The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady

When GORDON MacRAE and JUNE HAVER are kicking up their heels in song and dance or GENE NELSON is demonstrating his talent as a hoofer, THE DAUGHTER OF ROSIE O'GRADY comes alive as musical entertainment of the fluffiest kind. But not too much plot-wise differentiates this one from a strong of Hollywood musicals with a backstage plot. Indeed the wisp of a plot is just about forgettable once the film is over.

Despite this, there's a good performance from JAMES BARTON, as the father of three girls (June, Debbie Reynolds and Marcia Mae Jones), an Irisman who doesn't want his girls to have anything to do with show business. Of course, the irony is that daughter June is such a natural talent that it would be criminal neglect to keep her away from a stage door and prevent her from performing.

JUNE HAVER demonstrates a talent for song and dance that has rarely been shown to such advantage in even some of her better known films (as, for example, the Marilyn Miller role in LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING). She keeps up with GENE NELSON step for step with professional poise and ease and has a pleasant way with a song, too. She retired from films much too soon once she married Fred MacMurray.

Some old-fashioned tunes get nice treatments from the cast and David Butler's direction keeps things moving at a fairly good pace. A little too much time is given to the fumbling shenanigans of S.Z. SAKALL in one of his stereotyped roles as a Warner contract player.

Passes the time pleasantly although it's strictly a routine backstage musical, the kind done a zillion times during the '40s and '50s.

Here is a delightful musical comedy movie that should be put out on DVD so everyone can enjoy viewing it during the Christmas holiday season. If nothing else, it should be released in a box set of Christmas movies. In our opinion this film is drastically underrated by other critics. This is June Haver's best movie and Gordon Macrae is also outstanding and in excellent voice. Debbie Reynolds, in her film debut, and Gene Nelson are also very good. All of the songs are well done and memorable and we would like to see a CD soundtrack release, also. It has a strong plot that takes place during the 1890's. Some of the characters may have come from real life, but the plot, I am sure, is pretty much fiction. This movie is very entertaining all the way through to the wonderful grand musical and comedy finale. We try to watch it every year around the holiday season.

Irish James Barton is a widower with three daughters: Marcia Mae Jones, who is secretly married to a cop and expecting twins, June Haver, who wants to go on the stage with singer/impressario Gordon MacRae, and Debbie Reynolds. Barton used to be a big noise on the vaudeville stage in a singing act with his wife (played in flashbacks by Miss Haver), but she died, and he now hates show business.

It's a pleasant movie, originally planned for Doris Day in the role played by Miss Haver. Like many of the Warner Brothers movies of the period, it uses the Warner Brothers song catalogue for Gay Nineties and Mauve Decade songs; Gene Nelson plays a dancer in MacRae's troupe, and S. Z. Sakall and Jane Darwell appear.

MacRae plays Tony Pastor, and as often happens, it's a very anhistorical performance. The real Tony Pastor was born in 1837 and died in 1908. He entered show business about 1846 as a singer, and became a producer about 1865, taking part in the evolution of vaudeville, and always pushed for his shows to be family-friendly. Even as the industry became centralized in various circuits, he remained through the end as a small player with usually a single theater.

The men are returning after the Spanish American War. Patricia O'Grady (June Haver) is the daughter of Irish Vaudeville performer Dennis O'Grady (James Barton). He fears that his wife legendary star Rosie was lost to the rigors of performing. He doesn't want any of his three daughters to follow in her footsteps. Despite that, Patricia falls for star performer Tony Pastor (Gordon MacRae). Debbie Reynolds plays younger sister Maureen O'Grady.

I'm only watching this to catch glimpses of Debbie Reynolds in one of her earliest roles. It's a side character, but it's still a main side. The movie itself is a rather standard musical. It's light drama and slightly charming. It's very harmless and perfectly nice. The dancing and songs are all fine if not excelling. This is fair for what it is.

Rosie O'Grady's daughters (Marsha Jones as Katie, June Haver as Patricia, Debbie Reynolds as Maureen) live with their father (James Barton), a former vaudevilian who is still in mourning for their mother and harbouring a grudge against the theatre.

Really the interest of the film is in the musical sequences, featuring Haver with co-stars Gordon MacRae and Gene Nelson, but the story, although entertaining in parts, is so slight as to be nonexistent. It is a pleasant enough way to pass the time, though.