moonspinner55 Fictionalized, romanticized tale of the real-life Dolly Sisters, Hungarian siblings who arrived in the States as little girls in 1904 and grew up to be international showgirls. Story reconfigured as a star-vehicle for Betty Grable, who looks terrific and gives one of her better, less unctuous performances. June Haver, as kid sis Rosie, matches up well alongside Grable, yet the two actresses are rarely in sync during their musical numbers; worse, the character of Rosie is under-developed, and her actions in the final reel are unclear. The tacky color production doesn't help but the supporting players do, with John Payne well-cast as songwriter Harry Fox who marries Grable's Jenny before leaving for duty in WWI. The picture's time-line is fuzzy, and the reunion finale is limp, however several of the stage numbers have spirit, particularly a Cotton Club-styled production and a batty Ziegfeld extravaganza. Twentieth Century-Fox did a paste-up job on most of the picture, undercutting the drama with winking camp, but Grable works hard and makes it worthwhile. ** from ****

bkoganbing The Dolly Sisters is another of those nostalgic biographical film salutes to a pair of twin sisters from Hungary who became celebrated entertainers in those years before World War I and the Roaring Twenties. Both sisters had a few marriages and suffered many ups and downs in their lives. Of course this being Hollywood we're getting quite a sanitized version of them.They were in fact identical twins, but 20th Century Fox did not decide to cast one actress in both roles. Originally it was supposed to be Alice Faye and Betty Grable, but Alice took her screen retirement when Darryl Zanuck would not give her more dramatic roles and June Haver was brought in to replace. Both Grable and Haver had their hair done in the same style, wore the same outfits all the time and my guess was that Haver who was slightly smaller wore platforms to give her equal height or almost equal height with Grable.A lot of interpolated period music is used, but Jimmy Monaco and Mack Gordon wrote one original song I Can't Begin To Tell You which was nominated for an Oscar. It also has the unique distinction of being the only song Betty Grable commercially recorded during her stint at Fox because Zanuck did not like his stars singing for records. She did a vocal with her husband Harry James's band under a pseudonym at the time. Later releases credit Betty. But the big selling record of this song was by Bing Crosby with only a piano accompaniment by Carmen Cavallaro. It was one of Bing's biggest sellers. It's sung at various times in the film by Betty, June and John Payne and a few combinations thereof.John Payne plays Harry Fox, song and dance man who Grable marries and leaves. In real life they never got back together which is what the film alludes to. Also it shows Fox as being jealous of the success of the sisters. In fact he was a success before they were and Jenny Dolly was accused of marrying him to boost her career. In fact that was an accusation leveled at both sisters who made a few advantageous matches.In real life there was no happy ending for Jenny Dolly, she committed suicide in 1941, she was in a lot of pain and never recovered from the automobile accident that Betty Grable was shown to have. Rosie Dolly's final marriage was to a department store heir and she survived her sister by 29 years.Since much was made in real life of the sister's Hungarian ancestry you had to have S.Z. Sakall in this film as their lovable uncle who's constantly losing money at pinochle. My grandfather was a heavy pinochle player as well so it's something I could identify with. Sakall was with Warner Brothers at the time and I'd love to know what Darryl Zanuck had to give in return to Jack Warner for Sakall's services. As always Sakall is his lovable self, you could just reach into the TV to pinch his cheeks.The Dolly Sisters is a fine nostalgic and sanitized biographical film with a lot of gaudy color for a pair of gaudy sisters. It should only have gone this easy for the real Dolly Sisters.

weezeralfalfa Essentially a more lavish Technicolor remake of the 1940 B&W film "Tin Pan Alley", including two of the stars of the original: John Payne and Betty Grable. Both films have their relative pluses and minuses. I enjoyed the many outlandish costumes of the female stars and of the various extras, a common feature of many 1940s musicals. Grable and June Haver are much more of a sister act than Alice Faye and Grable were in the original, when they mostly performed their own numbers. The troubled on again off again romances, which fill in between musical shows, get awfully tedious, more so than in the original. If Alice Faye had taken Haver's part, as originally planned, it would have been interesting to see if she were again cast as the dominant sister(I doubt it). To me, Faye has more charisma than Haver, but the later makes a more look alike sister for Grable. I really missed Jack Oakie in this one. Frank Latimore was simply not an adequate substitute for Oakie's cheerful comic relief from Payne's serious demeanor. Payne's character is much more of a heel than in the original. That poor foxy woman he led on to believe he cared more for than Grable, left alone in the audience in the final scene, when he was reunited with Grable on the stage!

florriebbc I was 8 years old when I first saw this movie in 1945. I was so impressed with the blond beauty of both girls and to know that the Dolly Sisters were real people. June Haver and Betty Grable really looked alike. In my childs mind I thought they were my private dancers and I wanted to be just like them. I actually thought I was the only one who knew about them and they were my secret......What a kid! Thanks for listening. Florence Forrester-Stockton