball, this was her big debut at MGM, and MGM's first full Techincolor musical, and she looks incredible! Her firey red hair and trim figure were perfectly set off by the contemporary costumes, and she looks great in the powdered wigs too!

Give it a look!

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.