La feria del amor

...this movie has everything that everyone expects of Betty Grable every time. It is bright and colorful and silly and funny and loads of fun. Betty, (ever the independent and employed woman) is working as an entertainer in an odd little dive. Well, a friend of the owners does what we would now call a corporate take-over--and then he does a make-over on Betty and she becomes a big musical comedy star--but wait--it is more complicated than that! See this and you will understand why Betty Grable was loved at the box office for so long. She is wonderful.

Fortunately, the chorus only sing the names of the three that share top billing here! Thereafter, we meet the loveable rogue that is "Eddie" (George Montgomery) who just wants what he thinks is rightfully due to him from his erstwhile partner "Joe" (Cesar Romero). This pal is about to open a new venue in which he will see "Kate" (Betty Grable) star - and has no intention of sharing! Out of options, "Eddie" turns to his friend "Frankie" (Phil Silvers) to let him join his circus-like enterprise during which he and "Kate" start to publicly spar about who is wearing what. She has an hat that Carmen Miranda might have been proud of. Anyway, the punters quite like his antics so "Joe" muscles in leading to reprisals that ultimately leads "Joe" to believe that he is a murderer! "Eddie" agrees to keep schtum, but it is going to cost him. With "Eddie" now cheek by jowl with "Kate" and "Joe" out of the picture, could things be set fair? Of course, there are loads of twists and turns yet to come as this trio play cat and mouse with each other just waiting to see who can pounce! The story itself is all a bit old hat - we've seen the love triangle story loads of times before, and I'm afraid that Phil Silvers just never could make be laugh, but there is an amiable degree of chemistry between Grable and her two suitors and there are plenty of set-piece theatrical numbers for the million-dollar legs to showcase just what a charismatic star she was. It's a great example of Technicolor brilliance too, especially towards the end when the screen positively comes alive, and it is probably just the kind of wartime fillip the audiences would have lapped up. It's all fairly forgettable, but it's quite good fun.

Was very shocked 15 seconds into the film to see a character in blackface. Later there is an entire musical number in blackface. Lastly, the grand finale has a number in blackface as well. Is it just a sign of the times the film was made in? I guess. Do I have to celebrate it, or recommend it? No, I don't and no, I can't.

I would allow that it works as a historical document, of sorts. Of a kind of entertainment that was wiped out by rock'n'roll. Cesar Romero delivers his usual classy, excellent performance. The leading lady was unfortunately portrayed as dumb enough to be manipulated at every turn, a mere chit in the 2 guys' competitive rivalry.

Color films were at a premium during the war years, but when one of the reigning sex symbols of the era was starring in a film, the technicolor cameras were rolling. In Coney Island, the better to catch Betty Grable's blond All Americans looks and those gorgeous legs of her's, on prominent display as a turn of the last century entertainer working in a club in Coney Island.

A few years earlier the roles played by George Montgomery and Cesar Romero would have gone to Tyrone Power and Don Ameche. But both these guys would never have been second billed to Betty Grable now and this film is strictly her show.

Romero is a club owner in Coney Island where former partner and rival George Montgomery tries to chisel in. But one look at Grable who Romero considered his and they become rivals in love as well as business.

Montgomery totally had Ty Power's hero/heel character right down to perfection. It's so obvious that his part was originally written for Power. 1943 was the year Power went in the Marines so I really think it likely.

Brooklyn had two landmarks of note that the world knew about. One was Ebbets Field where the Dodgers played and the other was that entertainment mecca, Coney Island. The Dodgers are gone and Coney Island looks a bit frayed around the edges, but you can still see some traces of the glamor of the period that Betty and the cast are portraying. At least Nathan's Hotdogs is still operating though they wouldn't come into being until long after the era that this film is set in was over.

Coney Island had some original songs written by the former Paramount team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, but the interpolated period songs gave Betty Grable her best vocal opportunities. Her rendition of Cuddle Up A Little Closer is a classic and the song after almost 40 years enjoyed a bit of a revival then. Betty didn't join in it though because Darryl Zanuck banned his stars from commercial recordings. Scoring the whole business was done by Alfred Newman who received an Academy Award nomination for his work. He actually won an Oscar that year, but for scoring the dramatic picture, The Song Of Bernadette.

The plot is thin, but the players put it over and Coney Island is one of Betty Grable's best films from the height of her career.

Despite a slow start and trifling plot, "Coney Island" turns out to be One of Betty Grable's most sheerly exuberant musicals and another shimmering, glossily produced, exquisitely Technicolored Fox tuner set in the Gay 90s, directed with chic elegance by Walter Lang.

Betty is wonderful all the way and gave what she had as Kate Farley, the stage show entertainer/singer who is transformed by George Montgomery into a classy Broadway star with musical and vocal talents, despite the protests from Kate's manager, played by Cesar Romero. Charles Winninger, Phil Silvers and Hurst are the capably eccentric supporting players.

The songs and numbers are joyously, spectacularly staged, including the unforgettable "Cuddle Up a Little Closer", "Pretty Baby", "There's Danger in a Dance", "Beautiful Coney Island", "Put Your Arms Around Me", and "Lulu from Louisville."