Call Me Mister (1951) Online

LLoyd Bacon, the director of "Call me Mister", had an excellent track record as the man that gave us "42 Street", "Gold Diggers of 1936", "The Frisco Kid", and "Brother Orchid", among others. The film is based in a musical review with music by Harold Rome and Arnold Auerbach.

The plot is a vehicle to show Betty Grable in a musical about a USO performer in post war Japan. The story is just a pretext to present Ms. Grable as an entertainer who wants to share joy among the troops still awaiting repatriation. Ms. Grable had such an effervescence about herself, it's easy to fall under her spell even in such a silly comedy as this one.

Dan Dailey plays the man in Ms. Grable's life. He was an excellent singer and dancer who always projected a masculine presence in anything he did. Both Ms. Grable and Mr. Dailey make a winning combination in the movie.

We get to see other faces that went to make names for themselves. Dale Robertson, Danny Thomas, Richard Boone, Jeffrey Hunter, Frank Fontaine, Jerry Paris and Bobby Short, among others.

The musical numbers were staged by Busby Berkley, a man who always had an edge in everything he did. The last production number stands out as the four principals, Ms. Grable, Mr. Dailey, Ms. Venata and Mr. Thomas take to the stage.

That was entertainment!

This was just about the last of the "putting on a show" musicals and even in 1951 it probably had rather an old fashioned look about it. It's nothing special, the music and sets are rather uninspired and the humor is dated but Betty Grable and Dan Dailey make a pleasant couple. Apparently they liked working together and it comes across in their dance numbers.

Highlights are Grable and Dailey's love duet and Bobby Short in the "Going Home Train" number.

Nice, nostalgic way to spend 90 minutes and the Grable legs have lost none of their lustre.

There was not much you could do with Call Me Mister after 20th Century Fox bought the rights. Unless of course you wanted to do a review like Ziegfeld Follies. So the title is retained and a few songs and a story is written. Of course when you have Betty Grable doing her fourth and last film with Dan Dailey that usually sold any film that Fox put out.

Harold Rome wrote the score for the Broadway revue Call Me Mister. The theme was about the end of World War II and the return to civilian life for the troops. The songs and sketches reflected that. The very topicality of the show is the reason it's not revived today. The plot here concerns the end of the war. Betty Grable is a WAC and her estranged husband are both in occupied Japan. They were a double act in vaudeville, she's looking to put on a GI show. He's looking to get the title of civilian again.

But Dailey who arrives at base a little late finds his ship has sailed for the USA and discharge. So he fakes some orders and gets himself assigned to Grable's show. Where he has to deal with Captain Dale Robertson to win back his wife.

Let's say it helps that Dailey sings and dances in his quest. And through some typical army red tape his potential jackpot disappears.

Danny Thomas is in the cast also and he gets one of the Rome retained songs Military Life. Bobby Short also is lead singer with Going Home Train also retained from the original.

I can't understand myself why the biggest hit of the show South America Take It Away didn't make the film. It sold a lot of records for Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. As the film itself was about putting on a show it could have been worked in easily enough. It's heard in passing briefly.

One song I always liked was The Shiny New Face On The Dime in tribute to Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1946 with FDR's death still fresh it was a poignant show stopper. I guess that Darryl Zanuck felt it wouldn't have the same impact in 1951. A pity, it's a great song.

In small roles at the start of their careers are Richard Boone and Jeffrey Hunter both Fox contract players. Benay Venuta is Grable's girl sidekick and she and Thomas pair off well.

For fans of any of the cast members in this still amusing and entertaining musical.

Typical song and dance routine with an estranged Dan Dailey and Bette Grable in post-World War 11 occupied Japan. When he finds her there, he jumps his going home ship and pursues her to Osaka, where she is putting on a musical revue.

The singing and dancing are great. The tunes Love is Back in Business, Going Home and Japanese Women Love Men too much are marvelously staged. Along the way, Dailey gets competition for Grable from PFC Danny Thomas, with those bulging eyes and great routine timing, and Dale Robertson,a Commanding Officer who basically has little to do.

The film is basically very short on plot but long on dancing, singing and just enjoying yourself.

True to form 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the Revue written by Harold Rome, brought in three other songwriting teams and ditched half of Rome's score including the one number - South America, Take It Away - that had made a noise largely via a record by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. What remains is a somewhat predictable plot that fits where it touches and involves Dan Dailey trying to win back estranged wife Betty Grable in the immediate post-war climate. Grable is touring a show pitched at GIs awaiting transport home and Dailey, her ex-partner, wangles a co-starring part despite being AWOL. Dale Robertson provides conflict in the love-interest department and pfc Danny Thomas keeps angling for a break. It's something you see once and forget as you leave the movie theatre.

The 1946 Broadway revue "Call Me Mister" was a popular look at the life of soldiers, their gals, and the environment that occurred after World War II came to an end, sort of a follow-up to Irving Berlin's "This is the Army". Unfortunately, 99% of that show seems to be gone for this really boring musical which adds a plot of an estranged couple (Dan Dailey and Betty Grable) who are reunited in Tokyo, her attempts to put on a soldier show for the people waiting for orders to return home, and all of the trouble he causes her along the way. Dailey's character is very unlikable, and even with all the misunderstandings concerning his AWOL status, he never gains sympathy.

Being a popular team, Grable and Dailey are destined to get together no matter how many times they have a misunderstanding, he allegedly stands her up, how every many fights they have, or the presence of the handsome officer (Dale Robertson) who takes immediate interest in Grable. He is much more of a gentleman than Dailey's selfish hoofer, and got my support here more than Dailey did, even after Grable and Dailey's other teamings, most memorably "Mother Wore Tights".

Every show of the 40's and 50's needs a comic buffoon, and here it is Danny Thomas, a P.F.C. assigned to the important duty of pots and pans. He even has a dance number with them, and is moderately funny. His introduction at the beginning of the soldier show is hysterical in places and corny in others. Thomas's love interest (Benay Venuta) is wasted as Grable's sidekick.

Only two numbers from the original revue make it into the movie-the title song (heard only briefly) and a touching song performed by black sailors excited to be on the Going' Home Train. Unfortunately, Grable doesn't get to perform the numbers which stopped the show on Broadway for its original leading lady (Betty Garrett, a piece of irony considering the same initials and the fact that both Betty's got their big break in supporting roles in Cole Porter musicals starring Ethel Merman!), most notably "South America, Take It Away!".

What is left for Ms. Grable is her Oriental make-over for "Japanese Girl Like American Boy Much too Much too Much", which in retrospect is a bit tacky. She scores better with "I'm Gonna Love That Guy Like He's Never Been Loved Before". Her stage duet with Dailey doesn't resemble anything you'd see on stage, being seemingly shot outside, and the final number (choreographed by Busby Berkley) has way too many dancers in one spot that deflect attention away from the stars, even if it utilizes some of his signature overhead shots.

There's some nice moments, however, especially the irony of Grable and Venuta being passed down from officer to officer in discussion of their show until they finally hit gold with Robertson. The film, however, never reaches the mark it strives for, striking only mud with a thud.