What does it take to bring down an egotistical prizefighter with a head so big dynamite couldn't make it explode? A diminutive chorus girl who at his bequest has taken over the lead from its vindictive, untalented star, that's who! She's Betty Grable, and he's Victor Mature, a ridiculously conceited idiot too blind to see the truth right in front of his eyes about whom Grable is in love with. The only good thing about things like this is watching the big jerk being taken down.
War era musical comedy on Broadway (mostly entertaining but instantly dated musical revues) utilizes a lot of specialty acts, some of them outside the arena of the usual Broadway talents, so this is dead on in that aspect. But as a musical film, it is a lame entry, utilizing Grable in only a few songs and dances (including one where she shadow boxes with a shadow of herself), focusing more on the masculinity of Mature and Grable's true love (the handsome John Payne).
Character performers James Gleason and Phil Silvers and rising ingénue Jane Wyman add a little sparkle (what they can) as Mature's character has done a lot of unrepairable damage to the likability of this film. Silvers' "How ya doin'?/Glad to see ya!" character is taken down a peg in an amusing sequence with the theater janitor (Irving Bacon) who broke me up with his retort to the tired "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke Silver lets lay the biggest egg any chicken ever did. Otherwise, most of the film is forgettable.
War era musical comedy on Broadway (mostly entertaining but instantly dated musical revues) utilizes a lot of specialty acts, some of them outside the arena of the usual Broadway talents, so this is dead on in that aspect. But as a musical film, it is a lame entry, utilizing Grable in only a few songs and dances (including one where she shadow boxes with a shadow of herself), focusing more on the masculinity of Mature and Grable's true love (the handsome John Payne).
Character performers James Gleason and Phil Silvers and rising ingénue Jane Wyman add a little sparkle (what they can) as Mature's character has done a lot of unrepairable damage to the likability of this film. Silvers' "How ya doin'?/Glad to see ya!" character is taken down a peg in an amusing sequence with the theater janitor (Irving Bacon) who broke me up with his retort to the tired "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke Silver lets lay the biggest egg any chicken ever did. Otherwise, most of the film is forgettable.