In montagna sarò tua

I wouldn't argue with anyone who said that Springtime in the Rockies might just be Betty Grable's best film. It certainly has a lot going for it.

The plot's a skimpy one as these types of films are. Betty's in love with her act partner John Payne who says he reciprocates, but can't get pinned down for marriage. After a performance in their show, she and Payne get into one fight too many and she takes off for an engagement with her former partner Cesar Romero in a resort on the shore of Lake Louise in those beautiful Canadian Rockies.

No one got near Lake Louise from 20th Century Fox. A few establishing shots of the lake with the mountains behind are all you see. Of course John Payne chases after her with some mixed motives. He wants to marry her, but he also wants her for a new show. He takes his own scenic route to Lake Louise, flying under his own power as well as by plane and finds when he both arrives and sobers up he's hired himself a secretary in Carmen Miranda and a valet in Edward Everett Horton.

Betty gets to make her first appearance on screen with her new husband, Harry James and his orchestra. Just prior and during World War II was the era of the big bands and all the studios tried to sign them up and shoe horn them into films. It was an easy fit in this case for Harry James.

Especially with a score from Harry Warren and Mack Gordon who provided James with one of his biggest hits. I Had The Craziest Dream. Played by the band with inimitable James trumpet and sung beautifully by Helen Forrest this was one of the biggest song hits of the World War II years. It still plays beautifully today.

Carmen Miranda does a couple of numbers in her unique style, you haven't lived until you've heard her do Chattanooga Choo Choo in Portugese. And in this wonderful cast in a small role is Jackie Gleason as Payne's agent. It's sad that in this wonderful cast, Gleason had a most nondescript part that shows absolutely nothing of his comic abilities.

There's nothing deep about Springtime in the Rockies, it's just fabulous entertainment with a cast you could never assemble like this today.

A film that takes all the stock conventions of Betty Grable musicals and distills them into one big bright package. This shows what the Hollywood dream factory could do with even the most obvious and conventional script. Filmed in lush Technicolor the film is loaded with so much talent and trimmings that the threadbare story becomes unimportant.

Betty Grable was at the peak of her popularity all dolled up in the height of 40's fashion, she and John Payne make a handsome and charming pair. They were strong enough to carry a film themselves but Fox managed to cram all the strongest supporting players from their other various movies. Charlotte Greenwood does the faithful sidekick role she did so well and gets a chance to do her unique dance routine. Caesar Romero is the dashing snook and Edward Everett Horton the droll faithful retainer. Then there's that party all on to herself Carmen Miranda fracturing the language and wearing outfits that as John Payne says are a little overdone outside a Mardi Gras. Topped off with Harry James' stellar music, including Sleepy Lagoon and I Had the Craziest Dream, weaving it's spell throughout this is the kind of shiny bauble that kept the public's mind off the war and still can't help but entertain today.

If I didn't read it somewhere, I'm sure I'd appropriate the assertion myself: "Technicolor was invented for Carmen Miranda." That fabulously talented lady from Brazil possessed a sense of humor which brightened many an hour for me. (Yes, she was assisted by scriptwriters and directors who knew how to showcase her gifts, but her personality simply leaps from the screen and into all those receptive hearts who so regret her untimely passing.)

This is one of the better films in which Carmen appeared (Luvved her character's moniker: "Rosita Murphy" - What fun!) and other comments on this site aptly point out its delights. Everyone in the cast gets to add to the pleasure and let no one cast aspersions on Miss Betty Grable - her verve and naturalness were one of Twentieth-Century Fox's most valuable assets, especially during those difficult WWII years. A friend of mine, whose youthful cinema-going was considerably less supervised than mine, was absolutely besotted with Betty's blonde beauty and bounce. I believe he saw everyone of her films first-run, when he was barely old enough to enter a theater unaccompanied, as he did, and he insisted I catch TV showings of those Grable gems (and her fabled gams) whenever he saw a broadcast listing. Each time I was able to follow his recommendation, I was not in the least sorry. And with Senorita Miranda to whip this confection into frothy perfection...well, as the saying goes: "They don't make 'em like that anymore."

Among the Fox musicals of the early 40s, there isn't much to distinguish one from the others. The leading lady will be Alice Faye or Betty Grable, the leading man will be Don Ameche or John Payne, the setting will be a scenic paradise, the story slight, and the success of the picture will depend on the supporting players and/or specialty acts.

In this case there are some very welcome highlights that elevate the picture above most of the others. Caesar Romero reveals himself to be a first-rate ballroom dancer: lithe, graceful, totally appealing. He brings out the best in Betty Grable in their nightclub routine - she who so often had done the simplest steps in production numbers while the chorus did the real dancing around her. She is put to the test this time, and acquits herself very well.

Then there is Edward Everett Horton, at last able to play a character with aspirations, motivation, a background that matters - instead of the less-than-one dimensional nervous, dithering purveyor of the double-take. Arguably, this is his best performance.

And finally we have Carmen Miranda at the top of her form (Was she ever not?). Good songs, terrific gestures and facial expressions, flashing eyes, dazzling smile - even a part that has an effect on the story (such as it is).

There were no better musicals at this time than those being produced by Fox. MGM was just getting its A-team together, and within a year or two would render the Fox musicals decidedly less impressive than they had seemed. But Leo the Lion had Kelly, Astaire, Garland, Grayson working for him; Fox had to do with less.

20th Century Fox knew how to build films around Betty Grable and this is one of their better efforts, thanks to the presence of a first-rate cast: John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Cesar Romero, Edward Everett Horton, Jackie Gleason and Harry James & His Orchestra.

The usual backstage story starts with Betty and frequent co-star John Payne having a spat over his womanizing ways. Before you know it, he follows her to the Rocky Mountains resort where the misunderstandings continue, involving Cesar Romero, a very funny Carmen Miranda and the bumbling Edward Everett Horton. Miranda gets to do her thing with some fractured English and some great songs tossed in. Betty displays more than modest talent in the singing and dancing department (especially graceful with Cesar Romero) and Payne firmly established himself as the most presentable leading man of the Fox musicals in the '40s. Everyone looks great in the technicolor photography. If it's musicals you like, what's not to like?

Summing up: amiable, tune-filled entertainment of the kind that doesn't exist any more. Payne's best performance since 'Sun Valley Serenade'.