My Blue Heaven (1950)

Mediocre musical. Kitty and Jack Moran (Betty Grable and Dan Dailey) try to adopt a baby. One complication after another pops up preventing them from doing that. These complications aren't funny--just pretty depressing (for a musical). These are all interspersed with bad music and dance numbers.This is a pretty bad 1950 musical. The dialogue is terrible and all the songs are completely unmemorable. Also Dailey has a tendency to REALLY overact. But the movie is in bright Technicolor,there is a Halloween number that I enjoyed, the plot is pretty interesting and the dancing is incredible. Also David Wayne, Jane Wyatt and a very young Mitzi Gaynor are good in supporting roles. But Grable saves the picture. She's gorgeous, can sing and dance, has good chemistry with Dailey and holds her own in the dramatic scenes. She's basically the only good thing worth watching here. Aside from her this is a bad musical. I give it a 4.

This film really isn't much. The performers are all agreeable, but the real star is the score by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane. The lost gem is "Halloween", an Arlen waltz performed by Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, and David Wayne. Arlen did not write many waltzes. Only "When the Boys Come Home", "Sunday in Cisero Falls", and "Fancy Free" come to mind. This is a fine waltz with a witty lyric by Blane telling us that Irving Berlin forgot to write a song about "Halloween". "Don't Rock the Boat", Arlen's take on Calypso music, is also a winner. "Friendly Island" is a hilarious send up of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific". Blane has never been so archly funny. Dailey even makes fun of Ezio Pinza's singing in this number. Aside from these numbers, "Mother Wore Tights" and "Call Me Mister" are superior Grable-Dailey films. Wayne gives us some comedy, but it is not enough to make the film sparkle.

Wonderful Bette Grable and Dan Dailey fanfare dealing with a musical couple's hard luck in having their own child. They are forced to resort to adoption when a traffic accident causes the loss of her unborn child. We then see unscrupulous adoption procedures and other mayhem preventing this couple from having a child of their own.The couple do a routine on television and Dailey along with Grable show they could still sing and dance at their best. In a brief role, Mitzi Gaynor, who would play Daley's daughter 4 years later in "There's No Business Like Showbusiness," turns up as a fellow dancer who is ready to flirt and take Daley away from Gable.The wonderful is ending but we expected that. In such film predicaments, they usually do just that.

The songs and dances are wonderful! Kitty and Jack are actors so when they sing/perform there are scenery and wardrobes that go along with the songs, making it less like an ordinary "musical." The story itself is modern and realistic even for the time (like someone else mentioned some of the things they say may have been considered "risque.") If you like old movies or musicals, I recommend you find a way to see this! You'll never get these songs out of your head, and you probably wont want to either. A classic! I grew up watching this movie over and over again. I wish that I could find another copy but it seems impossible. :( If any decides to release it again, let me know!