Even sixty-five years ago this would probably have seemed like a tail- end example of the great late thirties and forties Fox musicals turned out by Fox and a 'resident' team including Alice Fay, Don Ameche, John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Tyrone Power and Betty Grable, who succeeded Alice Faye as Queen of the Lot and was herself succeeded by Marilyn Monroe. Watching it today the overall impression is of s popular genre running out of steam. Harold Arlen's score is lacklustre by his standards though he would turn out A Star Is Born four years later. One of the most interesting segments is the Friendly Islands number, a parody of South Pacific (then in its second year on Broadway) in which Mitzi Gaynor - in her first feature film - actually sings the words South Pacific, and would, of course, go on to play the lead in the film version one decade later. David Wayne is probably the best thing in it and certainly gets the lion's share of the laughs.
Review of My Blue Heaven
