DuBarry Was a Lady

DuBarry Was a Lady (MGM 1943)

Lana and Red Skelton in 1943's "DuBarry Was a Lady". Lou Valentino Collection

Production Dates: August 1942-November 6, 1942

Release Date: August 13, 1943.

Credited Cast and Crew:

Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Gene Kelly, Lana Turner (in a cameo appearance).

Directed by: Roy Del Ruth

Writing Credits: Herbert Fields, Buddy G. DeSylva (play), Nancy Hamilton (adaptation), Irving Brecher (screenplay), Wilkie C. Mahoney (dialogue)

Produced by: Arthur Freed

Non-Original Music by: Cole Porter, Paul Ash, George Bassman, Eric Coates, Jimmie Davis, Walter Donaldson, Theo A. Metz, Charles Mitchell, Roy Ringwald, Maurice Yvain

Cinematography by: Karl Freund

Synopsis: What's a guy to do? Hat check man Louis Blore is smitten with nightclub star May Daly- but May has eyes for someone else.

My Review: Lucille Ball's red-haired beauty and actress Virginia O' Brien's rendition of the song Salome, highlight this otherwise routine MGM musical comedy. The plot is fairly easy to swallow, Skelton plays a hat check boy, Louis Blore, who is smitten with actress May Daly (played by Ball) and watches her from afar only to watch her fall into the arms of someone else (dancer Alec Howe played by Gene Kelly). When he wins the lottery and asks May to marry him, she accepts but not before he hits his head and dreams that he is the King Louis XV, pursuing Madame DuBarry.

Part of my issue with the film is that it moves slowly and the story is all over the place. Why all of a sudden is the hat check guy dancing and singing in a top hat and tails? He's not a performer, so how is it that he just can walk up onto the stage whenever he feels like it? Is it a fantasy of his because he has won the lottery or are we just supposed to suspend disbelief and just say "Oh. Ok, that's what all hat check guys do". It's never explained why.

Lucille Ball's singing voice (believe it or not) sounds just great, which will surprise any viewer who has only seen her in I Love Lucy. At thirty-two she looks ravishing, with flaming red hair, flaming red lips and ivory white skin. She does the best she can with the preposterous plot and is light years away from her "Lucy Ricardo" character. She has great chemistry with Gene Kelly. The same can't be said of Skelton, though I suspect that the screen writers may have done that on purpose to convey the idea that she is repelled by him. O' Brien's Salome and Lana's thirty second cameo, in which she appears as a fantasy figure of Skelton during his rendition of the song I Love an Esquire Girl (even at this early stage of her career she already had a sense of humor about herself), causing him to faint, and her to wink at the camera, are the highlights worth waiting for.

Your Review: What are YOUR thoughts on this film? Contact me at Liza@lanaturneronline.com

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