Look for the Silver Lining

If you love old fashioned musicals as I do, in glorious technicolor, I think you will enjoy this biopic of the extremely popular Broadway star of the early twentieth century, Marilyn Miller, here well played by June Haver. June Haver herself gave up movies shortly after this film, became a nun for a short while and then married Fred MacMurray and retired from movies. She has a similar build, having checked out Marilyn Miller on YouTube as I have, and is well cast, unlike so many movie castings. Perhaps less pretty than the real woman, June gives an effervescent performance throughout and my only gripe is that she didn't really have the charisma perhaps that Marilyn Miller clearly must have had to have been so popular. However, there are two charismatic performances, the leading actor and wonderful dancer, Ray Bolger, who played the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and the future heartthrob singer and actor Gordon MacRae, he of Oklahoma! and Carousel fame. Ray Bolger plays Jack O'Donahue a star dancer who befriends Marilyn, and Gordon MacRae plays her first husband, Frank Carter. Bolger is outstanding as usual, displaying his dancing gifts which make you long for more of his movies to be shown, although he never made that many. The same for Gordon MacRae, who never made enough musicals, who for me had the best baritone voice Hollywood ever had, and here he is under-used, but it was his first musical. Sadly, all of these great musical stars were dropped by the studios when TV and rock 'n'roll took over in the mid fifties. A criminal waste of talent. Luckily for these two guys they could adapt to TV and Broadway to continue their careers. Catch them here in a really good musical (although sanitised according to reports on Marilyn Miller) before the studio chop came. The score here by Jerome Kern and Buddy DeSylva is just beautiful, including of course the title song. Good supporting actors include Charlie Ruggles and Rosemary DeCamp as Marilyn's parents who include her in their act when she is fifteen. June Haver is a little unconvincing at this stage as she looks too old, but then she has to age about fifteen years over the movie. Marilyn Miller died in her mid thirties from a sinus operation but the movie is cut short before this so as not to bring it down at the end, a clever decision I thought.

When June Haver finally got the top musical role of her career, it was Ray Bolger who stole the show. A more accomplished musical actress might have made this musical more than a routine, pleasant backstage story that is actually an incomplete bio of the great Broadway star. The production numbers are fine, the supporting cast is excellent and the technicolor glows--but it's never more than a routine musical with June Haver appealing as the talented singer/dancer who became a Broadway favorite and Gordon MacRae in fine voice as the man she loves but ultimately loses to an untimely accident. Not great, but worth seeing for Ray Bolger's inimitable way with a dance step in some show-stopping routines. Nice supporting players include Rosemary DeCamp, Charles Ruggles and S.Z. ("Cuddles") Sakall.

Cherry10 could not have known Marylin Miller in the 60's. Marylin Miller died in April, 1936. She died after complications from sinus surgery. The movie only touches on this at the beginning when she became dizzy while dancing at the rehearsal. The movie takes some artistic license in presenting only "the sunny side of life" for Marylin, with the exception of the death of her first husband, Frank Carter. She actually went on to marry three more times. The movie succeeded in bringing an entertaining musical to the screen and did serve as a showcase for Ray Bolger. June Haver was able to keep up with him and did shine in her dance numbers.

Colorful but with only a cursory acquaintance with the actual facts of Marilyn Miller's life this is an enjoyable musical but worthless as biography.

June Haver is sunny and beautiful as the legendary star but misses giving any real sense of who she was. Charlie Ruggles and Rosemary DeCamp do what they can with thinly written roles as her parents and S. Z. Sakall does his usual charming sputtering and cheek slapping.

Gordon McRae, portraying perhaps the one character with any semblance to reality, Frank Carter, Miller's first husband sings wonderfully as always. The real standout is Ray Bolger who manages to inject some real feeling into his part and gets to showcase his talents well.

A very prettied up version of the facts this still is chock full of great songs well performed and on that basis a good show.

Underaged Marilyn Miller (June Haver) joins her idol Jack Donahue (Ray Bolger) on the vaudeville stage. He's already married and she ends up marrying her dance partner Frank Carter (Gordon MacRae).

This is a musical biopic. I don't know the characters and I have never heard of these songs. They are not my style of music, but I don't hear anything wrong with them. I'm no music major. It did get a music Oscar nomination. The dancing is ballet-like Broadway. In this case, it looks passable but I'm no dance major. As for the story, it is melodrama and rather limited drama. The character is underaged for most of the movie and June Haver is in her twenties. This seems like an average musical.