When My Baby Smiles At Me (1948)

20^th Century-Fox

Director: Walter Lang

Starring: Betty Grable, Dan Dailey

This charming musical depicts the third screen adaptation of the popular Broadway production of “Burlesque” and featured at the time Fox’s greatest female draw in Betty Grable in glorious Technicolor, facilitating the picture to becoming the highest grossing production of the year for the studio. Co-starring Dan Dailey in a highly praised performance, the movie proved to have many aspects that drew large audiences to Fox theaters in 1948, but would prove to lack staying power as the film is absent a bit of substance. Still it remains one of the finer examples of Grable’s talent and appeal in a film that was general pleasing to audiences of its day.

When My Baby Smiles at Me is a musical about a husband-wife vaudeville team that sees their marriage deteriorate when one succeeds at an opportunity to perform on Broadway. The story follows Bonny (Grable) and her husband Skid Johnson (Dailey) as two musical performers on the traveling vaudeville stage experiencing signs of marital issues that become compounded when Skid obtains his big break performing in the bright lights of Broadway. Despite deeply loving each other Bonny divorces Skid due to his continued dishonesty about his alcoholism and a reported possible affair with his new pretty co-star. Bonny retires from performing and marries a wealthy man while Skid deteriorates into a run-down drunk. Seeing how far her ex-husband had fallen, Bonny commits to returning to the stage as Skid’s partner and wife, an overwhelming gesture that sets his life in a direction towards rehabilitation.

A bright comedy showcasing limited, yet charming singing and dancing when compared to other, more lavish musicals of the time, When My Baby Smiles at Me is a rather mundane film of its genre with a plot that has been well overplayed in the overall breadth of cinema history. Starring the greatest female draw at the Fox studio at that time donned in costumes that accentuated her money making assets, the picture features a strong performance from her male co-star. All together it is wrapped in a plot that is highly predicable, retold and replayed over several times in various other movies. It is enveloped in a shiny Technicolor package with heavy use of primary colors and comes together as a bit of a cookie-cutter film, yet it still has its charm.

Technically speaking, the film is not much more than a rehashing of the popular play “Burlesque,” which to this point had seen two adaptions in the form of 1929’s The Dance of Life and 1937’s Swing High, Swing Low. Here for the first time the story is portrayed in Technicolor directed by one of Fox’s favorite filmmakers in utilizing the color process, Walter Lang. His eye tended to make the images on the screen pop on the screen as seen here with his wide use of  primary colors in both costuming and set pieces. Under the bright lights necessary to best capture the images in the Technicolor cameras such bright, strong colors must have been a sight to see in real life as the colors really stand out in the final movie. It makes me wonder it the crew on the set might have needed eye protection with the bright colors on that set.

If show business has a fondness for anything it is for showcasing show business in the stories they tell, and this movie is no exception to that. Set in and around the vaudeville stages of the early 20^th century, the film attempted to capture a zany, chaotic, and family like atmosphere of life behind the curtain as well as fleshing out the rather easy plot with moments of comedy or musical performance. It feels as it the movie wants to make more of these behind the scenes actions of the stage, but falls right into the predicable story about a performing couple challenged by the success of one over the other.

To help bring a small bit of authenticity to the performances on screen were the uses of supporting cast with some vaudeville in their blood. Jack Oakie whose early career was a comedian on the stage portrays the burlesque clown unfortunately fittingly named Bozo. Keen viewers may recognize Oakie from his role as the caricature of Mussolini in Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. Playing Oakie’s wife and good friend to Bonny was June Havoc, who shared an early life on the stages of vaudeville before breaking away to a successful stage and screen career.

Of course the primary attraction of the picture was the star Betty Grable. Best known in history for her famed WWII pin-up poster photograph in a bathing suit and heals showcasing her highly publicized legs, her talents further than her appearance as she showcases here with her singing and dancing. She may not be Ginger Rogers on the dance floor, but she was attractive, held a tune, and showed enough skill as an actress that was augmented by her million dollar legs.

Despite Gable being the focus of the picture the greatest drama is provided by her co-star Dan Dailey. Featured in their second pairing together, Dailey delivers a performance of a character that is lovable, yet heavily flawed. His performance allows the audience to experience along with Bonny the continued heartbreak and frustration that lies within her as her husband repeatedly fails her trust despite his positive intentions. Together as a team Gable and Dailey bring the appeal and drama necessary to make the picture work is a charming comedy as drama. Its result was the greatest box office numbers for Fox wrangling in over $3.4 million and an Academy Award nomination for Dailey.

The sex appeal of Betty Grable along with the acting talent of Dan Dailey helped make the film a success and would cement the two as premier stars for the studio. At this time Grable was the top grossing talent for 20^th Century-Fox, being utilized as their less talented version of Judy Garland, Grable saw herself cast in most of the studio’s larger musical features during this period, but of course it was her figure that was the driving force behind her on screen appeal.

As a criticism the film neatly packages women as dutiful and compassionate to their men despite the lack of love received in return. By the end of the story Skid really doesn’t learn anything as Bonny returns to him even though she married another man and started a new life, leaving a sizable gap in the story never recognized in the film’s conclusion.

When My Baby Smiles at Me is far form being one of the great musicals of the decade, or even of 1948, but the film manifests how a studio understands how to properly packaged a movie. For Betty Grable fans this film is worth a viewing as it stages her talents in the height of her fame, making her one of most recognizable women in popular culture at the time. Ultimately the film brings nothing new or grand to the table, but for an hour and forty minutes it is a quick distraction with some appeal, some wit, a little dancing, a little singing, but mostly Betty Grable.