Customer Reviews

Moon Over Miami

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Moon Over Miami ranks at the top of the list of Betty Grable musicals. This beautiful Technicolor, musical remake of Three Blind Mice stars Betty Grable, Carole Landis, Don Ameche, Robert Cummings, Charlotte Greenwood and Jack Haley. This is the story of three women who pool their resources and head to Florida to find a millionaire husband for one of them. It would be remade again as Three Little Girls In Blue (in Atlantic City) and once again as How To Marry A Millionaire (in New York). Betty Grable's dance with Hermes Pan is amazing and one of the best moments in her long career.

After coming into a small inheritance of $4500, beautiful sisters Kay and Barbara Latimer (Betty Grable and Carole Landis) decide to head down to Miami to land themselves rich men (they work at a roadside hamburger joint!) The girls take along their spirited Aunt Susie (the great Charlotte Greenwood) and she poses as their maid...............Shot in gaudy, captivating old Technicolor, MOON OVER MIAMI is a fast-paced musical comedy froth which highlighted Grable's dancing, especially in a number with with the tap-dancing Condos Brothers. Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger wrote 8 songs for the movie, none of which became standards; still, all the tunes fit the surroundings of this slick production from 1941. Of the three leading men (the other two being Don Ameche and Jack Haley) Bob Cummings was the least experienced as a screen singer; his rendition of YOU STARTED SOMETHING is adequate at best. The hilariously high-kicking Greenwood has a comedy duet with Haley doing IS THAT GOOD? (you betcha!) The great choreographer, Hermes Pan staged the sequenced in which Grable dances with the Condos Brothers, Jack Cole and company. The film affords some fleeting shots of a 1941 Miami which was almost quaint to the Miami of today plus interesting location sequences of aquatic and underwater activities in Cypress Gardens and Silver Springs. A very pleasant diversion.

MOON OVER MIAMI is arguably Betty Grable's best movie musical, with a great supporting cast and delicious script making the whole movie an endless delight.

Betty Grable plays Kay Latimer, who decides to pool her resources with her aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) and sister (Carole Landis) and together they travel to Miami in hopes of snaring rich husbands. Grable soon finds herself torn between Don Ameche and Robert Cummings. All manner of romantic complications arise before the story rushes to it's inevitible happy ending.

Betty Grable is luminous in the lush Technicolor photography; Carole Landis provides good support as sister Barbara, and Charlotte Greenwood is her usual wisecracking self as Aunt Susie. Don Ameche and Robert Cummings realize that this is Grable's show and wisely don't overplay their performances.

One of Grable's best movies to be sure.

The new DVD edition from Fox's "Marquee Musicals" series presents a very nice print of the movie with fully-saturated Technicolor. Extra features include the various Betty Grable trailers, plus a bonus set of postcard-sized lobbycards.

This movie is great fun! Betty Grable is absolutely stunning as is Carole Landis and very good suporting cast as well as great costumes, lovely sets and gorgeous technicolor make this musical a delight. I've practically worn out my tape and now at last it is being released on DVD as part of the Betty Grable collection. Now let's see more great Fox musicals of the forties released!! "Moon Over Miami" is a remake of an earlier (non musical) called "Three Blind Mice"1938 staring Loretta Young, Joel McCrea and David Niven. It is also enjoyable if you can find it.

Moon Over Miami is among the greatest of all musicals, although bone-heads like Leonard Maltin seems to think only MGM could make a musical. Everything from the great gowns, the dance numbers, the cast make this a must-have for any movie collector. From the opening song and dance number at Texas Tommy's Drive-In, where Betty and Carole Landis wiggle and jiggle to the great Congo to a Nursery Rhyme number with Betty ravishing in a white gown and silver slippers, you're carried along through this snappy, World War II era fantasy where the only thing gorgeous gals want to do is find Mr. Millionaire (but then times haven't changed that much!)Betty is especially vibrant in a gray suit, trimmed in fur for the start of her Miami stay, and in her final gown--spattered with flowers in multi-hued colors. This is the perfect movie for anyone wondering why Betty Grable was among the Top Ten Box Office Stars for l0 straight years. She's vibrant, warm, gorgeous--everybody's female buddy and best friend. The ravishing color photography is hallucinatory: jades and cobalts and crimson hues like you've never seen, set against a dream-like Miami backdrop.

Dan Dailey once remarked that Betty Grable was "lazy" and loathe to learn difficult routines once she was number one at the box office. But that was in the late 40's and it's definately not so here.

Still working her way to the top, and with no luxury to plead any disinclination, Hermes Pan really puts her through her paces.

Here she is paired with both the Condos Brothers, and then none other than Mr. Pan himself--each time to superb results!

"You Started Something" is a joyous explosion of intricate stepping performed on a tropical patio. No laziness on evidence here. And just about as impressive is the Conga routine where she demonstrates a variety of terpsichorean felicities--(all with trademark shimmy intact).

Then there's "Seminole," a display of amazing speed and agility by the Condos Brothers which proves once and for all that Michael Jackson did not invent the reverse slide.

Add lavish settings, effective location shots, hummable tunes, glamourous gowns, (not to mention the considerable visual charms of Carole Landis) and you have the perfect Technicolor celluloid parfait.

Unquestionably one of Miss Grable's best.

Betty Grable, the queen of Technicolor musicals, has not had ANY of her Technicolor musicals released on DVD...all Fox can think of is this Simpsons and X-Files crap. Anyway, this musical, set in a Miami LONG before the MTV kids and their crap hit town, also stars future Cocoon star Don Ameche has some extremely gorgeous Technicolor cinematography. This is one musical you will NOT want to miss!

While "Down Argentine Way", released in 1940, was the film which catapulted Betty Grable to stardom, it was this film, released the following year, which consolidated it. In between, Darryl Zanuck tested Grable's appeal in a supporting role to Alice Faye in "Tin Pan Alley", but in "Moon over Miami", she took centre stage with Carole Landis and others supporting her.

The story is the Fox perennial about 3 girls pooling resources to land millionaire husbands. It first appeared in 1937 as "Three Blind Mice", to which this script adheres closely, reappeared in the mid forties as "Three Little Girls in Blue" and resurfaced again in the 50's as "How to Marry a Millionaire". This is possibly the brightest, most entertaining version. The film's nightclub like sets are interpolated with genuine footage of Miami which give an unexpected touch of authenticity. The script is funny, the direction maintains the speed and vitality and the supporting cast are first rate, even though the film sags a bit in the second half when the plot takes over.

Grable, maybe a little plump, looks great with a natural blonde hair colour, rather than the harsher bleached blonde of later films. She dances and sings skillfully and reads her lines with wit and energy. Some of the musical numbers have a spontaneity which is infectious. Often, in later films, Grable's dances seemed rather simple, but here her dancing is intricate and competent. "You Started Something" with the Condos Brothers and "Kindergarden Conga" with Hermes Pan are the obvious highlights. Don Ameche and Robert Cummings smoothly play opposite Grable with a class which often was lacking in her later films. Charlotte Greenwood has some good lines and Carole Landis is very attractive; in fact, she has a better figure than Grable here.

The DVD package is OK. While the technicolour print is spectacular, the liner notes have many inaccuracies and there are no extras except trailers for other Fox Grable DVD releases and 4 post card sized lobby cards. However, if you have any interest in Betty Grable, this is the film to see. Over the years, her talents have been questioned but this film is ample evidence that as an overall performer and film star, she was tops as the boxoffice receipts assuredly indicated.

Betty Grable is wonderful and in Technicolor to boot! My eyes though stay riveted on the vastly underrated and sadly forgotten Carole Landis. A gorgeous big hearted gal who was used abused and chewed up by Hollywood that eventually led her to taking her own life. I've read that Betty Grable did not like Carole at all and treated her very badly on the films they worked on together. Yet you'd never know it from their great performances here. I agree that this is Bettys best! The only thing missing is wonderful Carmen Miranda! A Technicolor Treat!

This has someof the most colrful and beautiful costumes that I've ever seen in film. Betty Grable and Bob Cummings are famulous in it, and make a great pair. It is a charming film, very bright andhappy, well worth seeing.