There is a reason this was the LAST movie Betty Hutton ever made. All of the thing you like about "Betty Hutton Movies" are simply missing in this film. It was a resounding failure with her fans of the day.
Betty Hutton is one of my all time favorite actresses. She is one of the most adept comics of the golden Age of Movies. She can also sell a song like no body's business. There are some things she just cannot do-- unfortunately ALL of those things are present, in large quantities, in the movie.
This was the first movie Hutton made in four years. She looks much older than her actual age - which is no doubt why she has to speak the same trite line of dialogue, "I am only 33 years old", in FOUR separate scenes. Her energy level is very very low. As is her mood no matter what scene she is filming.
I love Betty Hutton, but there was clearly something wrong with her at this point in her life. She is totally missing the "spark" which her fans loved in her earlier movies. The only time the "Classic Hutton" was seen is when she sings a song at her High School Reunion.... and even this is obviously prerecorded and lipsynched.
As a "generic movie from the mid 1950s" this movie is a real stinkeroo. The plot is so stale you expect to see mold growing on it. There is not one new idea in the entire screenplay, it appears to be recycled from scenes from really bad TV dramas of the period.
There are reasons, however, to sit through this film. It was also Laura La Plant's last film. She was one of the most beautiful women of the silent era. She has a lackluster part as Hutton's Mother. La Plant is still beautiful in her early 50s. The Laura LaMont character from "singing in the Rain" is based on Laura La Plant. Interestingly, Jean Hagen, the actress who played the ditzy blond in the earlier movie, plays Hutton's sidekick in this movie.
The supporting cast also features some of the most adept scene stealers from the age of classic television. Irene Ryan (Beverly Hillbillies),Richard Decon (Dick Van Dyke Show), Herbert Anderson (the Father on"Dennis the Menace") all have small parts.
This movie is worth sitting through - as long as you understand ahead of time that it is not a "Betty Hutton Movie"
