Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Wartime Shot Of Adrenaline


Betty Hutton Livens Incendiary Blonde (1945)

A lot may prefer I leave Betty Hutton off Greenbriar charts, but there's something about this Vesuvius of popular then, forgotten now. Some wish she'd gone away with all her dated movies. I know one or two who won't abide Annie Get Your Gun simply because Betty's in it. And here comes TCM with late-night resurrect of Incendiary Blonde,  Hutton horde and maybe best of those that gave her center ring. I nearly passed for mistaken idea it was PD and so wouldn't look good. Well, it turned out gorgeous --- the sort of HD transfer you wish Universal had sent over for Frenchman's Creek. Technicolor sustains us whatever feelings toward BH, and she's fine in dry run for Annie (rodeo riding, cowgirl stuff in first act). There's singing in aggressive Hutton mode. Casting her as real-life Texas Guinan was good salesmanship, being there was at least some of 1945 who'd remember "Hello, Suckers" from Mom/Dad's era. Lead man is Arturo de Cordova, OK here and staying out of diva way. Hutton was so exuberant that she just had to crack eventually. What was left sat opposite Robert Osborne in one of eeriest TCM interviews extant (see it if you can).


I hope Incendiary Blonde is repeated, because there are too few Paramounts around to look this good. Seems a fortune was sunk here, though little doubt it came back, plus gain from over 1200 theatres Para owned, and then ones they had season booking pledge with. Hutton was wartime's pep-pill, as if that were needed with so many tear-down-the-house acts. Incendiary Blonde is too restless to stay in one backdrop long, keeping fast clip under direction of George Marshall, who knew the period evoked and was likely pal or at least acquaintance of Guinan herself. Latter didn't make fifty, this film suggesting she had lifelong premonition of early exit. Guinan did a lot of silent westerns, most gone now, and a few talkers. Incendiary Blonde recreates these as silly flickers, ten redskins fallen off horses when Texas fires one shot. Pre-sound movies were fair game for ridicule in the 40's, and you wonder how pioneer, and still working, directors like Marshall felt about that. Guess the paycheck was all --- how could it be a slander on art when films were considered anything but art?

7 Comments:

Blogger Mike Cline said...

I like Betty Hutton. If anyone ever exuded that Scarlett O'Hara 'passion for living,' it was Betty, just like Mickey Rooney.

If their energy could have been bottled, we'd have been on the moon in the 1940s.

10:13 AM  
Blogger Neely OHara said...

I understand the resistance to Hutton today (perhaps even then), and in a weak vehicle she can be hard to take. But her work in "The Miracle At Morgan's Creek" ALONE should guarantee her place in the pantheon of the remembered. (And her work as the "quiet" twin in 1944's "Here Come The Waves" demonstrated that she could be simultaneously contained and subtly effective; she was simply rarely called upon to be either.)

I have several of her CD's, and the fragility she demonstrates on "Where Are You (No That I Need You)?" and "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" more than make up for the excesses of "Murder, He Says" and "It's Oh So Quiet."

Even as a fan I've never made it through "Annie Get You Gun," and what was most revelatory about that bizarre and fascinating Osborne sit-down was her saying "Annie..." was the unhappiest experience of her life, as the entire crew made it plain that this interloper from Paramount had usurped the position of their beloved Garland, and treated her with distain throughout the filming.

Merman's insistence that Hutton's big number be cut from "Panama Hattie" on opening night gave an extra kick of schadenfreude to Hutton's bringing "Annie" to the screen, as well as providing a choice bit of roman a clef for Susann's "Valley Of The Dolls."

She would probably disagree with this assessment (having professed to finding happiness and contentment via her faith), but she is in my mind a true "show business casualty."

12:56 PM  
Blogger Mick A Design said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

6:12 PM  
Blogger stinky fitzwizzle said...

I'm guessing Frank Loesser liked her, and that's good enough for me.

7:40 PM  
Blogger Mick A Design said...

I love the "Oh By Jingo" production number, but it looks like after filming they dropped the second verse and made a quick fade to the dance break to cover it... Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZN2t4FQJc8

8:59 PM  
Blogger iarla said...

Poor Betty. All highs and lows. No discipline, artistically or emotionally. Probably, today, her 'pep' would be labeled Bipolar. She needed a strong mentor like Buddy DeSylva and, when he passed, young, she had only her demons to guide her. I smiled when I read about Walter Matthau, berating Streisand on the "Dolly" set - "Remember what happened to Betty Hutton!".

4:47 PM  
Blogger Barry Rivadue said...

Take a look in INCENDIARY, during the "boogie-woogie" piano number, just how much the extras are enjoying the wild performance by the black pianist. It sounded almost like early rock 'n roll, what with the boppin' rhythms and the Jerry Lee Lewis type antics at the keyboard. It's a very interesting scene.

7:17 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024
  • October 2024