Red Hot and Blue (1949)

This little-remembered Betty Hutton B&W musical farce actually includes an excellent sampling of Betty at her zaniest, and certainly should be sought by all of her fans. Currently, you can enjoy it at YouTube. Her first zany performance accompanies the song "I Wake up in the Morning Feeling Fine", composed by Frank Loesser, who composed all 4 of the featured songs. The idea is that Betty awakens early, full of energy, in contrast to her 2 roommates Sandra(June Havoc) and NoNo(Jane Nigh). Betty does all she can to encourage them to wake up, including dumping them out of bed. Later, Betty sings and dances raucously to "That's Loyalty" when auditioning for a part in a play. When she attends a rehearsal of "Hamlet", she does an raucous alternative interpretation of Ophelia. Later, in an apartment, she sings the romantic ballad "Now that I Need You".William Demarest, as Charlie, sets Betty up with a middle-aged millionaire: Alex, who tries to paw her in the back seat of a car. Later, his wife arrives at the restaurant where they are. Being used to seeing him with a young blond on his arm, she pours ice water on Betty, to 'cool her off'. Betty retaliates by smashing a cream pie in her face....Later, Betty goes to the apartment of a gangster posing as a show producer. After trying to seduce her, he is shot dead by an unknown assassin. As a result, she's in trouble with the police and his fellow gangsters.I don't believe Victor Mature(Danny) was miscast as Betty's boyfriend, as several reviewers suggest. He was handsome and muscular. and had costarred with Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth in musicals. You couldn't have Howard Keel as her costar in every picture! Besides, his muscles came in handy when rescuing Betty from the gangsters. This latter segment is quite amusing if you like slapstick. It begins with Betty yelling as loud as she could the song "Now that I Need You", which Mature serendipitously hears while cruising outside the apartment. He gains entry by posing as a piano tuner,(of all things). It didn't take long to decide that he was a phony, wherein he starts a brawl with the gangsters. Eventually, he manages to untie Betty, who then joins the slugfest, throwing heavy loose items, dumping a barrel of molasses on them, turning a fire hose on them, and using her martial arts training. She even accidentally knocks out Mature after the others are subdued.

This was not certainly one of Victor Mature's better films. In fact, he is terribly miscast here. Mature always excelled in roles where he played the villain or tough police officer. Instead, in this film, he plays a director who is in love with the ever zany Bette Hutton. Keeping up with Miss Hutton, who gives a wonderful performance, is more than anyone else could endure.June Havoc, who died recently at age 97, appears in the film as Hutton's room-mate. She is given little to do here. Remember her as Gregory Peck's Jewish secretary in "Gentleman's Agreement?"The ending of "Red, Hot and Blue" becomes inane. How they get the best of the bad guys here is rather ridiculous, but it's fun to watch Hutton vamp and sing around the foolish script.

If you don't want to kill the late Betty Hutton (at her over-the-top over-energetic worst here) six minutes into the film, you'll probably have a good time with this Frank Loesser vehicle that disappointingly has no relationship at all to the better known and more tuneful Cole Porter stage show with Ethel Merman. There's nothing here to erase memories of Hutton's hit song "Murder He Says" from her best film, 1943's HAPPY GO LUCKY with Mary Martin.GUYS AND DOLLS it isn't, but it is fun to see Loesser himself (who wrote the semi-score for Hutton to chew scenery through) turn in a credible acting job as a mobster who just might bump off the always irritating Hutton before her screen roommates quite reasonably get the idea. June Havoc (Gypsy Rose Lee's real life sister) is a bit long in the tooth but excellent as the chief imposed-upon roommate, as is an almost young William Frawley as Hutton's eager agent (years before he became "Uncle Charley" on TV's MY THREE SONS) and co-top billed Victor Mature as the director in the central backstage story who is also a rooming house neighbor and inexplicable boyfriend.There are only so many twists on the familiar backstage film plot, and this RED, HOT AND BLUE bowwows most of the best from more famous films like 42ND STREET, but John Farrow and Charles Lederer's screenplay makes them almost feel fresh as it bounces pin-ball fashion from point to point.Look for William Talman (later prosecutor Hamilton Burger on TV's PERRY MASON) and Broadway's Jack Kruschen in a couple of effective small roles.For me, though, the high point of the film was when Percy Helton's stage manager (looking remarkably like the stage's Harold J. Kennedy) gives a perfect assessment of the star's talent following a number imposed upon him outside the stage door. THAT'S entertainment.

There's not much to this film other than star Betty Hutton herself. The production values are minimal, the storyline (about a small theatre company trying to hit the big time) is simultaneously convoluted and unengaging. And your guess is as good as mine as to what the title has to do with anything (taken from a relatively successful Cole Porter stage production, there is *nothing* here by Cole Porter).But, if you like Betty Hutton, you'll probably enjoy the film. It isn't as key a film in her career as "Annie Get Your Gun," "The Perils of Pauline," or "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," but it certainly gives her plenty of room to showcase her manic comic ability and her own (shall we say) unique way of putting over a number. You just haven't experienced Betty Hutton until you've seen her perform a four-minute musical encapsulation of "Hamlet." Fasten your seat belts and hold onto the arm rests, because she is dialed up to eleven throughout the piece. Everytime you think she can't get anymore over the top, she manages to push even farther! This number alone makes the entire film worthy of some interest.