Springtime in the Rockies (1942)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Irving Cummings

Writers:

Walter Bullock (writer)
Ken Englund (writer)

Release Date:

6 November 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Musical

Tagline:

The Time and Place for Romance . . Melody . . and Fun !

Plot:

Broadway partners Vicky Lane and Dan Christy have a tiff over Christy's womanizing. Jealous Vicky takes up with her old flame and former dance partner...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Cast

Betty Grable	...	Vicky Lane
Carmen Miranda	...	Rosita Murphy
John Payne	...	Dan Christy
Cesar Romero	...	Victor Prince
Charlotte Greenwood	...	Phoebe Gray
Edward Everett Horton	...	McTavish
Harry James	...	Himself
Harry James and His Music Makers	...	Themselves
Bando da Lua	...	Rosita's Six Brothers / Orchestra
Six Hits and a Miss	...	Themselves - Six Hits and a Miss, Vocal Group

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In Helen Forrest's 1982 autobiography, "I Had the Craziest Dream" (co-written with Bill Liddy), the vocalist with Harry James and His Orchestra recalled being baffled as to why costume designer Earl Luick would dress her in Native American garb for her walking-while-singing entrance midway through the smash ballad, "I Had the Craziest Dream" (music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon).

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-up" (1995)

Soundtrack:

Ciribiribin

I Had The Craziest Dream

I wouldn't argue with anyone who said that Springtime in the Rockies might just be Betty Grable's best film. It certainly has a lot going for it.

The plot's a skimpy one as these types of films are. Betty's in love with her act partner John Payne who says he reciprocates, but can't get pinned down for marriage. After a performance in their show, she and Payne get into one fight too many and she takes off for an engagement with her former partner Cesar Romero in a resort on the shore of Lake Louise in those beautiful Canadian Rockies.

No one got near Lake Louise from 20th Century Fox. A few establishing shots of the lake with the mountains behind are all you see. Of course John Payne chases after her with some mixed motives. He wants to marry her, but he also wants her for a new show. He takes his own scenic route to Lake Louise, flying under his own power as well as by plane and finds when he both arrives and sobers up he's hired himself a secretary in Carmen Miranda and a valet in Edward Everett Horton.

Betty gets to make her first appearance on screen with her new husband, Harry James and his orchestra. Just prior and during World War II was the era of the big bands and all the studios tried to sign them up and shoe horn them into films. It was an easy fit in this case for Harry James.

Especially with a score from Harry Warren and Mack Gordon who provided James with one of his biggest hits. I Had The Craziest Dream. Played by the band with inimitable James trumpet and sung beautifully by Helen Forrest this was one of the biggest song hits of the World War II years. It still plays beautifully today.

Carmen Miranda does a couple of numbers in her unique style, you haven't lived until you've heard her do Chattanooga Choo Choo in Portugese. And in this wonderful cast in a small role is Jackie Gleason as Payne's agent. It's sad that in this wonderful cast, Gleason had a most nondescript part that shows absolutely nothing of his comic abilities.

There's nothing deep about Springtime in the Rockies, it's just fabulous entertainment with a cast you could never assemble like this today.