Producer: Solomon C. Siegel. Executive producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. "Heat Wave" staged and choreographed by Jack Cole. All other dances and musical numbers choreographed and staged by Robert Alton. Vocal supervision: Ken Darby.
Copyright 1954 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 16 December 1954. U.S. release: December 1954. U.K. release: 21 March 1955. Australian release: 24 March 1955. Sydney opening at the Regent. 10,535 feet. 117 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Molly and Terry Donahue (Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey) bring up their three children in show business, the family forming an act billed as The Five Donahues. The three young Donahues are Tim (Donald O'Connor), Katy (Mitzi Gaynor) and Steve (Johnnie Ray). Steve quits the act to study for the priesthood. Tim meets Vicky (Marilyn Monroe) at a night club where she is a hat-check girl and sees her do a song when her agent brings a producer to meet her. The Four Donahues get a booking in a Florida hotel, where Tim discovers that Vicky is also on the bill. He talks his family into doing something else so that Vicky can do their "Heat Wave" number, which sets Molly against Vicky.
NOTES: Nominated for awards for Best Motion Picture Story (would you believe?), Lamar Trotti, won by Philip Yordan for "Broken Lance"; Scoring of a Musical Picture, the Newman Brothers, won by Deutsch and Chaplin for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"; Color Costume Design, LeMaire, Travilla, White, won by Sanzo Wada for "Gate of Hell".
Domestic rentals gross was probably not much less than $4 million — the movie didn't achieve this sort of standing in other markets. First of only two movie appearances of Johnnie Ray, an exceptionally popular "crying" crooner at the time.
COMMENT: The rationale behind "There's No Business Like Show Business" was the same M-G-M used for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Fill the CinemaScope screen with people! So not two or three Donahues, but five Donahues plus Marilyn Monroe.
Unfortunately, the script which ties the many Berlin tunes together is no world-beater. True, it starts with plenty of zest, but soon drowns its gaudy spirits in an impossibly maudlin story by Lamar Trotti, of all people. (Trotti was actually writing the screenplay from his story outline when he suffered a fatal heart attack). My advice is just forget all about the dopey, ridiculous plot that pairs MM with Donald O'Connor yet, and requires her to deliver some really absurd lines about how much she loves the little bean-brain. Instead concentrate on MM and all the Berlin songs. Although making a late entrance, MM is certainly the best thing about the movie, easily upstaging the rest of the cast with her flamboyant costumes and breathless delivery. Her "Lazy" and "Heat Wave" numbers are highlights. (At the time of the film's release, Johnnie Ray in his first and only appearance in a big-budget feature film, garnered a fair share of publicity; but he's certainly no actor. His odd mannerisms and smirking delivery cheapen what was already a cheap part).
As for the songs themselves, what an Irving Berlin feast! And how brilliantly handled, sung, danced and staged they are, and all treated with such justice by all the boys behind that full 20th Century-Fox sound recording!
Lang has directed in his usual mousy style, allowing bumptious players like O'Connor, Merman and Dailey to hijack the movie on too many occasions. Photography suffers from the typical early CinemaScope fault of over-graininess.
I am afraid I do not share some of my colleagues' enthusiasm for Lamar Trotti — as a writer that is. Trotti was a wonderful man. He was shy and extremely sensitive and had a great affection for people. Perhaps this very sympathy was his undoing (it killed him in the end of course, but I am speaking now of his work as a writer). With the possible exception of "The Ox-Bow Incident", all Trotti's writings (and when I say writings I mean screenplays, because Trotti never wrote anything else) lack any sense of urgency or topicality. They could not be described as crisp or incisive. They are not models of economy. Instead, they are long, leisurely-paced, full of inconsequential chit-chat. I have always maintained that there is no place on the screen, just as there is no place on the stage, for dialogue that does not fulfill at least three of the following functions: advancing the plot, giving the audience explanatory information, revealing the character of the speaker, being witty, and setting the mood of the scene. Trotti's dialogue rarely did justice to one of these functions, and frequently none.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" is a typical Lang-Trotti effort, just as were their previous collaborations: Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937), Mother Wore Tights (1947), When My Baby Smiles At Me (1948), You're My Everything (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), With a Song in My Heart (1952). Trotti was working on "There's No Business Like Show Business" when he died of a heart attack in August 1952.
Copyright 1954 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 16 December 1954. U.S. release: December 1954. U.K. release: 21 March 1955. Australian release: 24 March 1955. Sydney opening at the Regent. 10,535 feet. 117 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Molly and Terry Donahue (Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey) bring up their three children in show business, the family forming an act billed as The Five Donahues. The three young Donahues are Tim (Donald O'Connor), Katy (Mitzi Gaynor) and Steve (Johnnie Ray). Steve quits the act to study for the priesthood. Tim meets Vicky (Marilyn Monroe) at a night club where she is a hat-check girl and sees her do a song when her agent brings a producer to meet her. The Four Donahues get a booking in a Florida hotel, where Tim discovers that Vicky is also on the bill. He talks his family into doing something else so that Vicky can do their "Heat Wave" number, which sets Molly against Vicky.
NOTES: Nominated for awards for Best Motion Picture Story (would you believe?), Lamar Trotti, won by Philip Yordan for "Broken Lance"; Scoring of a Musical Picture, the Newman Brothers, won by Deutsch and Chaplin for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"; Color Costume Design, LeMaire, Travilla, White, won by Sanzo Wada for "Gate of Hell".
Domestic rentals gross was probably not much less than $4 million — the movie didn't achieve this sort of standing in other markets. First of only two movie appearances of Johnnie Ray, an exceptionally popular "crying" crooner at the time.
COMMENT: The rationale behind "There's No Business Like Show Business" was the same M-G-M used for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Fill the CinemaScope screen with people! So not two or three Donahues, but five Donahues plus Marilyn Monroe.
Unfortunately, the script which ties the many Berlin tunes together is no world-beater. True, it starts with plenty of zest, but soon drowns its gaudy spirits in an impossibly maudlin story by Lamar Trotti, of all people. (Trotti was actually writing the screenplay from his story outline when he suffered a fatal heart attack). My advice is just forget all about the dopey, ridiculous plot that pairs MM with Donald O'Connor yet, and requires her to deliver some really absurd lines about how much she loves the little bean-brain. Instead concentrate on MM and all the Berlin songs. Although making a late entrance, MM is certainly the best thing about the movie, easily upstaging the rest of the cast with her flamboyant costumes and breathless delivery. Her "Lazy" and "Heat Wave" numbers are highlights. (At the time of the film's release, Johnnie Ray in his first and only appearance in a big-budget feature film, garnered a fair share of publicity; but he's certainly no actor. His odd mannerisms and smirking delivery cheapen what was already a cheap part).
As for the songs themselves, what an Irving Berlin feast! And how brilliantly handled, sung, danced and staged they are, and all treated with such justice by all the boys behind that full 20th Century-Fox sound recording!
Lang has directed in his usual mousy style, allowing bumptious players like O'Connor, Merman and Dailey to hijack the movie on too many occasions. Photography suffers from the typical early CinemaScope fault of over-graininess.
I am afraid I do not share some of my colleagues' enthusiasm for Lamar Trotti — as a writer that is. Trotti was a wonderful man. He was shy and extremely sensitive and had a great affection for people. Perhaps this very sympathy was his undoing (it killed him in the end of course, but I am speaking now of his work as a writer). With the possible exception of "The Ox-Bow Incident", all Trotti's writings (and when I say writings I mean screenplays, because Trotti never wrote anything else) lack any sense of urgency or topicality. They could not be described as crisp or incisive. They are not models of economy. Instead, they are long, leisurely-paced, full of inconsequential chit-chat. I have always maintained that there is no place on the screen, just as there is no place on the stage, for dialogue that does not fulfill at least three of the following functions: advancing the plot, giving the audience explanatory information, revealing the character of the speaker, being witty, and setting the mood of the scene. Trotti's dialogue rarely did justice to one of these functions, and frequently none.
"There's No Business Like Show Business" is a typical Lang-Trotti effort, just as were their previous collaborations: Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937), Mother Wore Tights (1947), When My Baby Smiles At Me (1948), You're My Everything (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), With a Song in My Heart (1952). Trotti was working on "There's No Business Like Show Business" when he died of a heart attack in August 1952.