If Alex Trebek asked you to name the second most popular female film star of all time, how would you answer? “Who is Katherine Hepburn,” maybe? Or, “who is Shirley Temple?” Even “who is Julia Roberts” seems a good guess, right? Wrong. The second most popular female star of all time is Miss Betty Grable; she of the pin-up poster and the million dollar legs. If that surprises you, you’re not alone. I was barely aware that Betty Grable had a real film career, not to mention one that was ranked second only to Doris Day in all-time commercial success. As far as I knew, Betty Grable was just another bathing suit model who got lucky. Then I watched four of her World War Two era films released this month on DVD. Turns out, Grable was more than a masturbatory aid for homesick GI’s, she was an actual talent.

It is hardly surprising that history has over-looked Betty Grable’s career. Her films, although wildly popular when released, are laughably simplistic by today’s standards. Formulaic, silly and implausible; Grable musicals are the best example of how the old Hollywood Studio System mixed a star with a successful premise then recycled the results into one redundant vehicle after another. A wholesome blonde who sang well and danced even better, Betty Grable offered simplistic cinematic escapism to a nation weary of complexities. Inevitably, of course, tastes change, and when post-war audiences turned toward the racier films of Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren in the 1950’s, the appeal of Betty Grable seemed lost to time.

Being critically overlooked is not unique to Grable films, however. Most of the Technicolor musicals released in the 40’s by her studio, 20^th Century Fox, have been critically ignored. Without original plots or narrative-related song books, these “nightclub” musicals lacked the staying power of other popular musicals of their day like Oklahoma or Meet Me in St. Louis. This oversight is something that Fox has been trying to redress with the release of several of Grable’s films to DVD under their “Marquee Musicals” label. Spanning ten years of her career, the four latest films to get the full DVD treatment may not be of MGM’s caliber, but they at least go a long way towards immortalizing Grable as more than a pinup.

The earliest of the four is Betty Grable’s first film as a Technicolor headliner, Down Argentine Way, released in 1940. It is also the most historically relevant as it was made at the behest of FDR to promote his “Good Neighbor” policy and features the first film appearance of Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda. Co-starring a young Don Ameche, Down Argentine Way features all the elements that would become hallmarks of a Grable film: lavish sets, great costumes, a simple “boy meets girl” plot and lots of song and dance numbers. Argentine became Fox’s top domestic grosser for 1940, but failed to improve US relations with Latin America as Roosevelt had hoped. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck and director Irving Cummings got the Peron-era Argentina confused with Mexico despite shooting ten hours of background footage on location. The film’s portrayal of Argentinians as swarthy, lazy, goofs speaking broken English offended all of South America but did succeed in turning Grable from a contract player into a star.

Next up is 1941’s Moon Over Miami, another light musical romance pairing Grable and Ameche. Miami finds the Betty Grable vehicle fully operational; we still have the amazing clothes and sets, but this time out the song and dance numbers are more geared toward showcasing the leggy blonde’s assets as opposed to her surroundings. Here our girl meets two boys, but as there is seldom a whiff of unpleasant reality to offend the Grable fan, all involved end the film happily and in tune. 

The third offering is arguably the weakest of the four. An uneven biography of vaudeville sensations Jenny and Rosie Dolly, The Dolly Sisters pairs Grable with June Haver in this period-set musical drama. Although the songs by Mack Gordon and James Monaco are fun and the costumes appropriately leg-barring, The Dolly Sisters’ heavier tone is a bit off-putting coming from the usually sunny Grable. The film also includes a wildly racist production number called “the Dark Town Strutters’ Ball.” With Grable and Haver dressed as pickaninnies and a bevy of black-faced white women dancing with watermelons on their heads, a modern viewer can only gape at the bad taste that was routinely displayed on screens as late as 1945. If only this DVD had been released earlier, we might all have been spared George Clooney’s self-congratulating, “Hooray for Hollywood” acceptance speech at this year’s Academy Awards.

Finally, we have 1950’s My Blue Heaven. This musical, although late into her career, is the best of this Betty bunch. Featuring campy songs by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane and co-starring frequent Grable partner Dan Dailey, Heaven manages to be enjoyable and even socially relevant. Focusing on a working couple’s struggle to have a child, My Blue Heaven is a surprisingly modern musical, absent much of the frivolous whimsy of earlier Grable pictures. Of course there is no shortage of lacy gowns or comedic moments so the fans of fluff need not despair. It is light enough to stay fun, with plot enough to keep a twenty-first century audience interested. It is a true Betty Grable rarity. 

Video / Audio / Extras

All four films are presented in a full-frame format, ostensibly to preserve the screen ratio of the original Technicolor films. They also do not appear to have been digitally re-mastered as negative degradations are visible more than once. They all feature re-prints of the original film “lobby cards” (black & white postcards that were distributed as advertisement in the theatres) and short program inserts written by film historian Sylvia Stoddard. Stoddard also handles the audio commentary on Down Argentine Way, providing lots of juicy details about Eva Peron but not much about the film itself.

Commentaries for the Dolly Sisters and My Blue Heaven are provided by USC Film Professor Drew Casper. While Casper certainly knows his stuff, including the date of birth for everyone involved in both productions, his overuse of the word “Americana” (I counted 37 on the Dolly Sisters alone) caused me to doze off more than once.

Also available on the Argentine disk is the A & E Biography profile of Betty Grable, making this the soundest DVD purchase of the four.

Final Words

Betty Grable will always be an American icon. Her cherubic cheeks and apple-pie personality are as winsome today as they were 60 years ago. So she didn’t make the best movies, does that really matter when measured against the number of B-52’s her legs were painted onto during WW2? A Grable film was a guaranteed good time during very dark days, and the fact that she could actually sing, dance and act was really just gravy. If her films don’t translate as well today it still doesn’t change how popular they were back when. And if nothing else these four DVD’s will give the male members of the Greatest Generation a reason to keep their Viagra prescriptions filled.