Y los años pasaron

Betty Grable and Dan Daily were an excellent team, and this was one of their best. The music, while old fashioned corn, is fantastic, and the storyline -- also corn-- is great musical material. A great family picture. Song standouts include a delightful TRA LA LA LA LA, and also a great tribute to KOKOMO, INDIANA. Granted, Betty was no Garland, and she never tried to be, and this picture utilized more of her than just her valuable legs and incandescent beauty. Dan Daily brought out the best in Betty Grqble, and their numbers are always a delight. For any Fox musical aficionado, this film is a necessity. Not a wrong note in the whole picture.

In what turned out to be his first film since his discharge from the Navy after World War II, Dan Dailey gets to co-star with Betty Grable in the first of four films they did together. Lucky break for Dailey as Grable was at the top of her pinup girl popularity.

Mother Wore Tights is based on a book my Miriam Young whose character is the youngest of the two sisters of this vaudeville family and played at her oldest in the film by Connie Marshall. The story is her family memoir and takes us back to Grable and Dailey as young high school graduate and young vaudevillian song and dance man.

It takes a while, but Grable manages to make the act a double on stage and in life. Grable's not terribly convincing as a teenager, she was a little long in the tooth, but really I don't think the audience cared.

Dan Dailey is always been a marvel to me, a fine dramatic actor as well as a great song and dance man. I did love those spiffy and goofy costumes he wore when in stage character.

Mother Wore Tights earned three Academy Award nominations, color cinematography, musical scoring, and for Best Song, You Do one of the original songs written by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon. You can get bootleg recordings off the soundtrack of Mother Wore Tights and most of Grable's films as she never made too many trips to the recording studios as per Darryl Zanuck's edict to his musical stars.

Mother Wore Tights is a fine piece of nostalgic cinema, so typical of the color musicals 20th Century Fox did with their players. Very charming and exhibits the talents of its leads very well.

"Mother Wore Tights" is an easy going, easy-to-take musical comedy/drama of the kind Hollywood no longer makes. It is quintessential family fare with something for everyone, with two attractive and talented stars playing off one another and exhibiting the necessary chemistry required for most successful movie match-ups. Especially good are the song-and-dance numbers with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, who play a married vaudeville team who separate when she finds she is expecting. They are surrounded by a good supporting cast, including William Frawley, Sara Allgood and with Mona Freeman and Connie Marshall as the daughters of the vaudeville duo... and when was the last time you saw Senor Wences? (I think I'm talking to older reviewers now).

This one has all the usual trappings of a Fox musical except that it lacks good songs. The big production number, "You Do", got an Oscar nomination but is just passable, and is delivered heavy on the syrup. The better song is "Kokomo, Indiana", which I thought was the best song and dance number in the picture and is Grable and Dailey at their best.

This picture is still a good example of 'G' rated movie entertainment and should appeal to moviegoers of all ages. It just needed 1 blockbuster number to make it a great movie - as is, it is good enough for a rating of seven.

A little "Meet Me in St. Louis," a little "I Remember Mama," and a little bit of razzmatazz are rolled up into one big family saga showcasing the considerable comedic and dancing talents of Betty Grable and Dan Daily as married hoofers who make it to the big time while trying to raise two girls to be refined young ladies. This film was very popular in its day probably because it combines nostalgia for the vaudeville stage with post-World War II sentimentality. It works for me, and this seldom screened gem uses the musical numbers to advance the story seamlessly. The Christmas scenes alone make this a great family film, and ventriloquist Señor Wences steals the show with his hand puppet-literally made by applying lipstick and a wig to his hand. The mixture of pure 1940s tunes like "Kokomo, Indiana" with old familiar songs like "Silent Night" is what must have made this movie such a hit. Ignore the mocking of various ethnic accents and try to ignore the fact that Mona Freeman as the eldest daughter is clearly dubbed by Imogene Lynn.

This beautiful treatment of a show business family has become for me THE movie musical memory of my formative years. All cast members provide excellent performances, especially Dan Dailey and Betty Grable, with an unforgettable score that still resonates in my memory. Would love to purchase a copy of this classic for my home film library.