Golden Girl

A most fictionalized biography of 19th century star Lotta Crabtree is the subject of Golden Girl. Having just read the Wikipedia article concerning Crabtree a real version of her life would be a truly great picture.

Mitzi Gaynor of whom it has been said came along just a tad too late and missed the real golden era of Hollywood musicals during the 30s and 40s plays the title role. She was one of the best dancers of the female gender ever to hit the big screen and there was no need to dub her singing voice. Mitzi would have been a much bigger star a bit earlier, she had all the right talents.

Her romance with courtly southerner Dale Robertson was a pure fiction, but Robertson is just fine in a role tailored for his talent and speech pattern.

Sharing the singing duties with Gaynor is Dennis Day taking time off from the Jack Benny program. Dennis gets to sing the song Never which got an Oscar nomination.

James Barton and Una Merkel play Lotta's parents and Barton who was an old song and dance man himself and scored a big hit on Broadway in Paint Your Wagon around this time gets a nice number with Gaynor. The name Crabtree suits Merkel's complaining character. Wikipedia says that the real Lotta Crabtree's parents were from Great Britain, but there sure is no trace of any of that kind of accent with Barton and Merkel.

Golden Girl is fine musical entertainment even though it's not a patch on the real story of Lotta Crabtree.