Every fall, the celebration of Halloween bombards us with skeletons, goblins, and zombies, making autumn a thoroughly spooky interim between summer and Christmastime. The ghoulishness has become so pervasive that it’s hard to remember that Halloween was once a fun harvest holiday. Unlike Christmas, which is charmingly depicted in countless old movies, this autumnal holiday is shown in very few classic films.
Performer Family
Kitty (Grable) and Jack Moran (Dailey) are married radio stars. The story begins with her finding out that she’s expecting a baby. The news delights the Morans, as well as their best friends, Janet (Jane Wyatt) and Walter Pringle (David Wayne), who write their show.However, disaster strikes when a car accident causes Kitty to miscarry and leaves her potentially unable to bear future children. In the wake of this tragedy, Kitty and Jack accept an offer to start a weekly television show. Meanwhile, the Pringles tell them that two of their five children were adopted and tell them how to begin the process. While their television show achieves great success, the Morans seem destined to be a flop in the parenting business, since the conservative adoption home doubts the suitability of performers as parents. Will Kitty and Jack ever get their own baby to love?
Betty Grable was known as the girl with the “Million Dollar Legs,” and she gets plenty of chances to show them off in this movie. She and frequent co-star Dan Dailey, a popular song and dance man of the 1940s and ‘50s who is all but forgotten today, sing and dance their way through many colorful musical numbers.
Besides the title song, which they sing during the opening credits, the score consists of eight original songs with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ralph Blane. These musical numbers are all either performed on the Morans radio or television shows or as entertainment at parties, avoiding the Broadway cliché of characters bursting into song out of context. Eighteen-year-old Mitzi Gaynor made her film debut in this movie as Gloria, a chorus girl who sings, dances, and tries to take Kitty’s place in more ways than one.
Although it has all the costumes, tunes, and jokes you’d expect of a 1950 Hollywood musical, this movie distinguishes itself by including serious subject matter. Instead of a pair of young sweethearts, this movie’s protagonists are a married couple who deal with serious challenges: miscarriage, infertility, adoption struggles, parenthood in show business, and the temptation of infidelity.
A Halloween Song
One of this movie’s eight original songs is a cute tune called “Halloween.” It’s one song for this holiday that you can find on YouTube which won’t give you nightmares. The song takes place quite early in the story, when Kitty and Jack visit the Pringles’s farm to persuade their best friends to write the scripts for their new television show. As soon as the Morans enter the farmhouse, they are besieged by five impish children of varying ages, wearing charmingly innocent homemade costumes. The two would-be parents happily play along, pretending to be terrified by the masked ensemble.
Later that evening, Kitty, Jack, and Walter put on a live show by the fireplace for the children, with Janet accompanying them on the piano. The children watch with glee, holding cute jack-o’-lanterns. More carved pumpkins are arranged around the room as decorations.
The song begins with a musical explanation of how Irving Berlin wrote songs for every holiday except Halloween. (This isn’t entirely accurate: Berlin wrote the ragtime tunes “At the Devil’s Ball” and “The Haunted House,” which could be considered Halloween ditties.) Dressed in scarecrow-like plaid shirts, straw hats, and oversized gloves, Kitty and Jack perform the most innocent Halloween-themed song you can imagine. The melody is anything but in a minor key, and the lyrics mention charming autumn customs like apple harvesting and pumpkin pie.
Later in the number, Walter appears in a black jumpsuit painted with a whimsical white skeleton and a skull mask. This might scare children who are afraid of skeletons, as I was, but the fact that he’s singing the whole time makes it much less frightening. He quickly reveals his face, ending the few moments of spookiness. Then, Kitty and Jack come out wearing white sheets and silly masks similar to those in the Halloween sequence from “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Even if you don’t celebrate Halloween, you’ll enjoy this delightful musical celebration of the holiday’s wholesome side.
More Than What You See
If you only think of Betty Grable as a pinup girl or leg model, I suggest that you watch this movie. It shows a much deeper side of her, such as her acting talent and range of emotion. Beyond being a cutesy musical performer, she does an excellent job playing a loving wife and caring mother.The rest of the characters are also multi-dimensional. Dan Dailey plays a lovable yet flawed man who deeply loves his wife but is tempted by another woman. And, future star Mitzi Gaynor brings surprising depth to the role of the potential homewrecker.
If you’re looking for an uplifting movie which can equally be enjoyed by your family on movie night or just with your spouse on a romantic evening, look no further than “My Blue Heaven”!
