Footlight Serenade

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.

The over acting of Victor Mature and Phil Silvers really grated on me throughout the film. Even Betty Grable and James Gleason can't save this one. There are a few good song and dance routines but on the whole the film just isn't very good. Too bad.

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."

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 ****

This is a pleasant musical vehicle for Betty Grable, made early in the war, and photographed in stunning black and white by Lee Garmes. Victor Mature and John Payne literally fight over Betty in this one, while Phil Silvers is the comedy relief, and Jimmy Gleason adds some spice. Footlight Serenade is fairly small scale for a Grable pic, which makes it interesting. Most (if not all) of her subsequent films were done in color. Black and white adds just a touch of menace to the film, and Mature and Payne seem to not really like each other, which gives the movie a slight edginess that works in its favor (if you like edge). Grable's later pictures are much more bland. She didn't need all that Technicolor, as she proves here.