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Calamity Jane
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Calamity Jane (1953) More at IMDbPro »

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Calamity Jane (1953) -- The story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok.

Overview

User Rating:
6.9/10   2,388 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
David Butler
Writer:
James O'Hanlon (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Calamity Jane on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
4 November 1953 (USA) more
Tagline:
Brand-new song hits by the stage load! more
Plot:
The story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Soap Actor Carey Dies
 (From WENN. 10 February 2009, 4:00 AM, PST)

Musical Star Howard Keel Dies at 85
 (From WENN. 8 November 2004)

User Comments:
The best comedy western musical romance this side of Chicagee! more

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Additional Details

Runtime:
101 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Appearing on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962) in the 1970s, Doris Day recalled seeing early dailies from this film, in which she was stomped about the set in buckskins and leather, speaking in a high, girlishly feminine voice. She immediately brought her line readings down several registers, so she'd sound as tough as she looked. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Calamity is packing Katy's clothes into suitcases after the ball, it is clear that Katy brought more clothes with her than would have fitted into those suitcases more
Quotes:
Calamity Jane: [singing] Hi Joe / say where'd you get them fancy clothes? / I know / off some fella's laundry line. / Hi Bow / aren't you the prairie rose / Smell like a watermelon vine. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Before Stonewall (1984) more
Soundtrack:
HIVE FULL OF HONEY more

FAQ

Chapter Headings, an unofficial version:
more
15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful:-
The best comedy western musical romance this side of Chicagee!, 15 February 2005
10/10
Author: Brandt Sponseller from New York City

Calamity Jane (Doris Day) is the tom-cowboy to end all tom-cowboys, known for her feisty attitude and tallish tales of fighting Indians. When saloon/theater owner Henry Miller (Paul Harvey) is faced with angry Deadwood residents because he tries to pass off a man in drag as the attractive New York actress he promised (he made the mistake based on the actor's name), "Calam" promises to go to "Chicagee" and bring back an actress all of the men are going gaga for because of her picture on cigarette cards.

Director David Butler's Calamity Jane delivers on many ends--it's a musical featuring catchy songs, many sung by one of the greatest songstresses of her era, Doris Day, and a few incredibly choreographed; it's a frequently hilarious comedy; it's suspenseful in quite a few scenes (usually through realistic dramatic tension); it's a beautifully shot western with fantastic sets; and in the end, it's a grand romance.

Day carries the film with her unusual, enjoyable, amusingly butch character. She plays Calamity Jane with boundless energy and physical aplomb--you wouldn't catch many modern film performers doing some of the stunts that Day does here. Butler usually keeps the camera close enough to Day that you can see it's her--she hasn't been supplanted with a stuntperson, and during one bit of choreography, Butler has Day jumping and flipping over bars and being taken up to a second story balcony and set back down with lots of uninterrupted takes. Most modern directors would break up the choreography into a series of relatively easy steps, creating physics defying agility through clever cutting. Day has to perform the steps as if she were doing the number on a Broadway stage.

Calamity and most of the rest of Deadwood, South Dakota are funny because of their backwoods naivety. That can be a difficult thing to sell to viewers, but when Francis Fryer (Dick Wesson) almost gets away with his necessary cross-dressing shtick, it's believable. Calamity's trip to Chicago has some particularly hilarious moments. The humor also works as well as it does because the two men who are the later romantic interests, Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) and Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin (Philip Carey), are the primary ones who seem to have a more objective perspective on the town's gullibility and Calamity's tall tales (although there are hints that their skepticism is not so uncommon).

Many viewers are most attracted to the film because of its evolution into a romance in the last act. Day's transformation in this section is handled expertly--if you watch her closely, she never quite loses her Calamity tomboyishness, but she also makes more than just a physical transformation. But it's not just Day who is excellent--all of the performances in the film are good.

For me, Calamity Jane is one of the most successful combinations of comedy and a still serious western. It's everything that Cat Ballou (1965) should have been, but mostly fell flat with. Don't miss it if you're a fan of either musicals or good-natured westerns.

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Message Boards

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Calamity Says the N Word? TheNooz
The real story of calamity Jane - found it on a website rAsPbErRy_LaCe
Doris' singing dubbed? billellis
To git Danny....!!!! taraandrich
Secret Love martin.cooper3
o/t BUT WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED.... Waaaaaaaah
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