Turbilhão

Eddie (George Montgomery) arrives at a nightclub owned by old friend Joe (Cesar Romero) and asks to become a partner in his business. Joe's girlfriend/protégé, Kate (Betty Grable) is a singer at the club and the story follows how these 2 men fight over her and her transformation from a trashy performer into a classy performer.

The film is only interesting when Betty Grable is performing. Thankfully, she sings and dances in quite a few numbers, so saving this film from being bad. George Montgomery is terrible as the lead - very cheesy - and the supporting characters - Finnigan (Charles Winninger) as a drunken Irishman and Frankie (Phil Silvers as his usual self) - are annoying. The only characters with any credibility are Cesar Romero and Betty Grable and they save this film from being a complete turkey.

The colour is good, the songs are good and Betty Grable single-handedly brings the film into the overall "ok" category.

Color films were at a premium during the war years, but when one of the reigning sex symbols of the era was starring in a film, the technicolor cameras were rolling. In Coney Island, the better to catch Betty Grable's blond All Americans looks and those gorgeous legs of her's, on prominent display as a turn of the last century entertainer working in a club in Coney Island.

A few years earlier the roles played by George Montgomery and Cesar Romero would have gone to Tyrone Power and Don Ameche. But both these guys would never have been second billed to Betty Grable now and this film is strictly her show.

Romero is a club owner in Coney Island where former partner and rival George Montgomery tries to chisel in. But one look at Grable who Romero considered his and they become rivals in love as well as business.

Montgomery totally had Ty Power's hero/heel character right down to perfection. It's so obvious that his part was originally written for Power. 1943 was the year Power went in the Marines so I really think it likely.

Brooklyn had two landmarks of note that the world knew about. One was Ebbets Field where the Dodgers played and the other was that entertainment mecca, Coney Island. The Dodgers are gone and Coney Island looks a bit frayed around the edges, but you can still see some traces of the glamor of the period that Betty and the cast are portraying. At least Nathan's Hotdogs is still operating though they wouldn't come into being until long after the era that this film is set in was over.

Coney Island had some original songs written by the former Paramount team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, but the interpolated period songs gave Betty Grable her best vocal opportunities. Her rendition of Cuddle Up A Little Closer is a classic and the song after almost 40 years enjoyed a bit of a revival then. Betty didn't join in it though because Darryl Zanuck banned his stars from commercial recordings. Scoring the whole business was done by Alfred Newman who received an Academy Award nomination for his work. He actually won an Oscar that year, but for scoring the dramatic picture, The Song Of Bernadette.

The plot is thin, but the players put it over and Coney Island is one of Betty Grable's best films from the height of her career.

...this movie has everything that everyone expects of Betty Grable every time. It is bright and colorful and silly and funny and loads of fun. Betty, (ever the independent and employed woman) is working as an entertainer in an odd little dive. Well, a friend of the owners does what we would now call a corporate take-over--and then he does a make-over on Betty and she becomes a big musical comedy star--but wait--it is more complicated than that! See this and you will understand why Betty Grable was loved at the box office for so long. She is wonderful.

Betty Grable is a nightclub singer-dancer in turn-of-the-century Coney Island whose boss/boyfriend (Cesar Romero) is tricked into hiring his childhood friend/nemesis (George Montgomery) as a show manager. Montgomery is intent on making flashy, hyperkinetic Grable sing and dance like a lady, which she resists, but the results put stars in both their eyes, and soon Montgomery is planning on opening his own nightclub--with Grable as the star attraction. Fox musical was so popular, the studio remade it--with Grable--just seven years later as "Wabash Avenue". She's terrific here, snapping off her lines with streetwise cynicism, her beauty mark usually in a different location. Fox overloads the film's musical moments with specialty numbers--a Plantation number, a Louisiana showboat number, a Christmas number, an Irish number, etc.--but what really makes Grable shine are her ballads delivered standing still (just like her character is told to do). Montgomery is rather like a riverboat cardsharp--slick and cunning, he never elicits our feelings--but he's preferable to Romero, who acts with his teeth. Phil Silvers is less offensive than usual in support, and the soundtrack has some gems including "Cuddle Up a Little Closer", "Pretty Baby" and the title song. **1/2 from ****

Was very shocked 15 seconds into the film to see a character in blackface. Later there is an entire musical number in blackface. Lastly, the grand finale has a number in blackface as well. Is it just a sign of the times the film was made in? I guess. Do I have to celebrate it, or recommend it? No, I don't and no, I can't.

I would allow that it works as a historical document, of sorts. Of a kind of entertainment that was wiped out by rock'n'roll. Cesar Romero delivers his usual classy, excellent performance. The leading lady was unfortunately portrayed as dumb enough to be manipulated at every turn, a mere chit in the 2 guys' competitive rivalry.