Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business | |
---|---|
Directed by | Walter Lang |
Screenplay by | |
Story by | Lamar Trotti |
Produced by | Sol C. Siegel |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | Robert Simpson |
Music by | Irving Berlin |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 117 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4.3 million [1] [2] |
Box office | $5.1 million (domestic) [3] $2 million (foreign estimate) [2] |
Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business is a 1954 American musical comedy-drama film directed by Walter Lang. It stars an ensemble cast, consisting of Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Johnnie Ray, and Mitzi Gaynor.
The title is borrowed from the famous song in the stage musical (and MGM film) Annie Get Your Gun . The screenplay was written by Phoebe Ephron and Henry Ephron, based on a story by Lamar Trotti; [4] and the movie was Fox's first musical in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color. [5]
O'Connor later called the film the best picture he ever made. [6]
The story opens in 1919 and chronicles the ups and downs in the careers of Terence and Molly Donahue, a husband-and-wife vaudeville team. Throughout the years, the Donahues reconcile a stable family life with professional success. Their children, Steve, Katy, and Tim, join the act one by one, and they eventually become known as The Five Donahues. However, as the children mature, they answer other callings. Steve, for example, enrolls in a Catholic seminary for training as a priest. Later, Tim falls in love with a successful performer, Vicky Parker, and he and sister Katy consent to join her act as supporting players. However, Tim and Vicky experience a falling out, and he abandons the act. Despite efforts by the family to locate him, Tim's whereabouts remain a mystery.
Meanwhile, Katy begins dating Charlie Gibbs, the show's tall and spare lyricist, and they are eventually married—in a ceremony ministered by Steve who has just been ordained a priest. Thus, the Five Donahues are no more, until months later at a benefit on the closing night of the famed Hippodrome Theatre in New York. As Molly sings the film's title song for the sellout crowd, Steve arrives backstage unexpectedly, followed by Tim, in the uniform of a U.S. sailor. There, he reconciles with Vicky and his family, and for the first time in years, the Five Donahues reunite for the film's elaborate finale.
All songs written by Irving Berlin. [7]
Song | Performer(s) [8] | Note(s) |
---|---|---|
"When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'" | Sung by Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey | Later performed by Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor |
"Play a Simple Melody" | Sung by Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey | – |
"A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" | Sung by Ethel Merman with Dan Dailey Danced by Dan Dailey | – |
"You'd Be Surprised" | Dan Dailey | – |
"Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" | Sung by Ethel Merman | – |
"Alexander's Ragtime Band" | The cast | Later sung by Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Mitzi Gaynor and Johnnie Ray |
"Puttin' On the Ritz" | – | Instrumental performed by the nightclub orchestra |
"After You Get What You Want You Don't Want It" | Marilyn Monroe | – |
"Remember" | Sung by the cast | Later sung by Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey |
"If You Believe" | Sung by Johnnie Ray | – |
"Heat Wave" | Marilyn Monroe | – |
"A Man Chases a Girl (Until She Catches Him)" | Sung by Donald O'Connor and Marilyn Monroe Danced by Donald O'Connor | – |
"Lazy" | Marilyn Monroe, Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor | – |
"A Sailor's Not a Sailor ('Til a Sailor's Been Tattooed)" | Sung by Ethel Merman and Mitzi Gaynor | – |
"Marie" | Performed by an uncredited male trio on a nightclub's stage when the family is searching for Tim | – |
"There's No Business Like Show Business" | Ethel Merman | Later sung by the cast |
In the months before the filming of the movie, Marilyn Monroe had been placed on suspension from 20th Century-Fox after refusing to accept the leading role in a film version of a Broadway musical titled The Girl in Pink Tights . During her suspension, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio and the two honeymooned in Japan, during which time she entertained American soldiers in Korea. Fox had intended to cast Sheree North in There's No Business Like Show Business, going so far as to screen-test North in Monroe's own studio wardrobe. When Monroe returned to California, her Fox suspension was lifted, and studio executives offered her a role in the ensemble cast of There's No Business Like Show Business as a replacement project for having refused to make Pink Tights. Monroe initially refused to make There's No Business Like Show Business just as she had for the previous project until Fox assured her that her next vehicle would be The Seven Year Itch . [9] She also demanded a pay increase of $3,000 a week.
Ethel Merman had first sung "There's No Business Like Show Business" in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946 and would go on to sing it again in the 1967 television broadcast of the subsequent Lincoln Center revival of that musical comedy. [10]
To publicize the film, Monroe wore a black cotton polka-dot swimsuit. It went on auction at Christie's in London in 1991 and sold for $22,400 to collector David Gainsborough Roberts. [11]
Ed Sullivan described Monroe's performance of the song "Heat Wave" as "one of the most flagrant violations of good taste" he had witnessed. [12] Time magazine compared her unfavorably to co-star Ethel Merman. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times called the film a "major success" in a generally favorable review, praising in particular Donald O'Connor's performance, but said that Mitzi Gaynor had surpassed Monroe's "wriggling and squirming" which were "embarrassing to behold." [13] Donald O'Connor drew unfavorable reviews for his "over-acting" and "uncanny flirting" with Monroe on-screen. Dan Dailey and Johnnie Ray favored better among critics, although reviewers stated their performances were "below average".
Despite boasting a lavish production, Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business eventually became both a critical and box office failure. The film's budget was $4,340,000. [1] Excessive at the time for a movie filmed entirely on a studio lot in Los Angeles, the expenses were mainly due to delays in production, the lavish musical numbers and a running time that was at least 15 minutes longer than most other Hollywood musicals. The film made just $5,103,555 at the North American box office. [3] Musicals at the time did less well overseas and it was estimated it would only earn $2 million outside the US and Canada. [2] 20th Century Fox officials were disappointed.
According to records, Fox was expecting a profit of $2 million, but ran a loss of almost $950,000. It is also significant that Johnnie Ray never worked again for 20th Century Fox or appeared in another motion picture made by any major movie studio in the United States or another country, though his music developed a stronger following overseas than in the United States.
The film's TV premiere occurred October 28, 1961, on NBC's ground-breaking movie anthology series, Saturday Night at the Movies , in a pan-and-scan version to match the square, small-screen design of televisions manufactured at the time. Later syndicated broadcasts on local television stations were unkind to the legacy of There's No Business Like Show Business because it warranted a time slot of at least two-and-one-half hours, including commercials, and also because of the lack of letterboxing during that era. Every CinemaScope movie lost much of its appeal when shown on television in the 1960s and 1970s, even if it was in black-and-white, but There's No Business Like Show Business was hit especially hard because of cinematographer Leon Shamroy’s placement of at least two members of the ensemble cast on the wide screen in every frame as they hit a lot of marks on the soundstage. The several dance sequences with at least three cast members were compromised by the pan-and-scan process.
The movie's release to the home video market in the early 1990s solved the problem of commercial interruptions and improved its profits and reputation considerably. The issue of the aspect ratio of CinemaScope remained, however. A DVD release in 2001 included letterboxing and 4-channel surround sound, thereby eliminating the bad aspect ratio and introducing the movie to younger generations. It has received favorable reviews from critics and fans.
Date of ceremony | Award | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
February 25, 1955 [14] | Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Written Musical | Phoebe Ephron, Henry Ephron | Nominated |
March 30, 1955 [15] | Academy Awards | Best Original Score – Musical | Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman | Nominated |
Best Story | Lamar Trotti (posthumous nomination) | Nominated | ||
Best Costume Design – Color | Charles LeMaire, Travilla, Miles White | Nominated | ||
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Ethel Merman was an American actress and singer. Known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and her leading roles in musical theater, she has been called "the undisputed First Lady of the musical comedy stage." She performed on Broadway in Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Hello, Dolly!
Elizabeth Ruth Grable was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model and singer.
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, and her romance with sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847–1926).
John Alvin Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music, and his animated stage personality. Tony Bennett called Ray the "father of rock and roll", and historians have noted him as a pioneering figure in the development of the genre.
Donald David Dixon Ronald O'Connor was an American dancer, singer and actor. He came to fame in a series of films in which he co-starred, in succession, with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule.
Mitzi Gaynor is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Her notable films include We're Not Married! (1952), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), The Birds and the Bees (1956), and South Pacific (1958) – for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical at the 1959 awards.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal. The song, a slightly tongue-in-cheek salute to the glamour and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in an attempt to persuade Annie Oakley to join the production. It is reprised three times in the musical.
Sheree North was an American actress, dancer, and singer, known for being one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe.
"Play a Simple Melody" is a song from the 1914 musical, Watch Your Step, with words and music by Irving Berlin.
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a jazz song introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Leo Robin.
"It's De-Lovely" is one of Cole Porter's hit songs, originally appearing in his 1936 musical, Red Hot and Blue. It was introduced by Ethel Merman and Bob Hope. The song was later used in the musical Anything Goes, first appearing in the 1956 film version ; in the 1962 revival where it was sung by Hal Linden and Barbara Lang, and in the 2004 biographical film De-Lovely, where it was performed by Robbie Williams.
"Heat Wave" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer, and introduced in the show by Ethel Waters.
Daniel James Dailey Jr. was an American actor and dancer. He is best remembered for a series of popular musicals he made at 20th Century Fox such as Mother Wore Tights (1947).
We're Not Married! is a 1952 American anthology romantic comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding. It was released by 20th Century Fox.
"Lazy" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1924. Popular recordings of the song in 1924 were by Al Jolson, Blossom Seeley, Paul Whiteman and the Brox Sisters. The best known version today may be that performed by Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, and Mitzi Gaynor in the motion picture There's No Business Like Show Business.
Anything Goes is a 1956 American musical film directed by Robert Lewis, and starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Mitzi Gaynor. Adapted from the 1934 stage musical Anything Goes by Cole Porter, Guy Bolton, and P. G. Wodehouse, the film is about two entertainers scheduled to appear in a Broadway show who travel to Europe, where each discovers the perfect leading lady for the female role. Bing Crosby's character, Bill Benson, goes to England and meets Mitzi Gaynor's character Patsy Blair, and he signs her as the female lead. Meanwhile, Donald O'Connor's character, Ted Adams, travels to France and meets Jeanmaire's character, Gaby Duval, and he signs her to the same role. On the return voyage, with each man having brought his leading lady along, the Atlantic becomes a stormy crossing when each man must tell his discovery that she might not get the role.
Call Me Madam is a 1953 American Technicolor musical film directed by Walter Lang, with songs by Irving Berlin, based on the 1950 stage musical of the same name.
My Blue Heaven is a 1950 American drama musical film directed by Henry Koster and starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey.
Marilyn is a 1963 documentary film based on the life of the 1950s to early 1960's actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. The film, directed by Harold Medford, was released by 20th Century Fox, and was narrated by Rock Hudson.
Bombshell is an American musical with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman based on the original fictitious musical from the first season of the NBC television series Smash. The songs include soulful jazz anthems and upbeat pop songs. Bombshell is the life story of Marilyn Monroe. It tells the story of the aspiring starlet who transforms herself into a worldwide sex symbol, including her early life and her alleged affair with American President John F. Kennedy. Despite the same name, and subject matter, this musical from SMASH is unrelated to the Off-Broadway musical from 2001 which ran at the Grove Street Playhouse.