Somebody Loves Me

Somebody Loves Me is a terrific vehicle for Betty Hutton, who in turn elevates an undistinguished script by being simply sensational in each musical number of the film. She is gorgeous in this movie, and her singing was never better, especially the title song plus 'Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "San Fransisco Bay", "Rose Garden" and "Dixie Dream".

As everyone knows, Betty Hutton has no peer in belting out a song, but she also has the most amazing ability to sing a torch song or a ballad in such a way as to break your heart. She was always under-appreciated--probably because her films didn't benefit from the big budgets that MGM put into their musicals--but if you watch 'Somebody Loves Me', I think you'll agree that no one was better in making entertaining musicals.

God bless her soul.

Betty's last major film for her home studio Pararmount was one of her best. Her acting is toned down,her singing is warm and mellow. Vocal surgery had kept her from the shouting type of singing she did so in a way this was a more mature role for her. Ralph Meeker is good as her husband Benny Fields. The sets,costumes and color are very lush and typical of the big studio's fifties product. Billy Bird is a riot as Betty's companion. Ironically,in real life Blossom Seely did retire so Benny Fields could be the star of the family but his career fizzled and he retired a year later,also. There was a soundtrack issued at the time but it hasn't resurfaced. I never was a big fan of Hutton's but thought her role in this film was very good.

This film is noted as the last of the big Betty Hutton films before her first "retirement" from the spotlight. The story is a biography of the famous Vaudevillian Blossom Seeley and her husband Benny Fields. What really distinguishes this film is the soundtrack of Betty's singing of a bushel of old-time songs in her inimitable style. She acts with her usual panache. Ralph Meeker plays Benny Fields in much the same way that John Lund played Betty's paramour in "The Perils of Pauline." Billie Bird is a standout as Essie, Blossoms' friend and confidant. Betty would come out of her "retirement" to play in the 1957 film "Spring Reunion" and then appear in the 1959-60 CBS sitcom "The Betty Hutton Show."

This was Betty Hutton's last major film at Paramount and she gave her all playing Blossom Seeley. She looked beautiful and was singing better than ever. Blossom worked with Betty on the songs and movements. If Paramount ever releases this film on DVD, it would be a good idea to track down some of Blossom's early musical shorts and include them. Blossom's partner, Benny Fields, is played by Ralph Meeker and he does a fine job with his numbers. His singing is dubbed by Pat Morgan, but it's a good match. Betty wanted Frank Sinatra. Great idea. Too bad it didn't happen, but everything turned out quite well and it's one of my favorite movies starring my favorite bombshell. There are nearly 20 songs and maybe someday there will be a decent soundtrack released on CD. The 10 inch LP that RCA put out at the time was a very sloppy mix of Paramount studio tracks and RCA studio sessions. You can hear the splices.

For Betty Hutton's last film with Paramount and her next to last appearance on the big screen altogether she plays the fourth and last of four real people she was cast in her career as. Betty plays Blossom Seeley vaudeville and musical comedy star who was still performing when this film was made. Betty's other real life characters on screen were Annie Oakley, Pearl White, and Texas Guinan. However unlike Seeley, the other three women were deceased when films about them were made.

Not only was Seeley still around, but so was her husband Benny Fields who was in ill health pretty much at that time. And one guy who is not mentioned at all in the film is Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Rube Marquard. He was Blossom Seeley's second husband, she had two of them before she met Fields. That part of the story is not told, but her first husband was a gentleman named George Kane whom she left for Marquard. The notoriety of baseball and show business was equivalent to Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe in that time and Alex Rodriguez and Madonna in the present day. Marquard used to appear with her in vaudeville and he outlived both Blossom and Benny living to the ripe old age of 93 and dying in 1980.

But that was all in the past when most of this film's action takes place. Blossom is a big star who decides to expand the act by hiring a trio to perform with her that includes, Ralph Meeker, Sid Tomack, and Henry Slate. But Meeker wants to make it a duo.

Meeker's part as Benny Fields is poorly written and should have been played by a singer. It would have been great had Betty Hutton got Frank Sinatra as she wanted. Meeker's part is written as a heel, but Fields and Seeley were an established team still known in 1952. Sounds like the writers and director couldn't figure out how Meeker should come across. The unknown singer they got for Meeker sounded reasonably like Benny Fields.

And Blossom Seeley's style was as brassy as Betty Hutton's was so her casting was no stretch. In fact Betty and her numbers are the best thing about Somebody Loves Me. Starting with the title song, the score is made up of period standards plus three new songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

There is a short that Warner Brothers made of the two of them right around the time they were introducing The Jazz Singer. It's the only record of their act around and I did do a review of it. I remember as a lad watching the Ed Sullivan Show and seeing Blossom Seeley performing well into the Sixties. I appreciate now that I saw one of vaudeville's last remaining stars still performing in her seventies. You can also see Blossom in the Russ Columbo film, Broadway Through A Keyhole where she has a supporting role.

Though Rube Marquard was edited out of Blossom's life for this movie, probably at his request, and Ralph Meeker is miscast, Somebody Loves Me is definitely a film that Betty Hutton's fans will enjoy.