Howard Keel

  • Rose Marie (1954)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2021) The 1954 version of Rose Marie is far less known than the 1934 version (which itself was the second adaptation of the operetta of the same name), but I was really interested in finding out if the crazy Canadian content and insulting Native stereotypes of the earlier version made it through the more recent film. Alas… much of it did. To be fair, this version sticks closer to the original operetta, featuring a Canadian Mountie dealing with a young French-Canadian girl with a crush on him and a sordid murder whose consequences take up most of the film’s second half. The one improvement from 1934 to 1954 is that the Canadian setting is quite a bit more authentic this time around: The titular Rose Marie is a French-Canadian trapper’s daughter rather than an opera signer, and the film is actually set and filmed in the Canadian Rockies rather than set in Northern Quebec and filmed in California. The rather amusing “The Mounties” number is still a bombastic highlight, and the Technicolor cinematography is far more interesting to look at. There’s no James Stewart, but Ann Blyth and Howard Keel are not bad in the lead role (although, typically, Blyth’s French is not good). Where the film is as bad as its predecessor is in the portrait of Metis and Native characters as hideous stereotypes. The Metis nature of Rose Marie herself is not explored in any significant way, while the portrayal of the native characters falls into an amazingly insulting blend of disparate elements. One standout musical number, perhaps the film’s most energetic sequence, is set in the Canadian Rockies but features natives dressed in southwestern native outfits, with Plains headdresses, worshipping at the base of a costal totem. This makes no sense at all, and that’s not getting into the sudden sexualization of half-naked oiled dancers in brown-toned makeup in the middle of a very chaste film — or the sudden violence between native characters that leads to murder. It’s films like Rose Marie (either version) that justify cultural appropriation debates: As a Canadian, I’m either amused or annoyed at how the RCMP is presented as a better dressed, more bureaucratic kind of cowboy. As someone with even the tiniest possible amount of cultural awareness, I’m aghast at the portrayal of native culture lavishly presented as truthful (even for Hollywood values of truth). Fortunately, Rose Marie hasn’t been remade since 1954, and I wouldn’t expect it to be — this is one case where a general aversion to musicals may be helpful. Even for musical fans, the operetta form can be annoying and if this 1954 take on Anne Marie isn’t as heavy on the “When I’m calling you-oo-oo-oo-oo will you answer too-oo-oo-oo-oo?” as its predecessors, it’s still not much in terms of fun songs. Nor much in terms of a fun film, even when it mugs for laughs.

  • Desperate Search (1952)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2021) As someone with a specific interest in Hollywood movies set in Canada, I couldn’t pass up Desperate Search, especially as the log-line promised an expedition to rescue two kids lost in the wilds of the Canadian Rockies after a plane crash. Years of experience watching Classic Hollywood movies had taught me to keep my expectations in check regarding authentic on-location footage, and I was right: a look at the film’s projection history shows that the film was entirely shot on Hollywood back-lot sets, with a good chunk of stock footage and dialogue suggesting where the film was taking place. This approach was consistent with the drive within MGM at the time to produce straightforward low-budget films to supplement their typically high-gloss productions. The result, at least in Desperate Search, is a trim 71 minutes of uncomplicated thrills, featuring familiar narrative strands and unsurprising characters working their way through a few thrills of which the best is a hungry cougar. The kid actors portraying peril are not that annoying, while Howard Keel, Jane Greer and Patricia Medina make up for the adult triangle at the heart of the rescue. It’s not a movie particularly worth remembering: at best, it delivers what it sets out to do. But it does make for a telling addition to “see how Hollywood dealt with Canada” in a modern adaptation of a typical Northern story.

  • Kiss Me Kate (1953)

    Kiss Me Kate (1953)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2019) The early 1950s were some of the best years for MGM musicals, and Kiss Me Kate is a pretty good example of the form. It’s not next-level terrific like some of its contemporaries (I’m specifically thinking of thematically-similar The Band Wagon, also released in 1953), but it’s pretty good as a straightforward musical with no compulsions about what it is. While Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel both star as a divorced couple rediscovering each other over the course of a theatrical premiere, I frankly watched the film for my own favourite Ann Miller, who has a secondary but substantial role as a dim-witted but skilled dancer/actress. Much of the plot revolves around a staging of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, around which revolves a romantic reconnection plot and a pair of not-so-threatening gangsters holding the production hostage. I probably would have enjoyed the film more if I was more knowledgeable with Shakespeare’s comedies, but the final result is somewhat fun even for uncultured viewers. The song and dance numbers, after all, are the thing. “Too Darn Hot” doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the story, but it gets the film off to a roaring start with Miller vamping her way through a naughty song. “Wunderbar” gets the romantic subplot going, while “…any Tom, Dick or Harry…” gets Miller another chance to shine. “I Hate Men” is a cute number, and “Always True to You in My Fashion” has a few laughs—as does “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.”  The gender roles are 1950s-ish to the point of being uncomfortable today, but keep in mind that the plot of the original Broadway show reflects a late-1940s attitude toward a Shakespearian text: not exactly a hotbed of progressivism. It’s all in good fun, mind you, and the public spanking of the heroine (yes, really) has its mitigating factors. But you don’t watch MGM musicals for their liberalism—you watch them for the songs, the dances and the carefree fun. On those qualities, Kiss Me Kate certainly delivers.

  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

    Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2018) OK, so here’s a fun question as we contemplate whether movies from another era are so horrible by our standards: Can we still enjoy them? Accepting that some movies would never, ever be exactly as they were if they were remade today, is it OK if we still find some fun in those older movies? What if they tickle some find of traditional reactionary lizard-brain sensibility? Because let’s be blunt: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers makes cute out of a horrible situation, with brothers kidnapping women intending to make them their brides, and carrying them back in the woods while their friends and family are prevented from rescuing them by a snow-blocked mountain pass. In any realistic scenario, you’d feel the impotent rage and extended fear of those family members at the village, unable to launch a rescue for months and imagining the worst scenarios for the kidnapped girls. Fortunately, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical comedy (and one that name-checks the Sabine women): nothing ever remotely bad happens to the girls, and they spend the winter months falling in love with their kidnappers (no Stockholm syndrome here, we’re assured). In between the foregone conclusion and the beginning of the story, we do get pretty good set-pieces. Stronger in dance than in songs, the film features a unique blend of lumberjack ballet, with the barn-raising sequence being a dance/comedy set-piece that, by itself, justifies the film’s longevity even in its now-dodgy cuteness. (The mournful single-take dancing/woodchopping routine of “Lonesome Polecat” is also quite impressive in a different register.) Howard Keel is a lot of fun as the lead (what a beard!), with plenty of great supporting performance for a main cast that starts with fourteen people). I also suspect that the film’s longevity can also be attributed to a certain originality: How many other lumberjack musicals do you recall? This, combined with the film’s unfailing cheer, still makes Seven Brides for Seven Brothers a lot of fun to watch. You may even rewind to re-experience the barn-raising sequence all over again.