The Unsinkable Molly Brown

I was a young teenager when I first saw THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN. I

never put Debbie Reynolds in the same class as her bigger contemporaries-- Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, etc. Reynolds always managed

to charm me, even in tough roles like THE RAT RACE. She's wonderful in

SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, but that's more supporting. In the 50s, she appeared in lots of fluffy movies such as TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR and as the decade

ended, she was a popular leading lady entering a decade that wouldn't be kind to the well-established studio stars. Molly Brown was a role to show that she could do it all--act, sing, dance, and demonstrate her remarkable energy. I fell in love the movie from the first frame and it's been one of my very favorites ever since. I own the DVD (after replacing my VHS edition). The choreography by

Peter Gennaro won't set any new standards, but it's athletic and exciting,

nowhere better than in the big party scene where Molly is showing off the

European royalty to Denver society. You can't help but get caught up in the

sheer joyousness of what's happening on screen.

Harve Presnell is a handsome presence as Molly's husband, Johnny Brown.

His handsome baritone is a pleasure to hear. The rest of the cast is excellent, and would be one of the last and one of the most lavish of MGM's big studio

musicals.

I've seen the film innumerable times. If you don't like musicals, MOLLY BROWN won't change your mind. But if you do, this lively story of a dirt-poor country girl who marries a miner and gets filthy rich and becomes famous for her heroics

helping survivors of the TITANIC, is pure delight. Gene Kelly and Donald

O'Connor were the center of attention in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. Debbie

deserved one film to be remembered for herself and this is it.

I had the pleasure of accompanying my great aunt and one of her contemporaries to the opening of this movie in Denver in 1964. Because they had known the old girl herself (the real Mrs. Margaret Brown, that is) back in the early years of the century, both in Leadville and Denver, they were keen on seeing what Hollywood and Debbie had done with the story.

I remember vividly watching their reactions turn from initial pleasure with the opening number to puzzlement when Debbie started to chew the scenery and behave like, well, Debbie Reynolds. This was followed by Ed Begley and the boys in the saloon hooting it up, and the two old ladies next to me started to frown a bit and whisper something to the effect that "it was not like that at all." They were becoming quite restless until the Denver bits began, but they seemed to accept the remainder of the story with a good deal of resignation that it was all just good fun and nonsense, and wasn't that what going to the movies was all about?

Afterward, as we strolled over to the Brown Palace for dinner, they regaled me with a complete history of the real Mrs. Brown and the many mutual friends they had enjoyed meeting at that same venue from roughly 1895 to 1915 when they were themselves just being presented into Denver society. I learned, among other things, that Mrs. Brown was considered an eccentric but generally well-liked and articulate woman who, despite never really being accepted at the toniest levels, became a legend in her own time after the Titanic episode. That part of the story was not only true, but actually a larger-than-life experience, the details of which they agreed should have been featured more profoundly in the film version.

The next time I drove down Wadsworth Blvd. and saw Mrs. Brown's "Summer House," a rather grand Victorian edifice like the better known one in the center of Denver, I tried to picture Debbie Reynolds in that setting and could not quite fit the two together. That in spite of the fact that Debbie herself grew up in El Paso at the southern end of the same Rocky Mountains that rise northward through Colorado.

I don't know what it was, but I couldn't really get into this movie, be affected by it or enjoy it very much. Well, yeah, the society party scenes were a hoot, the scenery was pretty, the chereography of the "Friend" song was good, but that was about it. The rest was just... there, not horrible, but definitly not above average, either.

Debbie Reynolds should have been very well suited to the role of Molly Brown, but for all her teeth-gritting, yelling, and wailing, she just doesn't rise to the occasion. Why this is often considered her best role, and why she was nominated for an Oscar for it, I really couldn't tell you. Harve Presnell has a soaring voice, but again, just is average. The Merideth Willson score is rather pedestrian. (Apparently several songs were cut from the Broadway show; maybe they were better.) But really, this guy did The Music Man? And the Titanic sinking is done and dispensed with in maybe two minutes, if that. Come on! The one reason this musical was made was because of Mrs. Brown's legendary courage after that sinking. Not much evidence of that here. Oh, and yes, the musical is pretty accurate in terms of the many legends surrouding Margaret Brown, but not so faithful to the real person. (Many minute things: she was never rescued from a flood as a baby, she was actually born and raised in Hannibal, Missouri, her husband was always called J.J., never Johnny, they never really did reconcile, she actually had two children with him that were not mentioned, she never really was accepted by the Sacred Thirty-Six, her many contributions to the juvenile and suffrage movements were ignored as always, etc. and so forth. She was never even called Molly, always Margaret.) You get the point...

It simply wasn't anything special.

I used to watch this movie when I was little, and I just recently rediscovered it. It's amazing how much better movies can get once you grow up. Debbie Reynolds portrays Molly Brown wonderfully. Her singing and dancing alone make this movie worth watching. My favorite scene is the "He's my friend, and he'll stay my friend...." scene. If you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely watch it. It's so great!

One of my favorite shows with plenty of singin' and dancin' all the way from the simple countryside, to the big city, and over to the even bigger city life of Europe. Debbie plays a tomboy country girl who can't wait to leave the outback and live the high life in Denver. On the way to this better life she crosses paths with a prospector who changes her life and not always for her betterment as far as she is concerned. She finds that her dreams of wealth and a place in high society are not necessarily what will make her happy in the real world. This is a very delightful film with lots of beautiful scenery, props, and great performances by the entire cast.