Variety Girl

Variety Girl
Directed by George Marshall
Produced by Danny Dare
Written by Monte Brice
Edmund Hartmann
Frank Tashlin
Robert L. Welch
Starring Mary Hatcher
Olga San Juan
DeForest Kelley
Frank Ferguson
Glenn Tryon
Nella Walker
Torben Meyer
Jack Norton
William Demarest
Music by Joseph J. Lilley
Troy Sanders
Cinematography Lionel Lindon
Stuart Thompson
Edited by LeRoy Stone
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • August 24, 1947 (1947-08-24)
Running time
 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3.6 million (US rentals)[1]

Variety Girl is a 1947 American musical comedy film produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

Overview

The opening caption reads, "This picture is dedicated to Variety Clubs, International, "The Heart of Show Business", which beats constantly in behalf of the under-privileged children of the world ... regardless of race, creed or color".[2] The story revolves around two young girls who exchange identities, causing confusion at the Variety Club (show-business charity) and the Paramount studio.

The elaborate closing song, "Harmony," begins with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope singing and dancing on stage in matching checkered suits and straw hats, eventually moves to a merry-go-round with Gary Cooper in cowboy regalia seated on a plastic horse while talking through a couple of stanzas with Barry Fitzgerald, then gradually incorporates the entire cast, which includes almost everyone under contract to Paramount at the time, in a rousing finale launched by William Holden and Ray Milland chasing a scantily-clad woman across a soundstage.

The film includes a five-minute color Puppetoon segment Romeow and Julicat by George Pal in Technicolor which is in black and white in most prints. It turned out to be Pal's last Puppetoon short; he split up with Paramount afterwards to become an independent producer.[3]

Cast

Celebrity appearances

Reception

Variety said that the film "emerges a socko entertainment . . . [Hope] and Crosby click with their “Harmony” routine, a socko number for all its paraphrasing of the “Friendship” routine out of Du Barry Was a Lady which Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman made famous.[4] The New York Times review of October 16, 1947 concluded with: "The people who carry along the story are not to be overlooked for they bring to the effort the right spirit of good-natured abandon. Mary Hatcher, who was discovered in Oklahoma!, is a very welcome addition to the screen's songbird assembly, and she has a wide-eyed innocent look which won't hurt her either. Variety Girl is hodge-podge, to be sure. But let's not quibble about its lack of form, because it is a hearty slam-bang entertainment wherein the good very definitely outweighs the poor."[5]

Soundtrack

  • "Tallahasee" (Frank Loesser): sung by Alan Ladd, Dorothy Lamour and others
  • "Harmony" (Jimmy Van Heusen / Johnny Burke): sung by Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and others
  • "Tired" (Allan Roberts / Doris Fisher): sung by Pearl Bailey
  • "He Can Waltz" (Frank Loesser): sung by Mary Hatcher
  • "Your Heart Calling Mine" (Frank Loesser): sung by Mary Hatcher and Spike Jones and his City Slickers
  • "Romeow and Julicat" (Edward H. Plumb): performed by Mary Hatcher, Pinto Colvig, and chorus
  • "I Must Have Been Madly in Love" (Frank Loesser)
  • "I Want My Money Back" (Frank Loesser)
  • "Impossible Things" (Frank Loesser)
  • "The French" (Frank Loesser)[6]

The song "Tallahasee" appeared in the Billboard charts with recordings by Bing Crosby and The Andrew Sisters (#10 position) and by Dinah Shore and Woody Herman (#15 spot). [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Fred (1988). Road to Hollywood (supplement). John Joyce. p. 13.
  3. ↑ "Internet Movie Database". IMDB. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Variety". July 16, 1947.
  5. ↑ "The New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
  6. ↑ Reynolds, Fred (1986). Road to Hollywood. John Joyce. p. 173.
  7. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Wisconsin, USA: Record Research Inc. p. 589. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
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