There’s No Business Like Show Business (Walter Lang, 1954): USA

Reviewed by Lauren Sousa.  Viewed online.

There’s No Business Like Show Business is interesting for a number of reasons, but very few of them are related to the story being told onscreen. The DVD was released because of and the Netflix cover promise Marilyn Monroe. Ethel Merman is the top-billed star. It’s an Irving Berlin musical, which of course means the songs will be a delight.

The story is rather simple: in 1923 a couple of Broadway performers, Molly and Terry Donahue (Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey), begin a family and have some trouble getting employed during the depression, but in 1937, when their children have all grown, Steve (Johnnie Ray), Tim (Donald O’Connor) and Katy (Mitzi Gaynor) go on the road with Mom and Dad, cause the trouble children will, and eventually go their own ways but discover they will always be a family. Marilyn Monroe plays an aspiring singer, Victoria Hoffman, whose future gets tangled with that of the Five Donahues.

At the time of its release, the film garnered negative reviews, and it seems to me that it deserved them: the story is fragmented and unoriginal, and while the music and lyrics are excellent, a few of the production numbers which purport to be in the real world, such as “A Man Chases a Girl (Until She Catches Him),” are filmed so that their production on a sound stage is quite obvious.

The best numbers are the ones performed onstage, which allows the performers to delight in their stagy nature and just have fun. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” is certainly the best one, for it displays the most costumes and musical styles and the cast’s talent, and the opening shot of the number might be the best of the film, capturing the anticipation for the number and allowing the audience time to breathe before its delightful assault on the senses. “A Sailor’s Not a Sailor (Till a Sailor’s Been Tattooed),” with Merman and Gaynor, is a close second, performed on stage very entertainingly by two professionals.

Monroe’s numbers, two of them lower-production and one big number that caused quite a stir at the time of release, “Heat Wave,” are all well-performed, but her voice has been obviously dubbed by Dolores Gray (Monroe’s voice was under contract to another company), which is addressed by a few lines about her vocal training, but will still be obtrusive to anyone who has seen her sing in other films.

Monroe’s comic timing is excellent as usual, and Gaynor, O’Connor, and Ray all turn in good performances, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, but Merman and Dailey can’t quite live up to the other cast members; they are both better singers and dancers than actors. Merman’s performance is somewhat overly melodramatic, and Dailey is a little bit under-reactive.

None of this, of course, affects the musical numbers, which are absolutely a good enough reason to see the film. There are far more small numbers than big ones, indicative of budget concerns, but there are still many of them; a predictable story and a few spotty performances keep it from being nearly as good as the same year’s White Christmas (directed by Michael Curtiz), but it’s still worth it for Monroe completists with songs good enough to catch on cable.