My Blue Heaven

One of Bettys more grown up movies and she does well. Strong acting on her part and always a joy to watch her sing and dance. Plot is melodramatic as was her Dolly Sisters movie. Some mistakes in the screenplay though. I go for realism and a couple of scenes had me confused due to sloppy writing. Toward the beginning when Bette and Dan go into their dressing room at the radio station, they confront their dog. A few lines and they leave by closing the door. The dog is still inside??? Who looks after him till the next day?? They don't take the dog home with them? Another example of poor writing is when the couple visit their writers and best friends at the farmhouse. They are are surprised to see the couples six kids and say they didn't know they had kids. WHAT?? They've known them for years and didn't know they had kids???? Didn't anyone, including the actors question this oddity?? So very strange. And while the friends/writers are in their NY place, who watched those six kids???? Debut of Mitzi Gaynor and she doesn't have much to do, but dances well.

Musicals wasn't my favorite genre but there are so many that offer an sexy appeal like this, Betty Grable was well-known for your fabulous legs and in this she show us in plenty shape, as a dramatic comedy wasn't enough funny, but the story is smart and fully interesting was musicals suggested, David Wayne had a good role and works well as supporting casting, Mitzi Gaynor in your first real debut is always unnoticed, the songs are outdated as well, so remains the great and sexy Betty Grable delivery all that can offer....what a pair of legs!!!

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First watch: 2010 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Can't remember much about the movie, except my parents were a little disgusted at some of the dialogue. One that stands out: Grable and Dailey, a married couple, announced she was pregnant.

At a party (or something)where they announced the news, somebody said something like, "Well, we had better go because they probably want to be alone."

To which David Wayne, in whatever role he was playing, said, "Listen, if what these two kids said is true, they've been alone."

That was one pretty risque line for 1950. Would that dialogue today were as tame as that.

This film really isn't much. The performers are all agreeable, but the real star is the score by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane. The lost gem is "Halloween", an Arlen waltz performed by Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, and David Wayne. Arlen did not write many waltzes. Only "When the Boys Come Home", "Sunday in Cisero Falls", and "Fancy Free" come to mind. This is a fine waltz with a witty lyric by Blane telling us that Irving Berlin forgot to write a song about "Halloween". "Don't Rock the Boat", Arlen's take on Calypso music, is also a winner. "Friendly Island" is a hilarious send up of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific". Blane has never been so archly funny. Dailey even makes fun of Ezio Pinza's singing in this number. Aside from these numbers, "Mother Wore Tights" and "Call Me Mister" are superior Grable-Dailey films. Wayne gives us some comedy, but it is not enough to make the film sparkle.

Popular radio-program duo in New York City, a chummy married couple about to make that transition to television, have troubles adopting a baby. Colorful Betty Grable vehicle weighted down with musical chaos. Granted, "My Blue Heaven" is a 20th Century-Fox musical--and anyone going into it should rightfully expect lots of singing and hoofing--but here the story is far more substantial than the song numbers, which simply get in the way. Screenwriters Claude Binyon and Lamar Trotti, working from S.K. Lauren's story "Stork Don't Bring Babies", tentatively touch upon several topical issues (both satiric and dramatic) which are not explored with any depth. The sudden boom in television (and its impact on radio), the perils of a working mother who leaves her job to be with her child, and the reluctance of adoption agencies to assign babies with those "constantly divorcing" show-biz couples are all products for a satisfying comedy-drama. Grable and Dan Dailey are a lot of fun on the dance-floor, but this glossy product could actually use less pussyfooting around and more narrative heart. It's a feel-good movie, all right, but a picture for its time and not for the ages. **1/2 from ****