Caçadora de Marido

This is clearly a cast-off Crosby-Hope script with a couple of additional songs for Hutton and Martin. Panama and Frank do their regular "Road" story and the color is nice. All it needs is a patty-cake routine.

I like all the actors who appear in "Happy Go Lucky," but not much in this film. This movie bounces all over the place, the plot is a jumble of small plots, and the screenplay is lousy. Even the musical numbers don't go over well. Betty Hutton as Bubbles Hennessy is way overboard, especially in her singing. She could make some ugly faces with her facial contortions in songs. I think it was poor directing that let stuff like that get through. I'll bet she shuddered if she saw the film and how she appeared in her songs.

Mary Martin as Marjory, Dick Powell as Pete and Rudy Vallee as Alfred don't seem to have any energy. In Alfred's case, it may be intentional; but with few others showing any zip for their roles, this film soon becomes a ho-hum. Eddie Bracken is OK, and I like to see Eric Blore in his supporting roles. But they don't have enough to lift this film above poor. What little humor there is can't save the film either.

It appears to be a lavish production from the opening scene with many people in costume and the boat landing setting. But it soon turns out to be a very poor film. This was a Paramount picture, and I wonder if this wasn't one of its "B" level films. I had a hard time staying with it. It just isn't that interesting or entertaining.

To get rich, Marjory Stuart, a gold digger, goes to Trinidad and poses as a debutant. The beach boy, Pete, immediately reveals it, but offers to help catch his enemy, Alfred Monroe, on a sailboat. Turns out Marjory's buddy, Bubbles, is Pete's old flame, Wally's buddy. Every well-planned effort to land Monroe ends in slapping simplicity; then Wally's voodoo priestess gives her a love potion that works ...

This mediocre film mostly wastes the comic talents of the cast. It's instructive to compare the terrific comic performances of Bracken, Vallee, and Hutton in Preston Stuges films, and their so-so or worse performances here -- few laughs, no wit. Vallee especially is a completely charmless oaf in this film, while he is very funny and charming in a very similar role in The Palm Beach Story. Eric Blore is completely wasted, given almost nothing to do and is photographed in partial shadow in a couple of shots.

There are a couple of good songs, Murder She Says, a Hutton classic with lyrics by Frank Loesser, and Let's Get Lost, a pleasant ballad that has had a modest life beyond this film.

Mary Martin does a good job with her songs, she's energetic and sings as well as she did in her later Broadway shows. But she's a bit weak on charisma and star quality. Dick Powell is competent, but seems bored. It's no wonder that both stars were dropped by Paramount or visa versa soon after this movie. Of course that worked out great, as Martin and Powell did their best work in the years that followed.

Interesting that one of the reviewers here mentioned this movie might have been orignially written as a Crosby-Hope Road picture. I can really understand that that might have been the case.

Dick Powell is a completely relaxed Island Scavenger and his sidekick, Eddie Bracken, has a girl friend, Betty Hutton, who is fanatically crazy about him. Betty uses an energetic approach which would wear out three sidekicks. Dick's co-star, Mary Martin, flashes a great pair of legs in the show's stopper, "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay". I was only thirteen when I saw this show and I think she made a leg-man of me. Miss Martin has set out for the sole purpose of catching herself a millionaire, Rudy Vallee. Rudy does the rich shtick very well, through his nose, and is a fore-runner of Mister Howell of Gilligan's Island fame. The site is also somewhat familiar.

Mary Martin and Dick Powell make a healthy, handsome couple who are a pleasure to watch, giving an effortless performance. The movie was aptly named and was a thoroughly satisfactory piece of entertainment. But then, again, she was a fine looking lady in those days and maybe it was just adolescence. By the way, the picture is in really good color.