SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a sparkling musical comedy of the year 1942. A dance team who are romantic on-again- off-again patch up their differences at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. The supporting cast is a lot more interesting than the main leads. Some great comic turns by Carmen Miranda and especially the great Edward Everett Horton. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
This film reminds me of a smile sticker in a jewel-studded frame. The supporting cast is just excellent. We have people like Edward Everett Horton, Carmen Miranda, Harry James, Cesar Romero, Charlotte Greenwood, and Jackie Gleason in a musical comedy about whether Betty Grable and John Payne will patch up their differences and get together. Betty Grable was, of course, the national sweetheart during World War II due in very large part to a famous swimsuit pinup photograph that just about every GI knew well. (Note the references to Grable in STALAG 17.) She was (for me) a moderately attractive lady and not a particularly interesting actor. Her romantic lead was John Payne who may be best remembered as the bland nice-guy suitor and lawyer in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. That sort of leaves a hole right in the middle of this film where the central characters should be.
Betty Grable plays Vicky Lane and John Payne is Dan Christy. Lane and Christy are a popular Broadway dance team who seem destined to marry, though Christy still has eyes for other women and Lane always assumes the worst. The film's first showpiece is a nice number with the two on stage singing their love to each other while Lane takes every opportunity to kick or hit Christy when she thinks the audience will not see it. After the performance Lane heads out to a vacation in Lake Louise in Alberta's Rocky Mountains. Christy gets drunk and awakes also at Lake Louise with a whole entourage he has no memory of hiring on his bender. Included is the valet McTavish (played by Edward Everett Horton) and secretary Rosita Murphy (played by Carmen Miranda). Lane decides to use suitor Victor Prince (played by Cesar Romero) to make Christy jealous and Christy retaliates using Rosita Murphy. But Rosita on her own decides she is more interested in helping Lane and Christy patch things up.
I have never been fond of Carmen Miranda, but had never seen much of her, and I do not remember ever seeing her act. This film is ideal to show off her irrepressible personality. She glitters literally and figuratively. Also along is Charlotte Greenwood who plays a servant of Lane who seems around in the story mostly do an eye-poppingly limber dance. But the real scene-stealer is Horton. I remember years ago seeing him play off Peter Falk in A POCKET FULL OF MIRACLES, thinking what a shame it was that they Horton and Falk were not in more films together. They would have made a great comic team. In this film I saw him with Carmen Miranda and found myself thinking how good they were together. I think Horton mixes with any other good comic actor to make a great comic team. Cesar Romero is okay in the film but does not get a lot of chance to make scenes his own. The real problem with the film is that Grable's magnetic attraction has passed with time. And I am not sure Payne ever had a lot of appeal as an actor. The center of this film just does not hold. I found myself wanting their relationship to work out just because that was what the peripheral characters wanted.
The script by Walter Bullock and Ken Englund flags a little in the second half, but overall is quite good and still entertaining. This kind of musical comedy is not generally my cup of tea, but it made for an enjoyable afternoon. I rate SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
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