Screen-version of the Broadway musical revue from 1946 reconfigured as a Betty Grable vehicle by Fox, who saddled their star with a dull roster of leading men. She's a stage performer from the Great White Way who is currently performing in Tokyo with the Army-sponsored show "The Cats" and dodging ladies' man Dan Dailey, whom we first see trying to sell his tap shoes (!). She hears about volunteers needed for entertainment in Kyoto and beats it out of town with her gal-pal, only to run into military red tape when requesting 40 talented enlisted men to perform in her show and help move scenery. We never see Grable's Kay Hudson conceive her elaborate revue titled "Call Me Mister"--she seems to have it all worked out in her head--but the audition sequence with the soldiers is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there's also Danny Thomas as a dishwashing private who's anxious to get in on the act and date Kay, but she gives him the brush-off when Dailey reappears (and if there was ever an also-ran, it's Danny Thomas). Dailey's Sgt. Dooley puts his dancing shoes back on for Kay's show thinking he's AWOL (he's really not, but don't ask why)--plus, it turns out he's really Kay's husband (ah, that's why he spends the night in her quarters!). And then there's dimply Dale Robertson as a captain who proposes marriage to Kay...and Richard Boone as a disgruntled mess sergeant...and Benay Venuta as Kay's girlfriend, who pushes Thomas out on stage unexpectedly to do a comedy routine that has the on-screen audience in stitches. None of it makes any sense, and screenwriters Albert E. Lewin and Burt Styler wouldn't know a funny line if they tripped over one, but the tap dancing sequences staged by Busby Berkeley are lively and the final number, "Love is Back in Business" composed by Sammy Fain and Mack Gordon, provides a colorful send-off. ** from ****
Review of Call Me Mister
