Unlike most cinematic musicals of the fifties, "Calamity Jane" did not start life as a stage production. It was written for the cinema and, reversing the normal order, transferred to the stage later. It was devised by Warner Brothers in response to the success of MGM's "Annie Get Your Gun", another comedy musical based (loosely) upon the life of a real Wild West heroine. The two films shared the same male lead, Howard Keel, who was later to star in another Western-themed musical, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Indeed, the two films nearly had the same female lead as well; MGM considered Doris Day for "Annie" but were unable to obtain her for contractual reasons.
The film is set in the Wild West town of Deadwood. The local theatre has difficulty attracting top-name actresses, so local heroine Calamity Jane travels to Chicago to try and persuade the famous Broadway star Adelaid (thus spelled) Adams to appear in Deadwood. Unfortunately, there is a mix-up with the plan. The real Adelaid has just left for a tour of Europe, and the girl Calamity brings back with her is her star-struck maid Katie (who is pretending to be Adelaid in order to kick-start her own stage career). After an uncertain start, in which her deception is exposed, Katie proves to be a big hit in Deadwood, and moves in to live with Calamity.
The plot is essentially an expansion of the familiar eternal triangle into a quadrilateral. Katie and the handsome young cavalry Lieutenant Dan Gilmartin fall in love, thus disappointing both Calamity (who has always been sweet on Dan) and her friend Wild Bill Hickok (who has fallen in love with Katie). After numerous complications everything ends happily when Calamity and Bill suddenly discover that they are both really in love with each other, thus paving the way for a happy ending with a big double wedding.
If one were casting a serious film about a rough, tough cowgirl who can ride, shoot, lasso and fight "Injuns" as well as any man, then Doris Day, the sweet-faced, sweet-voiced, All-American blonde girl-next-door, would not normally be one's first choice for the leading role. This, however, is not a serious film. Day is so obviously unsuited to the role that I can only assume this was an example of deliberate miscasting for comic effect. Normally seen dressed in a buckskin suit and Army cap, Day tries to show just how tough Calamity is by a series of hilariously unconvincing gestures- pouting, sticking her chin out defiantly and trying to lower her voice. No doubt the real Martha Jane Canary-Burke could not only ride and shoot, but also cuss and hold her liquor, as well as a man, but in the film she drinks nothing stronger than sarsaparilla. As for swearing, authentic cuss-words were taboo in 1953, so they had to be replaced by picturesque slang such as "hornswoggled" and "varmint". (As that po-faced website "Christian Spotlight on the Movies" puts it, "There's no profanity, but a lot of profanity substitutes").
Calamity's pronunciation also leaves a lot to be desired, the final syllables of words giving her particular difficulties. She always pronounces "Chicago" as "Chicargee", "sarsaparilla" becomes "sasparilly", "massacre" becomes "massacree", and "cigarette" is pronounced throughout as "cigareet" (including by some of the other characters). I am not sure if these pronunciations are meant to reflect her lack of education, or if they were genuine dialectal variants in 1870s South Dakota.
The casting of the obviously feminine Day as the tomboyish Calamity may have been done for reasons other than comic effect. It supports the film's rather un-feminist message that beneath the skin of even the most hard-bitten frontierswoman is a sweet young thing just dying to get out and exchange her buckskins for pretty, frilly dresses. (Sexism seemed to be endemic in Western musicals; compared to the rampantly sexist "Seven Brides...", "Calamity Jane" looks like something out of Andrea Dworkin). It also serves to soften the rather obvious lesbian overtones to the relationship between Calamity and Katie. (Obvious, that is, to everyone except "Christian Spotlight", who strangely missed this one out of their litany of complaints about the film, and to the film censors of the day who let the film through without objection). It is (or was at one time) a common misconception that every lesbian couple consists of "butch" and "femme" partners, and the cross-dressing Calamity and the more feminine Katie fit these particular stereotypes rather too neatly for comfort.
Like Calamity, Hickok was a real-life figure in the Old West. (Because of the similarity of our surnames I was at one stage in my school career nicknamed "Wild Bill"). He was undoubtedly a friend of Calamity Jane, and may have been her lover. In reality he had a reputation not only as a gambler but also as a dangerous gunslinger, but here Howard Keel plays him more as Tame Bill Hickok, suave, gentlemanly, well-groomed and clean-shaven, although the real Wild Bill was famous for his unkempt long hair and straggly moustache.
It would, however, be wrong to take this film too seriously. It is, of course, not meant to be a realistic portrayal of the American West in the 1870s, but rather a light-hearted musical comedy, and as such it succeeds very well. Day and Keel both had fine voices, and there are some very tuneful musical numbers such as "Deadwood Stage", "Windy City" and "Secret Love". If the contrived ending seems implausible, I should point out, in defence of the scriptwriters, that Shakespeare often made use of similar endings with multiple weddings in his comedies. 7/10
The film is set in the Wild West town of Deadwood. The local theatre has difficulty attracting top-name actresses, so local heroine Calamity Jane travels to Chicago to try and persuade the famous Broadway star Adelaid (thus spelled) Adams to appear in Deadwood. Unfortunately, there is a mix-up with the plan. The real Adelaid has just left for a tour of Europe, and the girl Calamity brings back with her is her star-struck maid Katie (who is pretending to be Adelaid in order to kick-start her own stage career). After an uncertain start, in which her deception is exposed, Katie proves to be a big hit in Deadwood, and moves in to live with Calamity.
The plot is essentially an expansion of the familiar eternal triangle into a quadrilateral. Katie and the handsome young cavalry Lieutenant Dan Gilmartin fall in love, thus disappointing both Calamity (who has always been sweet on Dan) and her friend Wild Bill Hickok (who has fallen in love with Katie). After numerous complications everything ends happily when Calamity and Bill suddenly discover that they are both really in love with each other, thus paving the way for a happy ending with a big double wedding.
If one were casting a serious film about a rough, tough cowgirl who can ride, shoot, lasso and fight "Injuns" as well as any man, then Doris Day, the sweet-faced, sweet-voiced, All-American blonde girl-next-door, would not normally be one's first choice for the leading role. This, however, is not a serious film. Day is so obviously unsuited to the role that I can only assume this was an example of deliberate miscasting for comic effect. Normally seen dressed in a buckskin suit and Army cap, Day tries to show just how tough Calamity is by a series of hilariously unconvincing gestures- pouting, sticking her chin out defiantly and trying to lower her voice. No doubt the real Martha Jane Canary-Burke could not only ride and shoot, but also cuss and hold her liquor, as well as a man, but in the film she drinks nothing stronger than sarsaparilla. As for swearing, authentic cuss-words were taboo in 1953, so they had to be replaced by picturesque slang such as "hornswoggled" and "varmint". (As that po-faced website "Christian Spotlight on the Movies" puts it, "There's no profanity, but a lot of profanity substitutes").
Calamity's pronunciation also leaves a lot to be desired, the final syllables of words giving her particular difficulties. She always pronounces "Chicago" as "Chicargee", "sarsaparilla" becomes "sasparilly", "massacre" becomes "massacree", and "cigarette" is pronounced throughout as "cigareet" (including by some of the other characters). I am not sure if these pronunciations are meant to reflect her lack of education, or if they were genuine dialectal variants in 1870s South Dakota.
The casting of the obviously feminine Day as the tomboyish Calamity may have been done for reasons other than comic effect. It supports the film's rather un-feminist message that beneath the skin of even the most hard-bitten frontierswoman is a sweet young thing just dying to get out and exchange her buckskins for pretty, frilly dresses. (Sexism seemed to be endemic in Western musicals; compared to the rampantly sexist "Seven Brides...", "Calamity Jane" looks like something out of Andrea Dworkin). It also serves to soften the rather obvious lesbian overtones to the relationship between Calamity and Katie. (Obvious, that is, to everyone except "Christian Spotlight", who strangely missed this one out of their litany of complaints about the film, and to the film censors of the day who let the film through without objection). It is (or was at one time) a common misconception that every lesbian couple consists of "butch" and "femme" partners, and the cross-dressing Calamity and the more feminine Katie fit these particular stereotypes rather too neatly for comfort.
Like Calamity, Hickok was a real-life figure in the Old West. (Because of the similarity of our surnames I was at one stage in my school career nicknamed "Wild Bill"). He was undoubtedly a friend of Calamity Jane, and may have been her lover. In reality he had a reputation not only as a gambler but also as a dangerous gunslinger, but here Howard Keel plays him more as Tame Bill Hickok, suave, gentlemanly, well-groomed and clean-shaven, although the real Wild Bill was famous for his unkempt long hair and straggly moustache.
It would, however, be wrong to take this film too seriously. It is, of course, not meant to be a realistic portrayal of the American West in the 1870s, but rather a light-hearted musical comedy, and as such it succeeds very well. Day and Keel both had fine voices, and there are some very tuneful musical numbers such as "Deadwood Stage", "Windy City" and "Secret Love". If the contrived ending seems implausible, I should point out, in defence of the scriptwriters, that Shakespeare often made use of similar endings with multiple weddings in his comedies. 7/10