MY BLUE HEAVEN

US, 1950, 96 minutes, Colour.
Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor, David Wayne, Jane Wyatt, Una Merkel.
Directed by Henry Koster.

My Blue Heaven is a popular musical from 20th Century Fox in 1950, one of several pairings of Betty Grable and Dan Dailey (Mother Wore Tights, Call Me Mister). There is interesting support from Mitzi Gaynor at the beginning of her career (and a satire on South Pacific, popular on Broadway at the time, The Friendly Island, with words and lyrics from South Pacific and introduced by Mitzi Gaynor, who was to star seven years later).

David Wayne and Jane Wyatt are agreeable in supporting roles, as is Una Merkel. The subject is radio and the transition to television (with jokes about Milton Berle). There are a number of routine songs and dances performed nicely by Betty Grable and Dan Dailey.

The focus is on having children, adoption, the anguish of the mother. There’s plenty of sentiment and a happy ending. Direction is by Henry Koster, director of so many romances in the '30s and '40s including Deanna Durbin films, and of some spectacles in the '50s including The Robe).

1. Enjoyable musical comedy? The days of radio and television?

2. New York, the radio stations, the television stations? Song and dance routines and choreography? The musical score and songs, the satire on South Pacific?

3. My Blue Heaven, the title song, the theme ? and baby makes three?

4. Jack and Kitty, their married life, their success on radio, making the transition to television? Their love for each other, the baby, the party and celebration, the car crash, the miscarriage? The possibilities of adoption and Mrs. Johnson being strict? The kidnapping of the baby that they adopted? The return of the baby? Kitty being pregnant? The humour of her handling the situation with Gloria and Jack? Jack as the singer and dancer, the touch of the ladies' man, love for Kitty?

5. Walter and Janet, writing and producing, support and friendship, the party, ruining the chances of the adoption, finding the baby for adoption in New Jersey, their support and getting the baby back?

6. Gloria, the understudy, dancing, her eye on Jack, the dance routines, making advances, caught by Kitty?

7. Miss Gilbert and her kindliness, Mrs. Johnson and her strictness in taking the baby away? Her change of heart? The strict nurse and Kitty firing her? The doctors and their opinions about her pregnancy?

8. A pleasant and mild musical comedy, '50s style?