The Dolly Sisters (1945)

Director:

Irving Cummings

Writers:

John Larkin (writer)
Marian Spitzer (writer)

Release Date:

7 October 1946 (Sweden)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Musical | Romance

Plot:

Two sisters from Hungary become famous entertainers in the early 1900s. Fictionalized biography with lots of songs.

Plot Keywords:

Uncle | Vaudeville | Entertainer | New York | Soldier

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Betty Grable	...	Yansci 'Jenny' Dolly
John Payne	...	Harry Fox
June Haver	...	Roszika 'Rosie' Dolly
S.Z. Sakall	...	Uncle Latsie Dolly
Reginald Gardiner	...	Tony, Duke of Breck
Frank Latimore	...	Irving Netcher
Gene Sheldon	...	Professor Winnup, seal trainer
Sig Ruman	...	Ignatz Tsimmis
Trudy Marshall	...	Lenora Baldwin

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

20th Century Fox planned to team Betty Grable with Rita Hayworth for a follow-up film about another legendary vaudeville sister act, the Duncan Sisters. But plans for the film were soon abandoned after Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn refused to loan Hayworth (riding high off her success in Gilda (1946)) out to her former studio and when producer George Jessel ran into legal trouble with the real life Duncan Sisters.

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

The Darktown Strutters' Ball

Betty Grable & June Haver in a Joyous Fox musical

"The Dolly Sisters" is Betty Grable and June Haver's most joyously tuneful musical, a gaudy, loud, exquisitely Technicolored extravaganza of songs, dancing, and romance, the kind of vacuous yet tasteful fluff 20th Century Fox did well with great success. The studio head, Darryl Zanuck intended as a vehicle for Alice Faye & Betty Grable, but he couldn't convince Faye to get out of retirement, so producer George Jessel casted June Haver, and the movie become one of the top grossing pictures of the 1940s.

Grable and Haver (fantastic throughout) are the Hungarian born blonde sisters, Jenny & Rosie that took Broadway by storm. Their story begins with their arrival in New York in 1904, their subsequent rise from vaudeville acts to Broadway & Folies Bergere of Paris. They meet an aspiring composer Harry (John Payne) who arranges a meeting with Oscar Hammerstein to appear his Music Hall. Betty falls in love with Harry while June settles for a far less troubled romance with Frank Latimore. Betty is particularly very revealing, especially when she gets the nervous breakdown. Good performances also by S.Z. Sakall and Reginald Gardiner.

Lots of rollicking, uproarious songs/numbers, including the Oscar-winning "I Can't Begin to Tell You", the haunting "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", plus some kitschy stuff like "Powder, Lipstick and Rouge", "Give Me The Moonlight, Give Me The Girl".

"Dolly Sisters" can be best appreciated if you see it back to back with June Haver's 1946's musical, "Three Little Girls in Blue", a joyous merriment in need of resurrection.