It is a good musical, but it lacks...Cole Porter's score?
DU BARRY WAS A LADY was a successful Porter show, mostly due to the antics of it's stars Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman. Merman was pretty svelt in her early Broadway and Hollywood career, and she was able to play the role of May Daly as it really was written - a gold digger who did not like the attentions of Lahr's Louis Blore (in the musical the attendant in the men's room of the nightclub in the modern portion of the story). When playing Du Barry, Merman's May is constantly keeping Louis at arm's length - and enjoying his discomfort. That is not the situation in the film...but the film varies in many ways.
Besides the fact that squeamish MGM people changed Louis into a cloak room attendant, he faces two rivals for May. In the musical it was only Alec (Gene Kelly here), but in the film there is also Willy, the nightclub owner (Douglas Dumbrille) who actually turns out to be quite a nasty customer towards his monarch in the 18th Century section. In the show Willy was a trifle more sleazy in both modern and 18th Century sections, and actually sells a half interest in the club to Louis when he is enriched by his Irish Sweepstakes winnings.
There was no Swami character in the musical - but it's nice to see Zero Mostel in one of his earliest roles: he plays the Swami for all he can squeeze out of it, wild-eyed in his crystal gazing (and managing to get a five dollar bill out of Andrew Toombs, as one of the customers). By the way, his name in the 18th Century section is not Taliostra, but Cagliostro - he is fitted into that section as the 18th Century charlatan who was dragged into the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Mostel also does his imitation of Charles Boyer in the show, which was apparently from his own nightclub act (according to Robert Osborne, on Turner Classic Movies tonight).
There was also no Ginny (Virginia O'Brien) character to pair off with Louis at the end. But there is no reason to be critical of this - Louis does deserve something for his giving up on May.
This film version does preserve two songs of Porter's score. "Do I Love You Do I?" which Gene Kelly first sings and then dances to on stage is a good number. By the way, his dance routine here with the chorus girls may be the first time (on film) that he did that "push-up" positioned jump slide that he later repeated in THE PIRATE). There is also the conclusion of the musical with the principles (including band leader Tommy Dorsey) doing "Friendship". Lucille Ball would later sing the same song with Vivian Vance on I LOVE LUCY, so she sings it here. Oddly enough in that number she uses her real voice. Earlier it was dubbed to sound more sultry. One may also catch in some background dance music a third number from the show, "What a Swell Party This Is!" which was later to pop up and be sung in HIGH SOCIETY.
But the most interesting song change (due to it's risqué lyrics) was "In the Morning No!" That song, a duet in the 18th Century section of the film between King Louis and DuBarry, has lines like, "Do you like Pike's Peak my dear? Kindly tell me so. Yes, I like Pike's Peak my dear...but in the morning no!!" In the film it is replaced by a duet in DuBarry's bedroom between the King and her, and here the double entrendres of the new song deal with food (cheesecake, for example). Who was fooling who here?
Rags Ragland's character is a busboy in the original, and a pain in the neck to Louis Blore. But he does transform into the Dauphin (future Louis XVI) and does accidentally shoot an arrow into Louis's behind (not his back as in the film). He too had a song dropped from the film - "Give Them the Ooh La La!" which is better forgotten. Not one of Porter's best lyrics or songs.
But then, I have an advantage. In the late 1960s I saw DU BARRY in a revival at the old Equity Library Theater on West 103rd Street in Manhattan. It was a good production, but I best remember it for the performance of the actor playing the Dauphin. Impish with a sinister grin, he was the charismatic figure in that production - even singing that awful tune with all the brio he'd bring to other roles. It was the only time I saw Danny DeVito in a stage production. He was wonderful.
DU BARRY WAS A LADY was a successful Porter show, mostly due to the antics of it's stars Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman. Merman was pretty svelt in her early Broadway and Hollywood career, and she was able to play the role of May Daly as it really was written - a gold digger who did not like the attentions of Lahr's Louis Blore (in the musical the attendant in the men's room of the nightclub in the modern portion of the story). When playing Du Barry, Merman's May is constantly keeping Louis at arm's length - and enjoying his discomfort. That is not the situation in the film...but the film varies in many ways.
Besides the fact that squeamish MGM people changed Louis into a cloak room attendant, he faces two rivals for May. In the musical it was only Alec (Gene Kelly here), but in the film there is also Willy, the nightclub owner (Douglas Dumbrille) who actually turns out to be quite a nasty customer towards his monarch in the 18th Century section. In the show Willy was a trifle more sleazy in both modern and 18th Century sections, and actually sells a half interest in the club to Louis when he is enriched by his Irish Sweepstakes winnings.
There was no Swami character in the musical - but it's nice to see Zero Mostel in one of his earliest roles: he plays the Swami for all he can squeeze out of it, wild-eyed in his crystal gazing (and managing to get a five dollar bill out of Andrew Toombs, as one of the customers). By the way, his name in the 18th Century section is not Taliostra, but Cagliostro - he is fitted into that section as the 18th Century charlatan who was dragged into the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Mostel also does his imitation of Charles Boyer in the show, which was apparently from his own nightclub act (according to Robert Osborne, on Turner Classic Movies tonight).
There was also no Ginny (Virginia O'Brien) character to pair off with Louis at the end. But there is no reason to be critical of this - Louis does deserve something for his giving up on May.
This film version does preserve two songs of Porter's score. "Do I Love You Do I?" which Gene Kelly first sings and then dances to on stage is a good number. By the way, his dance routine here with the chorus girls may be the first time (on film) that he did that "push-up" positioned jump slide that he later repeated in THE PIRATE). There is also the conclusion of the musical with the principles (including band leader Tommy Dorsey) doing "Friendship". Lucille Ball would later sing the same song with Vivian Vance on I LOVE LUCY, so she sings it here. Oddly enough in that number she uses her real voice. Earlier it was dubbed to sound more sultry. One may also catch in some background dance music a third number from the show, "What a Swell Party This Is!" which was later to pop up and be sung in HIGH SOCIETY.
But the most interesting song change (due to it's risqué lyrics) was "In the Morning No!" That song, a duet in the 18th Century section of the film between King Louis and DuBarry, has lines like, "Do you like Pike's Peak my dear? Kindly tell me so. Yes, I like Pike's Peak my dear...but in the morning no!!" In the film it is replaced by a duet in DuBarry's bedroom between the King and her, and here the double entrendres of the new song deal with food (cheesecake, for example). Who was fooling who here?
Rags Ragland's character is a busboy in the original, and a pain in the neck to Louis Blore. But he does transform into the Dauphin (future Louis XVI) and does accidentally shoot an arrow into Louis's behind (not his back as in the film). He too had a song dropped from the film - "Give Them the Ooh La La!" which is better forgotten. Not one of Porter's best lyrics or songs.
But then, I have an advantage. In the late 1960s I saw DU BARRY in a revival at the old Equity Library Theater on West 103rd Street in Manhattan. It was a good production, but I best remember it for the performance of the actor playing the Dauphin. Impish with a sinister grin, he was the charismatic figure in that production - even singing that awful tune with all the brio he'd bring to other roles. It was the only time I saw Danny DeVito in a stage production. He was wonderful.