The Stork Club

So, this beautiful blonde saves a rich old man from drowning, see? But she doesn't realize he's rich, see? And she tries to get him a job at the Stork Club, where she works, see? And he decides to secretly make her rich for being so nice to him, see?

A totally predictable feel-good movie, worth watching if you like Betty Hutton and WWII vintage studio potboilers with fun stories and a couple of good musical numbers.

This is a solid vehicle for Betty Hutton that gives her plenty of opportunities to use her singing ability as well as her upbeat, energetic acting style. It's far from flawless, but it gets a big boost from Barry Fitzgerald, and the sharp contrast between the two stars and their characters also lends some substance to the enjoyable but rather fluffy plot.

Hutton and Fitzgerald are certainly an intriguing pairing, with seemingly nothing in common. The story setup has Fitzgerald as a cranky, friendless millionaire whom Hutton's character rescues from drowning. The millionaire's determination to help the good-hearted hat check girl gets tangled up with her own misunderstandings and difficulties, creating an implausible but entertaining story. The setting in the popular Stork Club provides a suitable backdrop to the plot.

Hutton just has to be natural in the role, and she fits into the part well. Fitzgerald played this kind of role as well as any other character actor, past or present, and his style usually makes even the blandest lines of dialogue worth listening to. The cast also includes Robert Benchley, who adds his dry humor in the role of the millionaire's lawyer. Benchley is always amusing, and he gets some fine moments even though he is not on-screen all that often. The stolid Don Defore is well cast as Hutton's earnest but unimaginative boyfriend, and he serves as a good straight man for the others.

This probably would have been improved with a tighter script and a crisper pace. Its deliberately improbable story is fun to watch, but it's the kind of story that works best when the dialogue and action both move along briskly. With some of the slow stretches removed or shortened, this might be quite a good movie. But even as it stands, it's enjoyable enough as very light entertainment.

The first forty minutes of the movie is delightful with Barry Fitzgerald playing a millionaire in disguise who turns hatcheck girl Betty Hutton's life upside down. The last ten minutes are also fine with a cute and satisfying ending. Its the forty-five minutes in-between that gets bogged down. The biggest problem is the subplot with Don Defore. Defore plays an ex-marine returned from the war and the leader of an orchestra looking for a job. He is passionless and dull in both roles. He rejects long time girl friend Judy (Hutton) because he finds her in a wealthy apartment wearing rich clothes and assumes (incorrectly) that she got the goodies by whoring around. This might have made him noble in 1945, but now he seems like a "holier than thou" male chauvinist. One feels like telling the distraught Judy that she was lucky to get rid of the creep. Unfortunately, she has to feel guilty for having had good fortune without the help of her "man". She spends the rest of the movie trying to win him back.

The other problem is that Betty sings just four musical numbers and only two ("Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" and "Square in a Social Circle") are in her inimitable jitterbug-swing style. These two numbers are the highlights in the film. Andy Russell, a rather lifeless Bing Crosby/Frank Sinatra type crooner is given three numbers, including a duet with Hutton, which just slows the film down.

In sum, the delightful performance of Barry Fitzgerald and the comical energy and singing talent of Betty Hutton start the movie in a glowing fashion and eventually get us over the finish line, but the middle part is dated and a bit wearisome.

I think the movie is worth seeing for two scenes - Hutton's dynamic delivery of "Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief" and her jarring scene where she welcomes her soldier boyfriend back from the war, saying "Move, Danny, Move, Do Something," I think at that moment she captured some of the extraordinary happiness that people felt about the war ending at that time.

I cannot believe how mean-spirited so many of the comments are on this delightful piece of froth. It is a Rom-Com, a fun way for a war-weary people to loosen up and forget about their troubles. Betty Hutton does yell. And how. Her sense of rhythm, quick gestures and dance moves are extremely well-honed, and she nails these songs with a precision and joie-de-vivre that is a lesson to anyone in show business. The story is implausible. Good! That's what makes it so fun and such good escapist value. Look at Rom-Coms today and they're not that much more plausible... The set design is fabulous, the gowns are gorgeous, the girls vivacious, and the band excellent. The songs aren't amongst the forty best tunes of the century, but they're memorable enough that I'm humming one of them right now. Can't say fairer than that.

After the days of Prohibition where Sherman Billingsley made his money, he founded The Stork Club which was in New York what the Cocoanut Grove was in Los Angeles, where the elite meet to eat as Duffy's Tavern used to advertise. It was only natural that sooner or later one of the studios would make a film centered on the famous night spot and Paramount was the one that finally did it.

The nightclub serves as a backdrop for the story of one of the hatcheck girls in this case Betty Hutton. When she sees Barry Fitzgerald falling in a lake and starting to drown, Betty remembers her Girl Scout training and jumps in and saves him. Barry doesn't tell her, but he's a multimillionaire who then becomes her secret benefactor, much like Magwitch was to Pip in Great Expectations. Of course it all turns out a lot happier in the end for this cast.

Barry's presence leads returning serviceman boyfriend Don DeFore to suspect the worst that Betty's found herself a rich sugar daddy. It doesn't sit too well with Mrs. Fitzgerald played by Mary Young.

Fitzgerald was in the publicity gathered by his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Going My Way. For the next few years Barry received more screen time and in this case, co-star billing with Betty Hutton.

As for Betty she and the cast get songs from a variety of sources. The best known number is the famous Hoagy Carmichael-Paul Francis Webster song, Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief which Hutton sings with her usual gusto. Betty's fine, but the really primo version of this song was done by it's composer who was a pretty fair entertainer as well.

Owner Sherman Billingsley was played by actor/radio announcer Bill Goodwin. In real life Billingsley was hardly as genial a person as Goodwin plays him.

Still the film is a must for Betty Hutton fans and for those who want to celebrate the past era of gaudy, yet tasteful nightspots.