Review of There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) by Kevin R — 20 Feb 2014

My voice teacher is gone with the wind.

The Donahue Family are a local act that has delusions of grandeur but they seem destined to remain at their current level. Their son falls in love with an aspiring singer who is a knock out blond that needs work and direction. The love affair tears the rest of the family's ambitions apart and may ultimately lead to the demise of the aspiring singer's career as well.

"A sailor is not a sailor until a sailor has been tattooed.".

Walter Lang, director of The King and I, The Little Princess, State Fair, Coney Island, Greenwich Village, Star Dust, and Money to Burn, delivers There's No Business Like Show Business. The storyline for this is actually just okay. The conclusion is very good but the music numbers are only moderately entertaining and I found the characters more annoying than intriguing. The cast delivers okay performances and includes Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, Rhy Williams, and Mitzi Gaynor.

"We can start a fire without rubbing two sticks together.".

I was coaxed to begin watching Marilyn Monroe movie some years ago and I found this on Netflix and decided to give it a chance; unfortunately, this was not as good as I had hoped. The characters were not as well delivered as they could have been and I found the picture to be a poor man's Singing in the Rain. This isn't a complete waste of time but I wouldn't recommend it either.

"After you get what you want you don't want it.".

Grade: C+.