BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

DKosty123 It's big, it's Technicolor. June Haver and Betty Gable have great legs. The staging and the music are top. The movie made lots of money. What's wrong? This Biographical picture is so fictionalized that it does not do the Dolly sisters the correct way.Granted doing it better might have to depict suicide which both sisters attempted quite graphically. The real story does deserve more than it gets here. The script is way too Hollywood to give an audience a feel good story and not anywhere near the truth. To me the real sisters are more like the Gabor sisters than depicted here. In real life they are Brunettes and short, not tall and blonde. The best depiction in the movie is Harry Fox.Neat to see Elmira, NY, mentioned early in the film. Not sure about any real event there as that location does not seem to be in any internet account of any of these folks. It is possible though Elmira has more to do with Mark Twain and later Ernie Davis than the Dolly Sisters or Fox.Mila Kunis would be the brunette I'd choose to be a Dolly Sister in a remake. She is short and would definitely light up the screen. I am not sure who her twin co-star would be. Aston Kutcher as Harry Fox? I think there are male actors who would be better. It would be a fun film to do a costume remake of with this generation trying to recreate the past. This old one is a Grable formula remake. Though it is pretty, I think it could be done even better. I am sure the real story and a more real script would benefit this material.

moonspinner55 Fictionalized, romanticized tale of the real-life Dolly Sisters, Hungarian siblings who arrived in the States as little girls in 1904 and grew up to be international showgirls. Story reconfigured as a star-vehicle for Betty Grable, who looks terrific and gives one of her better, less unctuous performances. June Haver, as kid sis Rosie, matches up well alongside Grable, yet the two actresses are rarely in sync during their musical numbers; worse, the character of Rosie is under-developed, and her actions in the final reel are unclear. The tacky color production doesn't help but the supporting players do, with John Payne well-cast as songwriter Harry Fox who marries Grable's Jenny before leaving for duty in WWI. The picture's time-line is fuzzy, and the reunion finale is limp, however several of the stage numbers have spirit, particularly a Cotton Club-styled production and a batty Ziegfeld extravaganza. Twentieth Century-Fox did a paste-up job on most of the picture, undercutting the drama with winking camp, but Grable works hard and makes it worthwhile. ** from ****

weezeralfalfa Essentially a more lavish Technicolor remake of the 1940 B&W film "Tin Pan Alley", including two of the stars of the original: John Payne and Betty Grable. Both films have their relative pluses and minuses. I enjoyed the many outlandish costumes of the female stars and of the various extras, a common feature of many 1940s musicals. Grable and June Haver are much more of a sister act than Alice Faye and Grable were in the original, when they mostly performed their own numbers. The troubled on again off again romances, which fill in between musical shows, get awfully tedious, more so than in the original. If Alice Faye had taken Haver's part, as originally planned, it would have been interesting to see if she were again cast as the dominant sister(I doubt it). To me, Faye has more charisma than Haver, but the later makes a more look alike sister for Grable. I really missed Jack Oakie in this one. Frank Latimore was simply not an adequate substitute for Oakie's cheerful comic relief from Payne's serious demeanor. Payne's character is much more of a heel than in the original. That poor foxy woman he led on to believe he cared more for than Grable, left alone in the audience in the final scene, when he was reunited with Grable on the stage!

julianhwescott One of my favorite Betty Grable films, as this one is a musical comedy/drama. I think Betty put her all into the scene where she was driving the car and had the accident on the cliffs above the sea. She really looked like she was having a nervous breakdown and was very convincing in her portrayal of a troubled woman all alone and lost. Also in the hospital scene, with June Haver, she was again very dramatic in her acting. Too bad the academy didn't take notice and nominate her for an Oscar. As usual, the music, dancing, singing, choreography and the cinematography, in glorious Technicolor, are brilliant as, of course, is the acting. The story continuity is very well maintained. I gave it a 10! One of Grable's and Payne's finest!