Swing au coeur

Betty Grable in boxing gloves, enough said. Favorite pin-up girl of G.I.s during World War II, she confirms in this film why her popularity somehow never translated to film for me. This movie is filled with cloying, hyper song-and-dance numbers that hit you in the face like boxing gloves. Still, you must see this to believe it. "How Come Ya Do Me?" is jaw-droppingly Marilyn Monroe-before there was Marilyn Monroe. --from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Betty Grable at the point in her career when she made Footlight Serenade was just starting to be known as the GIs number one pin-up girl.

Stardom came late for her, she had been in films for more than ten years. But when it came she became the biggest female star in films. With her singing and dancing and all around good cheer, Footlight Serenade is a classic example of what put her at the top.

Grable gets able support by John Payne and Victor Mature. Payne was also hitting his stride as Fox's singing Tyrone Power and he and Grable have some nice if forgettable tunes. Payne's rival here is Victor Mature also a rising leading man for Darryl Zanuck.

Mature's character is interesting. He's the heavyweight champion of the world, but a champ far more interested in the night life than in his trade. In fact at the beginning of the film, comedian Phil Silvers says to producer James Gleason, Mature has charisma the women are nuts about him, let's put him on stage. Gleason agrees and the film and its situations commence.

I'm convinced that Victor Mature's role is based on former heavyweight champion Max Baer. Baer was one of the 1930s most colorful characters and worthy of a good sports biography. As a boxer there was nothing he didn't lack including a murderous punch that two fatalities could be chalked up to. It was said that Baer lost the killer instinct after that even though he later became heavyweight champion in 1934, beating Primo Carnera. Baer's reign as champion was one long party, just like Mature's character seems to be having. After a year of good times Baer decided to get back in the ring and realizing he was out of shape told his managers to get him a good tune-up fight. The opponent they dug up for him was James J. Braddock who was an unemployed longshoreman in the Depression who took up boxing to feed his family.

Well Braddock the Cinderella Man as he was dubbed beat Max Baer in 1935 and even though he lost in his first title defense to Joe Louis, the Cinderella Man became the stuff of legends. That Cinderella Man moniker got used in another popular film while Braddock was champion and I think Sly Stallone had Braddock in mind when he created the Rocky character.

Oddly enough both Baer and Victor Mature never took themselves too seriously. Baer had a show business career himself and he lived and partied hardy. I think Mature was able to capture this in the role very well.

But it's a Grable picture and for her fans, a real treat.

Heavyweight boxing champion Victor Mature (Tommy) wants his own stage show in which he can star. His gets something lined up with James Gleason (McKay) who gets continuously frustrated with Mature's ideas. No-one dares say "No" to Mature. Mature likes the look of chorus girl Betty Grable (Pat) so makes her understudy to lead Cobina Wright (Estelle). However, Grable has a boyfriend John Payne (Bill) who also gets a role in the show as Mature's boxing sparring partner. Things are set up for a showdown between Mature and Payne.

The songs and dancing in this film are all good and that is a pleasant surprise. There are also quite a few numbers performed and that helps save the narrative. Especially when you have the annoying Phil Silvers in a film. Mature's character is also pretty unpleasant and totally unrealistic as a boxing heavyweight champion – he displays way too much energy. However, the women are good in this and there are amusing moments even from Mature as a self-obsessed narcissist. John Payne is billed top but shouldn't be and he does fine in his role. It's an enjoyable film.

Boxing champ--dubbed by the media as "The Body Beautiful"--is tapped by Broadway producer and his guy Friday to star in new musical "Down and Out"; meanwhile, a chorus girl in the show is about to lose her fiancé to unemployment until he gets a job in the show too--as the champ's sparring partner. Fox musical comedy has lots of sassy talk, some of it very funny (particularly the banter between Betty Grable and card-reading roommate Jane Wyman). As for the men, Victor Mature is full of oily gregariousness as the champ; John Payne makes the most of a dumb role (the hesitant husband); but Phil Silvers (still talking like the world had gone deaf) is excruciating. Director Gregory Ratoff manages to keep things popping, even when there's not much happening plot-wise. The songs are sub-standard, but second-billed Grable dances up a storm; she's still too busy in the face but she's obviously the star of this show. ** from ****

As in A YANK IN THE R.A.F., BETTY GRABLE proved with this one that she didn't need Technicolor to sparkle. As it is, she could (as she herself modestly said) sing a little, dance a little, and act a little. Well, she turned those abilities into a show biz personality on screen that kept her popular at the box-office, especially during wartime America in World War II as the nation's number one pin-up girl.

Here she doesn't expand too much on those talents, but does well as a chorus girl who becomes the love interest of reliable Fox stars VICTOR MATURE and JOHN PAYNE, as boxers. When you watch both of them fighting for Betty's affection, it reminds you why they were so often chosen to co-star opposite vivacious Betty.

It's also fun to see a supporting cast that includes JANE WYMAN (still playing sharp-tongued chorines at this stage in her career), JAMES GLEASON and PHIL SILVERS. None of the songs are particularly memorable, but it's all good fun as backstage musicals go.

Since I'm used to recalling Grable in all of her Technicolor films, it seems strange to see her in glorious B&W, but her fans should enjoy this one--and her co-stars are just fine, particularly Mature as the overly cocky boxer who can't take his mind off Grable. No wonder COBINA WRIGHT, JR. is his jealous sweetheart.

My favorite line: Victor Mature saying in all seriousness to Betty Grable: "You know, you're right. I never do think of myself first."