There's No Business Like Show Business

With its entertainers stretched from one end of Cinemascope to the other, There's No Business Like Show Business bristles with fast-paced song and dance routines that drag only when the projectors grind Marilyn Monroe across the screen. She is usually followed by a drunken Donald O'Connor, intent on being a nimble bad boy who dances with statues after Marilyn tires of the whole business.

The movie itself is a jumble of all the old show business plots, but then this is a huge gathering of all musicals. Glue for the mixture is a pleasing serum of Irving Berlin's tunes and a splashing does of technicolor. Ethel Merman is the film's biggest asset, launching into her songs with a driving enthusiasm that shames Dan Dailey, who is busy worrying about his errant showtime son, Donald. O'Connor hoofs and melodizes in his usual manner, but looks like the Soap-Box Derby Winner with a Cadillac when he romances with a healthier and heftier Marilyn. For all her eye and hip rolling, Monroe is unable to project effectively as she did in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She mouthes through several enticers, including "Heat Wave" and "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want it Anymore."

In contrast to Miss Monroe, Mitzi Gaynor adds a bright and pert performance. A few pounds lighter and no longer sassy, she is pleasing for the first time. Another member of the Dailey-Merman family is Johnnic "Cry" Ray, surprisingly cast as a religiously serious showman who becomes a priest. Although his chin wags abnormally when he sings, Ray's style is unique and entertaining.

Undisturbed by the absence of a plot, the stars race after one another in a cluster of flashy production numbers. Not content with one run-through of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," for example, the entire cast pursues the piece in any mimicable dialect--all with gusto and girls. The finale is especially typical, with everything in motion. A gigantic pedestal moves up and down, banners swirl, toe dancers spin about, and jugglers far in the background fling objects into whatever space remains. The effect is quite fulsome, and with the exception of Marilyn, a wholesome and generally entertaining musical.