calvinnme MGM bought a seventeen song musical comedy, threw out thirteen songs ("It Ain't Etiquette", "Well, Did You Evah", and "But In The Morning, No" can still be heard as backg round music) and had five studio composers take care of the rest of the score ("Salome" is their best contribution).The plot--Film takes place in a nightclub. Louis (Skelton) is in love with May (Lucille Ball). After he accidentally drinks a Mickey, he dreams he's back in 1743 France, where he is Louis XV, and May is Madame DuBarry.To me, Skelton is unbearable when he plays stupid; here, he takes forever to get the idea he's back in France, and tramples jokes into the ground. I don't know if that's his fault or the fault of director Del Ruth.Ball is good as May/Madame DuBarry. She saves the second half of the film with her comedy skills where she makes a fool out of Louis XV. She is dubbed for most of her songs, but her real voice can be heard in the song "Friendship".Gene Kelly is good as Alec/The Black Arrow. He has the best song ("Do I Love You") and an excellent dance number on the nightclub stage.Virginia O'Brien makes "Salome" a memorable song. Look for Marilyn Maxwell in a bit , and Lana Turner in an uncredited bit.

diannes-612-762028 Absolutely LOVE this movie!!!They definitely don't make wonderful movies like DuBarry anymore. So creative. Lucille Ball so young and beautiful! I could watch this movie every day! Red Skelton whom I loved as a child. Virginia O' Brien is funny and beautiful as well. Bears a striking resemblance to Heddy Lamar. Great acting throughout. This movie is fantastic. Why is it just showing up? So many wonderful movies I'm just discovering,!

howardeismanart On reviewer said that only a 5th grade child could appreciate this movie. Well, when I first saw it-the year of it's release-I was a 2nd grade child. Red Skelton's prat falls and his mugging seemed hilarious to me-then! Otherwise, I was clueless as to what was going on.What stayed in my memory for decades after was the dazzling color, This was probably the first technicolor movie I had even seen. Technicolor movies were still scarce and a great novelty. Thus, the color itself was enough to etch this film in my memory. Also, all the color was amped up beyond any connection to real life, and the sets, the clothing and even Lucy's hair were bright and saturated color. Wow!Now, unfortunately, the movie lacks wit and it drags a bit. I now worry that Skelton might injure himself in one of his multitudinous falls. Lucy is not at all funny, and, despite her showy looks, not a whit sexy. Virginia O'Brien is very good. Too bad she didn't have more songs. No one in the movie seemed to have any more of an idea of who Dubarry was and what her relationship to Louis X IV was than I did at the age of seven. The music was good and Ziggy Elman and Buddy Rich were happily prominent..When a bunch of young women parade in front of the camera, you can expect that one or two go on to some movie fame. I spotted Marilyn Maxwell and Hillary Brooke in this movie. It had enough to keep me watching, and it brought back colorful memories of a distant world to me.

dougdoepke Well, there's not that many laughs despite Skelton and Mostel, while the music and dance numbers are pretty spotty despite Dorsey and Kelly, and even the queen of slapstick Lucille Ball seems a tad on the stiff side. No, the material is not up to the level of talent involved. Even the screenplay comes across like a series of hasty compromises. Now, if any other studio were in charge, I would say the results are only for hardcore fans of any of the above. But this is big-budget MGM, and this is a musical, so the production values are simply superb even when all the rest falters. In short, the color is lavish, the costuming exquisite, and the dream-sequence sets ornate down to the smallest detail. Thus, whatever other shortcomings, the movie amounts to a literal feast for the eyes. Now, I'm no particular fan of that famously detached studio, but this is precisely the kind of production where MGM's dream-factory values excelled. So there are real compensations to the general mediocrity of the material.In passing—I expect wartime audiences really enjoyed this lavish brand of escapism. However, I worry about it's being shown to our troops abroad—all those full-color close-ups of ravishing girls spreading the glamour on a mile thick. One of two results is going to happen—either the boys are going to win the war in short order, or there'll be more guys swimming the oceans than you can count. Fortunately, it looks like the boys decided to win the war first.