Exclusive“My Blue Heaven” (1950): Love, Music, and the Dream of a Family

We celebrate Halloween. Maybe not the dark parts, but I still enjoy the season. You know, pumpkins and the sort of mysterious feeling in the air and watching seasonal movies. What's seasonal movies? Aren't you thinking about Christmas? Well, there's the Peanuts Halloween special. That's not really a movie, though. Um, Meet Me in St. Louis? You'll recall that we always would skip the Halloween scenes because they scared us. That's true. Uh, Arsenic and Old Lace? You hate that movie. Alright, I guess you have a point. Forget the seasonal movies, then. Well, there is one classic film that has a very fun, light-hearted Halloween sequence. What? My Blue Heaven. I'm Rebecca Brannan. I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. In the news and on social media recently, there's been a lot of negativity, anger, and hatred surrounding the topic of motherhood. In times like these, it's so refreshing to revisit a simpler time through watching classic films, which always glorify the institution of the family and motherhood. Of course, there are countless wonderful classic movies that are about the joys of motherhood, but a few films stand out for dealing with the more difficult aspects of motherhood. One such film is notable because, on the surface, it's a light musical comedy, yet it deals with some very difficult topics such as miscarriage, infertility, the temptation, especially for performers, of infidelity, and all the complex and difficult emotions which around motherhood. This movie is My Blue Heaven from 1950. Jack and Kitty Moran are a successful married duo performing on the radio. They're overjoyed when they learn that Kitty is going to have a baby, but following a freak automobile accident, she loses the baby and the doctor informs her that she most likely can't have children anymore. To recover from the tragedy, Jack and Kitty throw themselves into the new endeavor of television and become an overnight success. When they learn that two of their friend's six children are adopted, they get the idea to adopt a baby themselves, but that's easier said than done. The woman who runs the adoption facility is wary of entrusting a child to entertainment people, and when their friends foolishly throw them a rather wild party on the day they're bringing a prospective child home, the orphanage director takes the baby away. To try and make up for his mistake, their friend Walt finds a baby whom they can adopt, but not through the regular legal processes. However, once they see the adorable little girl, they can't help but take her in. However, complications ensue when they have to fight to both keep their child and to keep their marriage together, when a flirtatious understudy has her eye on Jack. This film was produced by 20th Century Fox. The director was Henry Koster, and the producer was Saul C. Siegel. This movie stars Betty Grable, Dan Daly, David Wayne, and Mitzi Gaynor. This is, of course, first and foremost, a musical. Right. It's a beautiful technicolor musical, as can be expected, as it's, of course, a Betty Grable film. I feel like Betty Grable is still a somewhat well-known name, if you're familiar with classic musicals. Yeah, I'd say that's true. She was known in Hollywood for having the million-dollar legs. Sort of a publicity stunt that her legs were actually insured for a million dollars. Right, and she was a very popular pin-up girl during World War II. Yes, she was one of the two top pin-up girls. But Dan Dailey is not well-remembered. No, he really isn't, even though he made a lot of movies in the late 40s going into the 50s. You could easily see him being ranked with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, those Hollywood musical performers, but for some reason he's sort of been lost in the rush of time. I'm not sure why that is exactly. I suppose because he wasn't in that one movie or a couple of movies that really have lasting fame. And that has a lot to do with lasting fame. You have to have been in a movie which for some reason kind of caught pop culture's eye. Be that as it may, he was a popular leading man at Fox in this time. Later he worked at MGM. And he frequently co-starred with Betty Grable. I think he really stands out because he's one of the tallest leading men. Especially for a dancer. Yes, and he was a good tap dancer, ballroom dancer, good singer, and just a really entertaining performer. I appreciate his performance, but also Betty Grable's performance in this movie, because, like we were saying at the beginning, it has some surprisingly serious themes. On one hand, it's a really fun, Technicolor musical comedy. But on the other hand, they lose a baby. They have children taken away from them in adoption. It's some serious subject matter, and they both give really dramatic, tearful performances, especially in the hospital as he's coming to sort of cheer her up after they've learned that she's lost the baby and she probably can't have children again. It's a very moving depiction of not only a mother losing a child, but a father as well. You can see how much he was excited to be a father. Right, and what a wonderful relationship they have as a couple, that he comes in first, you know, with the intention of trying to be happy and make her feel better, and then it ends up that she kind of has to comfort him. Yes. The title of this movie is taken from a popular song in the 1920s. Right, My Blue Heaven. Which doesn't really have anything to do with the movie, besides it's the theme song, of course, it's featured a lot, and there is the line, just Molly and me and Baby Makes Three. Right. and and just through the joy of married life i suppose i think it's sort of implied that that is the theme song of their television show because there's this montage where they're constantly dancing to that song now either that was just to make a good montage but i i kind of get the feeling maybe they're saying like they maybe they do a number to that song every time you know television shows often would have a featured song on them that's kind of the theme song of the show i think that that's a valid theory but besides that the score was original the rest of the original songs were contributed by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane both well known songwriters in their own right. Most notably Harold Arlen actually wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow several years earlier and neither one of them had name recognition the way an Irving Berlin or you know. Is that because they were sort of contract studio composers? Yes that is and so people tend to associate their very popular songs with the movies rather than with their names and of course some of the songs are more just generic pieces but the one that stands out of course is the halloween number right and it takes place pretty early in it pretty early in the film right after they learn that she has lost the baby then they go out to the country to visit their good friends a married writing team who are played by David Wayne and Jane Wyatt who was a leading lady in her own right sort of on and off throughout the 30s through the 50s but i would say she was best known as the mother in Father Knows Best yeah tv series in the 1950s and so then they're out at their country house and as soon as they come through the door they're sort of accosted by their children in a variety of disguises and costumes and then they say oh i forgot it's halloween it's an interesting look at like mid-century halloween i think there wasn't as much of the wild creativity and branding and so forth in costumes it's pretty standard we're like a white sheet some kind of a like a ghost but then a different type of mask one looks like a pirate and one of them was more like some kind of ghoul or witch or something yes because of course the original intention of halloween costumes was like to hide your face and you could play pranks and people didn't know who you were as opposed to just being whatever character you want it to be so this is an interesting look at that but not nearly as dark as in say Meet Me in St. Louis because sort of the tradition of the fun trick-or-treating and having halloween parties and so forth was to kind of calm down children because they were just being wild little hoodlums on Halloween and like playing pretty serious pranks on people so it became kind of oh let's make it more of a fun family-oriented holiday and then since then it has gotten worse again but this really kind of highlights that very wholesome like 1950s family-oriented version of Halloween and the main portion of that Halloween sequence involves this musical number I think it's just called Halloween and right it Jane Wyatt is pretending to play the piano and it actually begins with sort of a playful little poke at Irving Berlin who is best known for writing all these these holiday themed songs right I think it's sort of reference to his work Holiday Inn of course which is supposed to be like every holiday but among a couple others Halloween is one of the holidays it's not featured so they're saying he didn't write a song about Halloween so now here it is and it's just a really fun number uh they're both both Danny Dayley and Betty Grable are wearing sort of scarecrow like costume clothes with straw hats and jeans and big funny gloves and then David Wayne comes out and is wearing sort of a skeleton costume and he does a dance. Well she'll notice it's sort of less anatomically correct I would say than Halloween costumes usually are now so I suppose if you had a real skeleton phobia it could be a little scary but there's nothing about the scene that is intended to be scary. Yeah and I used to really be bothered by skeletons and this doesn't bother me so i i think it's not too okay so it passed it passed the test but it's a really fun number and it's kind of interesting just that it's in there right you don't expect that like oh wow they're having a featured halloween scene because you just don't see that very often in classic films but if if you're looking for a kind of fun musical to watch around halloween this definitely is right up there at the top of the list the other number that's sort of noteworthy and just, again, just kind of in there is The Friendly Islands, which is quite an extended, I guess you could either say tribute to or a little joke about South Pacific, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which was running on Broadway at the time. And there is a reference to it earlier on as well, right? Yes. To make sort of a joke about running longer than South Pacific, because wasn't that the show that was noted for having just running shows, and it was sold out years in advance? But yeah, this whole number is basically just a parody or a send-up of South Pacific. There are all these little references to it in the text. They say South Pacific, they say happy talk, and then, of course, the most notable thing when Dan Daly is doing this comedically like, operatic voice with a strong foreign accent to sound like Ezio Pinza, who was this operatic bass, of course, who starred in the original cast of South Pacific. That's right, he played the role of the Frenchman. Not in the movie, but on stage. And the most random detail, I don't know South Pacific that well, but there are two people dressed as, like, lions. That's definitely not in the musical. Okay, that's just, it's just kind of there, and it's like, okay, what are the cats doing here? I feel like we're on the wrong continent. But, it is funny. It's a little Lion King foreshadow. But the strangest foreshadow is that the intro to that number is Mitzi Gaynor. Her character is doing a little intro to it. Which is her role on the show, basically, right? She does, like, the little ad for this, whatever product is sponsoring the show. but in that one she's talking about oh there's this new show i think she actually refers to it as an operetta just sort of taking the world by storm and then it goes into number but anyone who's familiar with the movie of South Pacific knows Mitzi Gaynor starred in that 24 years later so it seems like oh this is a reference like no it's a foreshadow which it's always funny when you find things like that another little one is that the actress Eleanor Donahue has this tiny little i believe uncredited part as sort of a mean fan on the street although she doesn't actually interact with her of course jane wyatt would later play her mother on Father Knows Best so that's another interesting little connection there this mainly is of course a feature for Betty Grable and Dan Dailey what would you say is your favorite number from one or both of them in this i think probably the halloween number yeah that's really a lot of fun it is it's very memorable like you said and i think they they get to show sort of a comedic side as well as the singing and dancing it's it's impressive how in unison they are because they are you know he's being so tall and that's an interesting balance trick because generally any kind of like ballroom couples or dance couples they like them to be closer to the same height so it is interesting and she wears very high heels if you're paying attention to her feet not in that number though no she's wearing flat shoes so you see it more they're not like hiding the height disparities much there's more tap in that number than yeah they do some great ballroom in the i love a manhattan number though and that one's fun because it's kind of a storytelling number it's more like something by Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire it's like a maid and a butler who are going out on the town stealing their employer's clothes yeah that's that's quite a an extended dance sequence i feel like the longest number that was actually the one when Gloria McLean fills in for her at night yeah the i work hard and i love hard number because it's going back and forth between seeing them on the television then Betty Grable's kind of doing the number at home while she's watching and she's at home taking care of the baby to her baby yeah i would say it's either set in maybe New Orleans or possibly Havana Cuba yeah the the architecture sort of suggests New Orleans it's definitely somewhere hot somewhere southern it could even be Miami i don't know exactly what i meant by this even but we're watching it i was like oh this is one of those numbers you know that's this particular kind of number it feels a little bit either like sort of southern feel like you said sort of it's sort of it's very bluesy, very jazz inspired, that's why I say it could be, but very story driven, you've got the man who's usually like gambling or something like that and then the the girl who's like a little bit of a bad girl, the shadowy street, yes I don't know what to call this kind of number exactly but you'll see it in a lot of classic films, you do you see Fred Astaire do it, you see Gene Kelly do it sort of like Slaughter on 10th Avenue or the Girl Hunt, it's got that kind of a feel to it and we see that Dan Daly is a very good dance partner to both Betty Grable and Mitzi Gaynor, uh Mitzi having almost more of a ballet style, that's right and the first time you see her, she's actually in pointe shoes which is sort of unusual I don't think I've seen her on pointe in any other film it wouldn't make sense in something like South Pacific right I didn't realize she actually was a balletically trained dancer but she you know sometimes you see they just put pointe shoes on dancers but she obviously knows what she's doing that's true as it is of course a musical there are a wide variety of costumes making use of the technicolor but i'd say that the costumes are pretty evenly divided between very realistic late 40s early 50s day wear and much more fanciful outfits that are actual costumes for being in television in particular. My outfit is inspired by the first costume which we see Kitty wear. It's a gray suit with a white blouse underneath and she wears black accessories, black shoes, black gloves, a black hat and pearl jewelry. My outfit is inspired by a rehearsal outfit which Gloria wears the first time that she gets to fill in for Kitty in rehearsal. It's some sort of short black pants, a white tailored blouse with a large collar, a burgundy vest and she has a little ribbon in her hair and little black strappy shoes. Most depictions of families or mothers in particular in classic films are just a married couple has children. There aren't too many movies about couples who are struggling to have children or having children in more unconventional ways like adoption And even almost a black market adoption as they get that daughter and sort of paying a mother who is in difficult circumstances so that they can take care of her child. It highlights the difficulty of adoption as they have to go through a lot of screening processes and just when it happens several times, they think they have the child and then something goes wrong. it's it is kind of interesting when you think about i mean i understand why i know people obviously in adoption or fostering it's a very big responsibility unfortunately there is a lot of corruption and and you know that's it's just unfortunate it's not the system is not as it should be never really has been yeah but it's kind of interesting when you think about it and i know anyone like them that they were going to have a child of their own and now not being able to they're probably thinking like if she could have the child herself you don't have to get anyone's approval yes and it's the same responsibility that's just it's interesting just because obviously you can't control people actually having children but that it's it's so intense the process to make sure that that they're fit parents and of course they're up against like oh you're performers because performers have always had a reputation for being kind of shiftless kind of irresponsible and their friends seem to be doing the best to prove that they are irresponsible but she also grapples with the issue of motherhood versus having a career because once she has this daughter first they have a nurse caring for her who's the standard horrible nurse who's like oh you have to be wearing a mask and you can't touch the baby and very like most militaristic so she fires her and she wants to enjoy being a mother but then of course the fleetingness of fame five weeks she's off television and people don't know who she is anymore they think Gloria is Kitty Moran and then there's this kind of uh jack sort of having a wandering eye and then of course he wants to act like it's nothing serious but he's you know kissing gloria in the dressing room when she comes back so that's interesting it's not a huge deal she kind of passes it off and you know deals with it but it it doesn't become a major issue obviously she's not really jealous it's true that easily could have been a large subplot like they're separating or going to get divorced and then it doesn't she's but then she is she's around more because at least for a while right because we know she may she may end up well she wouldn't have to take some time off eventually but it's it's interesting as it highlights those those themes ultimately this is of course a fun Betty Grable vehicle with that one light-hearted and very catchy tune but i think that it stands out from the rest of her filmography as a surprisingly dramatic performance for her in which it highlights the beauty of motherhood and by sheer contrast it shows us something that's more frightening today than all the playful ghouls and skeletons we see. The frightening aspect of what happens when a woman no longer feels loving toward motherhood like Kitty Moran does as shown in this film. A moment to me that stands out from a modern perspective, really, in film, is when the doctor is sort of clumsily trying to comfort her. And she says, even if it wasn't born, it was a baby. Yes, that is a striking moment. This movie is available for streaming either to rent or to purchase on Amazon Prime Video. and it's also available on DVD from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart. If you enjoyed our Halloween special, we hope you'll visit our channel to see all our other film reviews, one posted a week, and go on this unique journey through the golden era with us. Thank you for watching, goodbye, and Happy Halloween!