Moon Over Miami

Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Charlotte Greenwood, two sisters and their aunt work as carhops in a drive-up Texas diner and they get a letter from a lawyer. Another relative has up and died and left the family fortune to them. But after the court and Uncle Sam have taken their share, it's only several thousand apiece.

Betty has her sights set on landing a millionaire husband as any bright girl in that era would. Landis and Greenwood don't need much convincing to pool their resources and go to Miami and hang out where the millionaires do. Betty pretends to be a millionaire heiress herself with Landis as a secretary and Greenwood her maid.

I shouldn't say too much more, but as this was a film of pure escapism with happy endings required, you should be able to figure out the rest. The men sure liked looking at Grable and Landis and the women dreamed of being in their place, courted by the likes of Don Ameche and Bob Cummings.

Songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin contributed a good score that showcases the considerable musical talents of Ameche, Grable, Greenwood and Jack Haley who plays a suspicious waiter at the resort the girls are staying at. What I don't understand is that the title of the film is the title of a very big hit song from the Thirties and it is only used under the title credits and as background. Of course it wasn't written by Robin and Rainger, and maybe that was the reason, they didn't want their music competing with an established tune.

Even with world war once again breaking out in Europe, Africa, and Asia, audiences still loved this escapist stuff. Films like this are what made Betty Grable the GIs number one pin-up girl. This is what the GIs loved as Robert Strauss from Stalag 17 would so testify. After all, Animal did say he saw all her films on multiple occasions.

If he did, he was well pleased with Moon Over Miami.

MGM is always the studio that film historians gush about for turning out great musicals. Unfairly snubbed is 20th Century Fox that used the richest, most brilliant color composition in the rainbow for its unforgettable string of Technicolor sundae delights starring Bette Grable. "Moon Over Miami" begins with the bouncy, adorable Texas Tommy Hamburger Drive-in sequence where Grable and Carole Landis show off their figures and talents. Quickly, the action shifts to a long gone Miami of l940 where people actually dressed up in stunning gowns and frocks by Travis Banton. Grable is unusually great looking in her gray ensemble trimmed in fur and she and Landis and Charlotte Greenwood prance around to "Oh, Me, Oh Mi-Ami!" Other fantastic numbers follow, showcasing Grable at her verviest--like her tap dance routine to "You Started Something," then onto "I've Got You All to Myself" and maybe the best, "Conga to a Nursery Rhyme." Banton's costumes, shimmering photography by Leroy Shamroy, electrifying charisma of Grable and the very hunky Don Ameche (who surprises with an outstanding singing vocie), all help make "Moon Over Miami" a sheer delight. Also, dig the decor of the fancy hotel suites, night clubs, the mansions.

Fox believed in remakes and this one was used again in THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE and HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE--three girls in search of a millionaire husband. While the plot is a flimsy one, it does give Betty Grable fans a chance to glimpse her in a fluffy technicolor musical (with location photography in Florida), engaged in romantic shenanigans with two leading men (Don Ameche and Robert Cummings), and supported by pros like Jack Haley, Charlotte Greenwood, Carole Landis and Minor Watson.

It's a typical Fox musical made to order for Grable fans and photographed in some scenic Florida locales serving as Miami. Robert Cummings and Don Ameche are impeccably clad and flashing the kind of smiles that belong in a toothpaste ad--thus serving as perfect foils for Betty's curvaceous blonde charms.

Some of the specialty numbers are good--especially those by the Condo Brothers--and Betty herself gets to do a couple of sprightly tap dance routines. None of the music is memorable but it's easy to see why Grable was so popular at the box-office in escapist films of this nature at a time when war weary audiences craved this kind of entertainment at the start of World War II. Her modest talents are on full display here--and Ameche and Cummings show that they had a definite flair for this kind of romantic comedy--especially Cummings who was always better in lighter assignments as opposed to dramatic roles--contrary to what another commentator says.

Carole Landis can do little with her role as Betty's sister (posing as her maid). She is very prettily photographed but walks through the role in an aloof manner that makes her almost invisible.

This movie is fun because there's Betty Grable,And Robert Cummings, and Don Ameche. What's amazing is that this big party goes non-stop, with music in the background non-stop, reflecting how esteemed a place Miami was back in 1940, for the idle rich or the psuedo-rich!This is nostalgia at it's zenith. It makes you want to party non-stop around the pool, and not have to work for a living like the rest of these people(so it would seem), until Don Ameche announces that he'll sell refigerators!

Having just been to Miami for the first time in my life, I finally decided to check out this Betty Grable musical from 20th Century-Fox that took place and was partly filmed there after having taped it from AMC 10 years ago. The flimsy plot about gold diggers is a bit longish but many entertaining musical numbers and some humor does put it over on me quite smoothly. Certainly the cast, which includes Robert Cummings, Don Ameche, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Haley, and especially Ms. Grable are very charming here with wonderful Technicolor photography and melodically tuneful songs by Ralph Ranger and Leo Robin. In short, Moon Over Miami was just an entertaining piece of fluff that went over well for audiences that survived the Depression and was just about to enter World War II...