Dream Girl

This was an interesting Betty Hutton vehicle since she's not her usual boisterous self here. In fact, while she does a lot of talking, she also does a lot of dreaming as shown in some sequences which have a different tone than the more reality-based ones. While there are some funny lines, I don't find myself guffawing like I usually do when watching other Hutton movies. This plays more like those weepies starring Bette Davis or some of the other popular female drama stars of the time doing movies. Ms. Hutton does a number as a drunk nightclub performer in one dream sequence and possibly lip-syncs as an opera diva in another. In summary, Dream Girl is one of the more fascinating of the Betty Hutton movies.

This story is boring. Georgina (Betty Hutton) keeps day-dreaming. The only cast members that are any good are Virginia Field who plays Hutton's sister and Walter Abel who plays her father. Abel delivers his lines comically and is at the opposite end of the acting spectrum to Hutton who drifts through the film in an annoying manner. Her speech pattern is very whiny and irritating. She has a couple of funny moments but it's just not good enough considering she is on screen for so long. There is an interesting section with a singing teacher that provides some top tips for those of you who want to learn to sing. I remembered a few of them from my days as a choir boy! Unfortunately, I can't say anything better than this film is dull.

Betty Hutton is an unusual actress of the 1940s and 50s. Unlike a typical actress, her roles were usually louder, brasher and more energetic than the rest. In general, I don't like these performances and prefer a bit more subtlety...however, I must admit that she is quite good in "Dream Girl" because she is more restrained and likable.

The story begins with Georgina (Hutton) going to her sister's wedding. However, throughout the story you can hear Georgina's thoughts...and you soon learn that she wishes she was marrying her soon to be brother-in-law! At this wedding is an unusual and somewhat annoying guest...a reporter named Clark Redfield (Macdonald Carey). Upset at NOT being the bride, Georgina seems to take it out on Clark...and he dishes it back just as quickly. Can these two mismatched folks manage to somehow fall in love by the end of the picture?!

While I would not want many more films in the style of "Dream Girl", it is a nice change of pace and is a nice time-passer. A bit predictable but also clever and sweet at times.

By the way, I know Hutton could sing. But does anyone know if this was actually her singing the aria from "Madame Butterfly" near the end of the film? If it was, she was incredible!

The author of Street Scene Elmer Rice wrote Dream Girl and it ran for 348 performances on Broadway during the 1945-46 season. On stage the stars were Betty Field and Wendell Corey. It must have had something a bit more going for it than this film version.

It has Betty Hutton and maybe had Preston Sturges still been with Paramount he might have done something more. Dream Girl seems like a hybrid workm part Walter Mitty, part Strange Interlude and a bit of Lady In The Dark thrown in for good measure,

Betty's part is that of a dreamy girl who is constantly giving way to imagining fantasies, especially about the men in her life and more not those. She's got a thing for Patric Knowles who is married to her sister Virginia Field, but there's a lot less to Knowles than meets the eye.

The one to set here on a path of reality is Macdonald Carey a cynical newspaperman (is there another kind in movies). But he has his work cut out for him.

Dream Girl is passably good and it could have doe more for Hutton's career. But I don't think she was properly directed.

A Betty Hutton fan for virtually her entire career, I haven't seen this since it was first issued & wonder why it's been neglected. Granted, she didn't sing much (if at all), but it's an interesting vehicle for her comic talents. She plays a female Walter Mitty who imagines herself in numerous extreme situations. I can remember only Sadie Thompson in a seedy South Sea saloon, & Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, lip-synching someone else's rendition of "Un Bel Di."

Hutton's best work, both musically & dramatically, has also been neglected by VHS & DVD. Somebody Loves Me, based on the lives of vaudevillians Blossom Seeley & her husband, played by Ralph Meeker. Billie Byrd also had a choice wise-cracking role.