A group of talented performers show up in this silly backstage story that might have been passable Fox entertainment in glorious Technicolor, even with its ordinary screenplay, had Zanuck in 1945 not decided to reduce it all to a low-budget black and white programmer with lots of cheap sets that only emphasize the mediocrity of the very forgettable songs by Adamson and McHugh, the uninspired choreography by Kenny Williams, and the by-the-book direction by Lewis Seiler, who had done many a gritty gangster film at Warner Bros, but showed no feeling for musicals. Handsome Perry Como, who could sing but wasn't much of an actor, was given little to do other than to croon while Carmen Miranda, who could do it all-- act, sing, dance--and who had stolen every Fox movie she had been in up until then, has just one song. A few years later, Vivian Blaine who plays the lead stripper would be unforgettable as Adelaide in the Broadway production and film of "Guys and Dolls," but here she does what she can do with a nothing role that even Alice Faye could not make sparkle. Dennis O'Keefe, a decent comic actor, is also wasted. A sad reminder of how bad B&W film musicals made on the cheap could be once upon a time.
Review of Doll Face
