Call Me Mister **½ (1951, Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Danny Thomas, Dale Robertson, Richard Boone, Jeffrey Hunter) – Classic Movie Review 11,292

Director Lloyd Bacon’s 1951 20th Century Fox Technicolor musical Call Me Mister stars Betty Grable and Dan Dailey in their fourth and final pairing after Mother Wore Tights in 1947, When My Baby Smiles at Me in 1948 and My Blue Heaven in 1950.

Grable and Dailey’s singing and dancing entertains the US troops – and us – in this usual emasculation of a Broadway show, from which most of Harold J Rome’s original material is missing. It is re-written from the 1946 Broadway play version by Albert E Lewin and Burt Styler, with music by Harold Rome, which then featured cast members from the US armed forces. Only two or three of the Harold Rome numbers are kept in the film, including the title track Call Me Mister, Military Life and Goin’ Home Train.

Betty Grable and Dan Dailey on a lobby card for Call Me Mister.

Grable and Dailey play a separated couple who meet again on a morale-boosting, putting on a show tour of Japan for the US troops in the Korean War. G I Sergeant Shep Dooley (Dailey) wants his estranged wife Kay (Grable) back, but she is dallying with Captain Johnny Comstock (Dale Robertson).

Besides Grable and Dailey’s vivacious efforts to entertain, the other pluses are the spectacular Busby Berkeley choreography and Danny Thomas as Stan the man having problems getting in step with army discipline, as well as Benay Venuta as Billie Barton, Richard Boone as the Mess Sergeant and young Jeffrey Hunter as The Kid.

The finale is a spectacular production number of ‘Love Is Back in Business’ (written by Sammy Fain, with lyrics by Mack Gordon), staged by Busby Berkeley, and performed by Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Benay Venuta and Danny Thomas, and ending with them on a precarious, high-rising disc surrounded by water fountains. Venuta is replaced by a lookalike in the same clothes for this. Venuta later explained: ‘Betty Grable said, ‘I’m the star. I gotta do it.’ Dan Dailey was so drunk he didn’t care what he was doing. Danny Thomas said, ‘I’m on the way up. I gotta do it.’ Well, I didn’t gotta do it.’

Also in the cast are Frank Fontaine, Harry Von Zell, Dave Willock, Robert Ellis, Jerry Paris, Lou Spencer, Art Stanley, Bobby Short, Dabs Greer and Mack Williams, and The Three Dunhills Speciality Act.

Bacon and dance director Berkeley are working together for the first time since 42nd Street (1933).

Grable’s box-office power was beginning to diminish and Call Me Mister was a moderate box-office success.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,292

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