Call Me Madam

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: We just finished watching this DVD last night, after holding it back for some months. Glad I waited.

Ethel Merman is filled with joyous energy and vivacity. She isn't overbearing as she was in that later picture she did with Buddy Hackett where all the characters are chasing after money. Probably that picture did more to cement people's minds of one image of Ethel Merman as loud and obnxious. Here she's loud, but only sometimes, she seems like a human being instead of a monster. I love her arm and hand movements when she sings, especially dancing with the two men at the end at her Washington DC party, it's like a penguin dancing.

George Sanders was also very good. Number one, I never heard him act before with that accent (Mitteleuropean Eurotrash) which we heard preserved right into the singing, or whoever dubbed his singing voice for him, though it sounded just like his own voice. Number two, I remember him from REBECCA and ALL ABOUT EVE and dozens of other movies but don't ever remember him playing the leading man or at any rate the "good guy." Here he plays General Cosmo Constantine, charming and erudite and kind of sexy, you can see why Sally Adams falls in love with him as soon as he opens his mouth.

This was Donald O'Connor's followup to the famous SINGING IN THE RAIN and his numbers are better than those in SITR, sorry Donen fans but it's true. The one number that he dances to with Vera-Ellen (their first dance, not that underground one) at the reception for Sally Adams, and they sing "It's a Lovely Day Today," is out of this world. And his drunk scene where he dances on a zillion colored balloons is a masterpiece of masculine power and grace. He's also sexy in this! It's a movie where the director took two unlikely actors (Merman and O'Connor) and kind of sexed them up, it's a miracle.

Finally, there's Vera-Ellen in what I believe was her last role. She is lovely and acts the part beautifully. The people I was watching it had never seen her before and found it hard to believe she wasn't herself from Lichtenberg. She wore a bunch of ugly clothes beautifully, and comported herself like a princess, even when wearing that hat in the department store scene that made her hair fall out the back of it. But too thin, and seeing her so emaciated reminded me of her tragic end and made me feel blue.

Can't get the big number out of my head, "I hear music, and there's no one there," mixed with "You're not sick, you're just in love." When Donald O'Connor and Ethel Merman sing this, I challenge you to remain in your seats, otherwise you can't help dancing along.

One of the best musicals ever--except for the plot which is hard to understand with the loans and who wants what.



Rating:
Summary: Memorable Merman In An "Old Style Hollywood Musical" Classic
Review: With a larger-than-life personality and a voice that could blow open a barn door at thirty paces, Ethel Merman was among the great stars of Broadway for some thirty years. Hollywood, however, never quite figured out how to use her talents. Although she made a number of screen appearances over the years, whenever an Ethel Merman show went to Hollywood, someone else always got the Merman role. But there is a single exception: the 1953 screen version of CALL ME MADAM.

Although she actually had significant political credentials, Washington hostess Perle Mesta was best known for her parties--and her 1949 appointment as Ambassador to Luxemberg inspired Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse to create CALL ME MADAM. With Ethel Merman in the leading role and music and lyrics by the legendary Irving Berlin, the show proved a popular ticket in both New York and London. And surprisingly enough, when 20th Century Fox picked up the film rights, the studio decided to have Merman recreate her Tony-winning performance on screen.

Although Hollywood tweaked both script and score, the screen version is essentially the same show that delighted theatre-goers in the early 1950s. President Harry S. Truman rewards Washington hostess Sally Adams (Merman) for her support by appointing her Ambassador to a European duchy. Adams takes Kenneth (Donald O'Connor) along for the ride--and romantic complications with a European dignitary (George Sanders) and a love-lorn princess (Vera-Ellen) have farcial international complications.

CALL ME MADAM is what you might call a "standard" musical of the era; although the story references the Cold War and various political issues of the day, it doesn't go serious on you, and while the film is very obviously a take-off on Mesta the political satire involved is light and amusing rather than sharp and meanspirited. There's no denying that Merman is clearly a performer used to the stage, but she translates to the screen extremely well, and when she opens her mouth to sing you know what all the fuss was about. O'Connor, Sanders, and Vera-Ellen also fare extremely well, each one charming and playing up to Merman's larger-than-life style.

Although Berlin's score doesn't really compete with his more famous works, it is quite amusing and his lyrics have a satirical edge in keeping with story; "Hostess With The Mostes'," "Can You Use Any Money Today?," "It's A Lovely Day Today," and the roundhouse punch Merman-O'Connor duet "You're Just In Love" are witty and charming. And everything about the film sparkles and shines in classic Hollywood musical-comedy fashion. It's just enchanting, through and through.

Copyright issues kept CALL ME MADAM out of circulation for some twenty years, so any release would have been welcome--but this DVD transfer is quite good, with good sound and brilliant picture and nary a blemish to be found. The only significant bonus is a commentary by film historian Miles Kreuger, and although it is on the mild side it is quite entertaining as well. Recommended for fans of the "old style Hollywood musical"--and Merman fans in particular!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer