There's No Business Like Show Business: A Review

THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Donald O'Connor.

Long before the concept of a jukebox musical came into prominence, There's No Business Like Show Business took the idea of building a whole story on a songbook to create an entertaining film. With a massive number of Irving Berlin's songs and some surprisingly solid performances, There's No Business Like Show Business makes for enjoyable viewing.

With some voiceover by Terry Donahue (Dan Dailey) and his wife Molly (Ethel Merman), we learn that they are old-school vaudevillians of some renown. They go from just The Donahues to The Three Donahues and then ultimately the Five Donahues. Molly loves show business, but she also is unhappy to make their two sons and one daughter travel up and down the vaudeville circuit. Terry is fine with his kids being young hoofers, but eventually Molly gets her way, and the kids go to Catholic school.

When they grow up, the kids do literally get in on the act. The youngest, Tim (Donald O'Connor) proves himself a double threat, able to sing and dance. The oldest, Steve (Johnnie Ray) was not a dancer but could sell a song. Their daughter, Katy (Mitzi Gaynor) was more a dancer than a singer, but could easily carry a tune. While they carved out respectable careers, the kids were also working to be their own beings.

Steve is the biggest rebel, shocking the family by joining the Catholic priesthood. Tim for his part, is a Lothario, squiring pretty showgirls all over town. Katy is the opposite, working to keep the wolves at bay. Tim in particular comes to butt heads with hat-check girl Victoria Hoffman (Marilyn Monroe). He flirts with her, but no dice. She is focused on a stage career more than on some two-bit hoofer. She does start making waves. She also, despite herself, starts falling for Tim.

Molly and Terry are not pleased by a lot of their kids' decisions. Molly especially dislikes the now-Victoria Parker. She sees Victoria as some designing woman plotting to steal their material for her own act. As their lives and careers go through ebbs and flows, the Donahues find themselves both on the welcoming and receiving end of showbiz. Will Tim and Victoria get together or will he self-destruct? Will the Five Donahues ultimately come together, or will they be short a member? Is it possible that they might actually end up with more than Five Donahues at the end? 

There's No Business Like Show Business is not plot-heavy. It is a very simple story. However, it has many qualities that enhance the viewing. At the top of that list is the Irving Berlin songbook. There's No Business Like Show Business manages to squeeze in about sixteen Berlin songs into the film. Curiously, all but one or two are performed on a stage. Puttin' on the Ritz is heard at a dance hall for restaurant patrons. A Man Chases a Girl (Until She Catches Him) is the only number that can be called a musical number. Here, the song does express a character's feeling, if not push the plot forward.

It is also a rare solo number for Donald O'Connor. I think Johnnie Ray got more solo numbers (If You Believe and a section of the first rendition of Alexander's Ragtime Band where he sings at a piano). In that long Alexander's Ragtime Band number, O'Connor does have his own section where he performs the song as if he were Scottish, down to the bagpipes playing and him in a kilt. I guess that I am wrong about O'Connor not having a specific musical showcase for himself, but I digress.

The veteran hoofer dances with statues and up on the roof. He even "hears" Monroe's voice accompanying him (though she does not appear dancing with O'Connor here). It is probably the rare moment in There's No Business Like Show Business where director Walter Lang showed a moment of imagination in the musical staging. This is a very strong number. Donald O'Connor has incredible physical dexterity in his dancing. He uses his whole body, even throwing in a little bit of bouncing off the walls. 

Every other song is performed on a stage. In fairness, If You Believe and a reprise of When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam is performed at Steve's farewell party before he heads off to seminary. One does have to give screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron credit in how they snuck in Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee as a radio commercial jingle. In the When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam number, O'Connor and Gaynor do solid imitations of Dailey and Merman. 

I think that There's No Business Like Show Business does give some of the actors a chance to showcase their musical range. While she is billed third after Merman and O'Connor, the film is pretty much a Marilyn Monroe film. She does not appear until almost half an hour into There's No Business Like Show Business. However, we see in the entirety of Monroe's performance some wonderful musical moments. There is Heat Wave, where she is appropriately sultry without being sleazy. There is also the sly Lazy number, where she shares the screen with O'Connor and Gaynor. Here, she is fun and flirtatious and quite charming.

The curious thing is that in the film, Monroe also gets a chance to show some dramatic range. Near the end of the film, she and Tim are having a fight. Monroe has a strong monologue where she talks about how. unlike Tim, she did not grow up in a vaudeville family. As such, she has had to struggle and fight for the success that she has. He, too drunk and arrogant to listen, suggests in a subtle but definite way that she essentially is using her feminine wiles to get ahead in showbusiness. This naturally angers her.

We see two Marilyn Monroes in the film. The beginning has her speaking with the stereotypical breathy voice, which she attributes to her vocal coach. When they reunite in Florida, Monroe's voice and manners are stronger, more confidant. Her character has gone through a change from Victoria Hoffman to Victoria Parker. Monroe brought about that sense of confidence. She even managed to show the intelligence behind her character. Pleading with Tim to let her use the Heat Wave number that Molly had planned to use, we end that scene with the band leader calling her the new champion, holding her hand as a boxer who has won his bout would.

Mitzi Gaynor is a human dynamo in There's No Business Like Show Business. She leaps about with wild abandon, exuberant and joyful. She is delightful and adorable in A Sailor is Not a Sailor, playing off well against the bombast of Ethel Merman. She can also handle the dramatic moments well, such as when she reunites with her long-lost brother. 

Donald O'Connor was surprisingly strong in the dramatic moments. Of special note is when he has a confrontation with his father that leads to a shocking slap. He also has those scenes with Monroe, where he plays some comedy in his efforts to woo her. However, when he makes a vague suggestion that Victoria has slept her way to the top, we see a hurt man lashing out. 

Ethel Merman never became the star on film that she was on Broadway. She still kept her big, brassy manner in There's No Business Like Show Business when singing, projecting to the back row in Poughkeepsie. To be fair, Merman was also able to handle much of the dramatic moments in a softer manner. I did not think much of Dailey, whose musical and dramatic style did not rise to where Monroe, O'Connor, Gaynor or even Merman were.

Perhaps the worst was, as the song goes, poor old Johnnie Ray. Part of me thinks that he was made into a priest as a way to get him out of the story. The film is open about how he was not a dancer. Ray did not dance much and certainly not alone as O'Connor and Gaynor did. His singing was not terrible, but he was a bit weak all around. He was miscast and probably the weakest part of the film.

On the whole, though, I was surprised at how entertained I was with There's No Business Like Show Business. It is splashy and bright, almost choking with Irving Berlin songs that almost always go well. Let's go on with the show indeed.

DECISION: B+