Console best movie i've ever seen.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

calvinnme MGM bought a seventeen song musical comedy, threw out thirteen songs ("It Ain't Etiquette", "Well, Did You Evah", and "But In The Morning, No" can still be heard as backg round music) and had five studio composers take care of the rest of the score ("Salome" is their best contribution).The plot--Film takes place in a nightclub. Louis (Skelton) is in love with May (Lucille Ball). After he accidentally drinks a Mickey, he dreams he's back in 1743 France, where he is Louis XV, and May is Madame DuBarry.To me, Skelton is unbearable when he plays stupid; here, he takes forever to get the idea he's back in France, and tramples jokes into the ground. I don't know if that's his fault or the fault of director Del Ruth.Ball is good as May/Madame DuBarry. She saves the second half of the film with her comedy skills where she makes a fool out of Louis XV. She is dubbed for most of her songs, but her real voice can be heard in the song "Friendship".Gene Kelly is good as Alec/The Black Arrow. He has the best song ("Do I Love You") and an excellent dance number on the nightclub stage.Virginia O'Brien makes "Salome" a memorable song. Look for Marilyn Maxwell in a bit , and Lana Turner in an uncredited bit.

weezeralfalfa There have been quite a few films dealing with the life of 18th century French courtesan Madame Du Barry. But, I'll bet none of the others remotely approach this treatment. Actually ,only about the last half features the court of Louis XV, with Lucille Ball as the Madame. It's essentially a lavish musical variety farce, loosely based on the play of the same title. Most of Cole Porter's songs have been deleted for the film, and new ones added. Among Porter's songs retained are "Do I Love You?" , "Katie Went to Haiti", and "Friendship". Many details of the screenplay were also altered from the play. Apparently, The Black Arrow component was tacked on to the film version. The Black Arrow was the hero of a R.L. Stevenson novel set in 15th century England. Thus, there is no historical connection to 17th century France.We have 3 multitalented leads in Red Skelton as Louis XV, Lucy as Madame Du Barry, and Gene Kelly as The Black Arrow. They, along with various others, alternate between singing, dancing, verbal and physical comedy, and strait story. Also present is Virginia O'Brien, as the cigarette girl, who wants to marry a reluctant Skelton, as Louis, the hat check man who morphs into Louis XV in his drug and bumped head-induced dream. Virginia gets to sing "Salome" in her trademark deadpan style, which enjoyed some popularity as a novelty during this era.This was Lucy's first Technicolor film, and she took advantage of it by dying her hair a bright orange. She sure looked great throughout, along with many other beautiful ladies who were shown for just a few moments. This was also her first MGM film, having been acquired from RKO. This was only Kelly's second Hollywood film and, again, his first in Technicolor. Skelton had been kicking around MGM for a few years. However, this is probably also his first Technicolor film.Kelly and Lucy would later develop much more of a comedic dimension to their acting. Probably 90% of the comedy here was generated by Skelton, with some input from Rags Ragland and Zero Mostel. The latter played a swami who parodies Charles Boyer, especially in "Algeria". The opening chorus girls also have Swami turbans. The Swami theme soon disappeared.Kelly gets one solo dance routine in tux and tails, not especially innovative. Otherwise he spends his time mooning over Lucy's character or playing The Black Arrow, who wants to lead a revolution against the French monarchy. The Tommy Dorsey Band gets more exposure here than in other films I've seen. This sometimes includes The Pied Pipers, including Jo Stafford. I definitively prefer Jo's recorded version of "Do I Love You" over Kelly's singing here. The 3 Oxford boys do an amusing vocal parody of some of the popular dance bands of the day, including : Kay Kaiser, Fred Warring, Harry James, and Guy Lombardo.The basic plot is a romantic foursome, where it's not crystal clear who is going to end up with whom until the finale: a very common plot in musicals of that era. Skelton's and Kelly's characters both want to marry Lucy's character. But she rejects both because they aren't rich enough. She does have some romantic feelings for Kelly, but not Skelton. However, Skelton wins the Irish Sweepstakes. Now , he feels confident in asking Lucy to marry him. She has said it's better to marry for money than love. She tentatively agrees to marry him. However, he soon is bankrupt, having spent or given away all his money except what he owes the IRS. See the ending to find out how things work out. The finale has the principals singing "Friendship".

bkoganbing When MGM bought the rights to Cole Porter's DuBarry Was A Lady for the Arthur Freed unit as per usual the naughty Porter score was completely emasculated and songs old and new from a variety of sources were interpolated into the film. It was like his lyric of Friendship, a perfect blendship. If you're attentive however you can hear at least two of the songs played as background music, When Love Beckoned and Well Did You Evah which was later interpolated by MGM into High Society for that never to be forgotten duet with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Only Friendship, Do I Love You Do I and Katie Went To Haiti made the final cut in the score.Sad also that Ethel Merman and Bert Lahr did not get to repeat the roles they did on Broadway and Darryl Zanuck would not let Betty Grable come over from 20th Century Fox. Ethel only did two of her Broadway roles for the movies, Call Me Madam and Anything Goes and Lahr for whatever reason after the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard Of Oz was given a whole of mediocre parts.It was said that Merman was not film box office, but certainly Lucille Ball wasn't either at that time. Red Skelton was however, his career was on the rise and so television's two most famous redheads got to team on the big screen.Lucy is the star of a nightclub chorus and Red is the hat check man who hits the lottery. He's been crushing out on Lucy for forever, but now that he's rich he thinks she might give him a second look. He puts the big moves on her. but she can only see hoofer Gene Kelly. Still his money is tantalizing. When Red tries to slip Gene a mickey finn he winds up drinking it himself and dreams he's back in the court of Louis XV as Louis XV with Lucy as the notorious Madame DuBarry. And Kelly turns up as the dashing rebel the Black Arrow, rival for the affections of the Madame.In both the modern and period story MGM packed a lot of entertainment in the 89 minute running time. What court or nightclub would not like to have Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra as its personal band? There are some nice solos by drummer Buddy Rich and singing with the Pied Pipers are Jo Stafford and newly arrived vocalist Dick Haymes.Virginia O'Brien contributes a few numbers. She never did any acting roles of note, but was always welcome in an MGM production for her singing and devastating dead pan delivery of a song. Making his big screen debut as the nightclub fortune teller was Zero Mostel with just a trace of his zaniness in play.This was one of the few films that Gene Kelly was in that he really did not have control of his material yet. Nevertheless his Black Arrow persona was a hint of what you saw later in a high flying dance number in Anchors Aweigh and in The Three Musketeers and The Pirate.A thin plot is just an excuse to hang a lot of comedy and musical entertainment. But what I would have given to see Merman and Lahr do a faithful adaption on screen.

edwagreen Mild fanfare with Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Gene Kelly in this farce about what's going on at a local nightclub.Lucy is Lucy and Red does his usual nonsense. Kelly tries to play it straight but isn't given the substantial material needed. Zero Mostel, young and chubby looking, is along for the ride as a seer. You may not recognize him here but after all, it's 1943!The film begins to take off during Skelton's dream sequence of being transported back to revolutionary France as Louis XV. The costumes of that period along with the singing and dancing of modern music are a joy to watch.While Red, as Louis, has been over-taxing his subjects, he's in for a rude awakening when he gets up. Tax man Donald Meek is there to take away most of the money that he won in the sweepstakes.Much more of Cole Porter's fine music is missing in the film version.