Quatre flirts et un coeur

And The Angels Sing is apparently Paramount's answer to Warner Brothers Lane Sisters and the series of films that they had starting with Four Daughters. The four of them are musical prodigies, but they're really not into singing. What they are into is earning enough money so their father Raymond Walburn can buy a farm.

Three of Paramount's best female stars, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn played 3/4 of the Angel sisters, the fourth being given to Mimi Chandler whose father Senator Albert H. Chandler would shortly become baseball commissioner. Betty Hutton is the only one enthused about performing, but given this is Betty Hutton what else would you expect?

They get themselves all tangled up with bandleader Fred MacMurray who's a bit of rat quite frankly taking advantage of Hutton to get some money in order for his band to get traveling money to an engagement in Brooklyn. The sisters are up in arms and trail him to Brooklyn to get their money.

At some point MacMurray has to woo all of them more or less to some degree. The whole thing ends rather conventionally though.

The plot is really an excuse for the musical numbers and the score here was written by Bing Crosby's favorite writers Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. Although Betty Hutton gets the showier numbers on screen, the hit song from And The Angels Sing was sung by Dorothy Lamour, It Could Happen To You. And of course Paramount prevailed upon Der Bingle to record it and by all means get his record of it if you can find it.

And The Angels Sing provides a nice showcase for the musical talents of the cast. MacMurray who later played some nasty characters shows a bit of what Billy Wilder saw in casting him as a villain in Double Indemnity and The Apartment. The film is a pleasant enough diversion.

This typical bit of 1944 Paramount studio wartime fluff, expertly paced by George Marshall, features a first-rate comic performance by Fred MacMurray, best remembered for his dramatic roles in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE APARTMENT. MacMurray started as a saxophone player and can be heard playing one badly but briefly in a long shot. In typical Hollywood fashion, the jazz classic IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, a favorite tune of Sinatra and Chet Baker, the best of the songs here, gets only the briefest screen time, sung in the film beautifully by Dorothy Lamour who was not only lovely but could act. She affects a delightful Brooklyn accent in a delightful bit with Frank Faylen who later played the male nurse in LOST WEEKEND and the cab driver in ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE.

Paramount studio musical comedy (more music than comedy) directed by George Marshall (Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis films, etc...). Hutton, Lamour, Chandler and Lynn are a singing sister act wined and dined by band leader Fred MacMurray. Most of the film takes place at a nightclub (the sisters wear long gowns for the entire film) and there's not much of a plot, mainly an excuse for Hutton to do some songs. Fred MacMurray sings (though he's bit of a creep most of the time), and some rare scenes of piano prodigy Diana Lynn playing the piano (too bad not really featured in solo). Most of the lines and situations go to Hutton, Lamour, and MacMurray, the rest of the cast is just there to be working. Cute but definitely a lesser work. I'd watch Hutton, Lamour, or Lynn in anything but there was just too little film here for them to be cast in their roles.

I stumbled across this on late night TV and found myself laughing...a lot. A shining example of the uplifting wartime movie genre. Diana Lynn and Betty Hutton are great. All have perfect comedic timing proving ensemble cast concept is a timeless strategy. The lamb stew gag became a standing joke for along time amongst my crowd for years.

Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, and Mimi Chandler are the Angel Sisters, living in a small town in New York, and fathered by widowed Raymond Walburn. They do a musical act, but they each have their own ambitions, until after a $10 roadhouse gig, run up to $190 at the craps table by Miss Hutton, she gets clipped by Fred MacMurray, who needs the money to get his band to the Copa Club -- the one in Brooklyn. The Angel family pursues him for the money, but he and band member Eddie Foy Jr. Put them off and put them into the act as singers. Meanwhile, MacMurray romances Misses Lamour and Hutton.

It's an ok musical, enlivened by blackout sequences, George Marshall's comedy direction and a good score by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen. When the ladies aren't singing as a quartet, Miss Hutton gets the most solo numbers, including an energetic version of "His Rocking Horse Ran Away". Of course there's a big patriotic number at the end. While it's no world-beater, there's lots of good comedy set pieces to keep the audience amused.