Copyright 18 June 1943 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York release at the Roxy: 16 June 1943. U.S. release: 18 June 1943. Australian release: 20 July 1944. Lengths: 8,837 feet, 98 minutes (Australia); 8,666 feet, 96 minutes (U.S.A.).
SYNOPSIS: Temporary tavern partners on Coney Island woo dumb blonde showgirl. Time: around 1910.
NOTES: Newman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, but dipped out to Ray Heindorf's This Is the Army.
COMMENT: The plot divides Coney Island into two neat sections. The first half is delightfully jolly. Newman really deserved his Oscar nomination, this first half is such an absolute wow, a nostalgic musical whizbang of zap evergreens, zestily orchestrated and zippily played.
Playing the lead in her first really big solo hit (Coney Island grossed a staggering $3½ million in its initial domestic release), Betty Grable is outstandingly convincing as an ultra-dumb showgirl. Certainly an unusual role (Hollywood usually prefers heroines to compliment their physical charms with at least a modicum of intelligence), Betty draws it with bouncy gusto.
Unfortunately, in the second half of the film, the character's circumstances change. True, she's as dumb as ever (which is a point in the script's favor), but instead of laughing at her stupidity as before, we are required to sympathize. The emphasis changes from ribaldry to sentiment. How stupidity can be sentimentalized beats me - it's a feat that taxed the powers of Bernard Shaw in Pygmalion - but Seaton has a crack at it anyway. As a result the plot falls apart. It's no longer believable. I mean no-one could be that dumb.
Dramatically, the character's self-centered naivety is so appalling, the film's romance is a mere charade. What a pity Seaton didn't stay with comedy!
Of course, the story is of secondary importance in a musical. The primary purpose of the device after all is to introduce more glamour into the film. This happens all right. But stunningly costumed and dazzlingly color-photographed as the production numbers are, they are much less entertaining than the rowdy, earthy, zesty simplicity of the vaudeville numbers they supplant. And they're even less interesting musically. Despite their elaborate staging, not one of the later songs is the least bit catchy.
How we long to get back to Coney Island! But no! Betty is uptown, wallowing in anemic glamour. If only she would throw off a few sparks of her old rowdy self (in which she seemed to be limning a boisterous Betty Hutton impersonation), but she obviously loves the bland, demure bit, inviting us to sentimentalize with her stupidity which she now plays for tears rather than laughs. It doesn't work.
Lang's blandly straightforward direction doesn't help. He too was obviously more interested in the strident vitality of the Coney scenes. When the action moves uptown, it is comparatively dull.
George Montgomery makes a personable hero, while the rest of the support cast led by the delightful Phil Silvers, is a joy. We wish that Andrew Tombes had played the "banker" with less straight a face, but Charles Winninger, Paul Hurst, Frank Orth, Alec Craig, Dewey Robinson and Harry Masters are divertingly preposterous.
Production values are magnificent, with superb photography, gaudy sets, opulent costumes - and that marvelous Fox sound. Perlberg remade the film (again with Grable in the lead) in 1950 as Wabash Avenue.
SYNOPSIS: Temporary tavern partners on Coney Island woo dumb blonde showgirl. Time: around 1910.
NOTES: Newman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, but dipped out to Ray Heindorf's This Is the Army.
COMMENT: The plot divides Coney Island into two neat sections. The first half is delightfully jolly. Newman really deserved his Oscar nomination, this first half is such an absolute wow, a nostalgic musical whizbang of zap evergreens, zestily orchestrated and zippily played.
Playing the lead in her first really big solo hit (Coney Island grossed a staggering $3½ million in its initial domestic release), Betty Grable is outstandingly convincing as an ultra-dumb showgirl. Certainly an unusual role (Hollywood usually prefers heroines to compliment their physical charms with at least a modicum of intelligence), Betty draws it with bouncy gusto.
Unfortunately, in the second half of the film, the character's circumstances change. True, she's as dumb as ever (which is a point in the script's favor), but instead of laughing at her stupidity as before, we are required to sympathize. The emphasis changes from ribaldry to sentiment. How stupidity can be sentimentalized beats me - it's a feat that taxed the powers of Bernard Shaw in Pygmalion - but Seaton has a crack at it anyway. As a result the plot falls apart. It's no longer believable. I mean no-one could be that dumb.
Dramatically, the character's self-centered naivety is so appalling, the film's romance is a mere charade. What a pity Seaton didn't stay with comedy!
Of course, the story is of secondary importance in a musical. The primary purpose of the device after all is to introduce more glamour into the film. This happens all right. But stunningly costumed and dazzlingly color-photographed as the production numbers are, they are much less entertaining than the rowdy, earthy, zesty simplicity of the vaudeville numbers they supplant. And they're even less interesting musically. Despite their elaborate staging, not one of the later songs is the least bit catchy.
How we long to get back to Coney Island! But no! Betty is uptown, wallowing in anemic glamour. If only she would throw off a few sparks of her old rowdy self (in which she seemed to be limning a boisterous Betty Hutton impersonation), but she obviously loves the bland, demure bit, inviting us to sentimentalize with her stupidity which she now plays for tears rather than laughs. It doesn't work.
Lang's blandly straightforward direction doesn't help. He too was obviously more interested in the strident vitality of the Coney scenes. When the action moves uptown, it is comparatively dull.
George Montgomery makes a personable hero, while the rest of the support cast led by the delightful Phil Silvers, is a joy. We wish that Andrew Tombes had played the "banker" with less straight a face, but Charles Winninger, Paul Hurst, Frank Orth, Alec Craig, Dewey Robinson and Harry Masters are divertingly preposterous.
Production values are magnificent, with superb photography, gaudy sets, opulent costumes - and that marvelous Fox sound. Perlberg remade the film (again with Grable in the lead) in 1950 as Wabash Avenue.