[.ca] The Dolly Sisters

Great Musicals:
One of the top musicals of the 1940s so what's taking so long to get it released on DVD format! More of Grable's films should be made available to enjoy, films like Mother Wore Tights, The Diamond Horse Shoe, Coney Island, I Wake Up Screaming (DVD).

Very promising but doesn't live up:
Look alike June Haver and Betty Grable star together in this movie as two blonde sisters. The first hour was very entertaining with several silly songs. June and Betty make a great team. Their voices sound pretty good together. But the last hour is such a drag. Like "For Me and My Gal", it destroys itself by entering war into the picture. My main complaint however is John Payne's character. He criticizes Jenny's (Betty Grable) career and comes across as a real jerk. Reading up on what happened to the real Dolly Sisters, it wouldn't have much mattered if the war part was edited out anyway as this was very fictionized. The only thing I gained from this movie was an appreciation more of Betty Grable's talents. It made me realize there were valid reasons for her success. June Haver is almost as appealing as Betty too. I'll be checking into their other movies. More like 2 1/2.

Jaw-dropping eye candy:
The movie shows that Fox was often right up there with MGM when it came to musicals! Surely one of the most brilliantly designed, staged and costumed backstage musicals ever made. The two stars strut their stuff in enough feathers to eradicate several endangered species - and then get it on with a zest and verve that make you instantly fall in love with them. The Dolly Sisters were a vaudeville phenomenon that took the world by storm and although this is merely a typical romanticized Hollywood version of a show business bio it is well worth watching just to get the flavor of what they might have been like. Warning: the "Darktown Strutter's Ball" Follies Bergere number will seem racist by today's standards, but it is beautifully put together, and is one of the first instances of Hollywood even hinting that black women might take their place with the most gorgeous showgirls in the world (though they used white girls in dark makeup to make the point). Color, Music, Style- A+: Story, performances - OK See it for the still-amazing production numbers.

Everything is great:
The opening scene with turn of the century New York, the 2 little girls playing the Dolly sisters as youngsters breaking into an "impromptu" dance in the Hungarian cafe, dancing to Gypsy music, the cut to the adult June Haver and Betty Grable doing the same thing in more filled out peasant dresses and showing a lot of "million dollar legs"...Not too many actesses would want to be in an immediate comparison for cuteness with pretty little blond girls, but these two carry it off flawlessly. The other songs, the scenes in Paris, the story of the romance with John Payne, how they showed the conflict (albiet a bit corny, but believable) of how both of them wanted to assert their individuality and still be together... This is one of the best musicals I've ever seen. Family values and an adult story tastefully done. In the "forgotten" old musicals category, I'd also recommend The Perils of Pauline with Betty Hutton, Cover Girl with Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.

BETTY GRABLE , HELLO DOLLY (SISTERS):
BETTY GRABLE, this is 1945 Betty is Queen of Technicolor Fox want to make a biog of the DOLLY SISTERS, Alice Faye is family bound Alice got a raw deal from Fox with Fallen Angel so she did a runner, Rita Hayworth was busy at Columbia so Betty had to settle for June Haver as co-star Haver was 10 years younger than Grable but it was Betty,s movie in Technicolor