There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)

 There’s No Business Like Show Business is, by today’s standards and perhaps even by the standards of the 1950s, a rather old-fashioned musical. It’s a family drama that begins in the vaudeville of 1919. Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey play a performing couple named Molly and Terry Donahue experiencing the ups and downs of a theatrical life. The arrival of each of their three children means another addition to the act until they become known as the Five Donahues. However, Molly wants a stable life for her children, and she and Terry agree to pack them off to a boarding school while they continue earning a living on the road. The three children, now grown up, return to the family act, naturally, but each of them starts to want a different path than show business. The eldest child, Steve (played by singer Johnny Ray), becomes a priest. Tim, the younger son (played by the always reliable Donald O’Connor), falls for a very ambitious hatcheck girl, Vicky Parker (Marilyn Monroe—more on her later), but she’s not interested in him initially because he can’t help to further her career. Tim’s sister, Katy (the delightful and underused Mitzi Gaynor), eventually joins him as a backup performer for Vicky. Katy and Tim have an argument, Vicky and Tim have a disagreement, and Tim disappears. Of course, you know O’Connor is not going to be gone for too long, not in a movie this focused on family dynamics. Monroe is definitely the highlight for a modern audience, and her few numbers are wonderfully staged. “Heat Wave” is quite a showcase for her talents; why Hollywood couldn’t see how remarkably gifted she was remains a mystery. You’ll likely recognize the iconic white gown Monroe wears for “After You Get What You Want, You Don’t Want It.” (Many of her best songs relied on that kind of double entendre.) As great as Monroe is or was, she isn’t truly the star of the film. Merman is really the star and is a more fascinating performer to me. She was never a huge movie star; she just couldn’t seem to transfer her Broadway superstardom to the big screen. Perhaps it’s because she always seems to be so… “on.” She never sings quietly; you can always hear her distinctive voice above everyone else, particularly in the rendition of the movie’s title song. All of the songs in the movie were written by Irving Berlin, a favorite composer of Merman’s. However, I don’t know that I needed to hear nine minutes of “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” in Scottish dialect and French and German and…. It’s a bit much, frankly, even for such a nice and well-loved song. My favorite of the songs is “A Sailor’s Not a Sailor (‘Til a Sailor’s Been Tattooed),” a real eye-opener performed by Merman and Gaynor in naval attire. It’s the butchest I’ve ever seen Merman on screen, and that’s saying a lot. Honestly, nothing all that dramatic happens in the movie. Having children choose different paths from their parents isn’t a new storyline. So when Molly starts belting out the title song during a benefit performance at the Hippodrome, it’s hardly surprising to see her husband and three children join her. Even Marilyn’s Vicky is there. The final scene goes just as you would expect, and really, you shouldn’t necessarily want it to go any other way.

Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture Story, Best Color Costume Design, and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture