Watch Call Me Madam For Free

Admirable film.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

After so many years of reading about this Irving Berlin musical, I finally watched Call Me Madam twice. The first time was just the movie, the second time was with great commentary by Miles Kreuger who usually stays silent for the great songs that come in play. Anyway, seeing Ethel Merman recreate her Broadway role is such a treat since it very rarely happened to her when she did movies. And the people she was paired with for this version-George Sanders as her leading man and Donald O'Connor as her assistant-are perfect with her especially the latter when they sing the counterpoint-duet, "You're Just in Love". Also great is Vera-Ellen whenever she and O'Connor dance up a storm. In fact, when I read they almost reteamed in White Christmas and Donald couldn't do it because of illness, I felt a little sad even though Danny Kaye wasn't a bad replacement in that one. Of those leads, only Vera-Ellen's singing voice is dubbed by one Carol Richards who I previously knew sang with Bing Crosby on "Silver Bells" and now, due to Kreuger, know dubbed Cyd Charisse in many of her M-G-M musicals. Despite that, it wasn't too noticeably different from her actual voice so it was all right and a good compliment to the others especially Sanders who warbles here for the only time on film. Oh, and there are quite a few good comedy set pieces like when Ms. Merman goes to meet the king and queen of the country she's visiting. Okay, while Call Me Madam isn't a perfect movie, it's a highly enjoyable one and kudos to director Walter Lang for putting this all together. So yes, that's a recommendation. P.S. In acknowledging people native to my birthtown of Chicago, Ill., I was pleasantly surprised to find out Mr. O'Connor was from there.

Wonderful from beginning to end and the end came too soon. Merman sometimes gets to be a bit much in other circumstances but here she is (forgive the pun) pitch perfect and so is the entire cast. Perhaps I finally, after resisting for thirty years, have finally fallen for George Sanders. What a fine figure of a man as they used to say. Mrs. Muir may have been onto something while I couldn't get past Rex Harrison. Oh well. It is never too late to feel that ping of recognition that I absolutely love this endearing film and just about everyone in it. I'd be pleased to call her madam anytime. Wow. Catch it whenever you can.

Ethel Merman's overly-jovial, happily impersonal, maniacally spirited stage persona didn't always translate well to the silver screen (she was accused of projecting too big, as was Carol Channing). She certainly had some worthwhile movie opportunities however, this bright musical from Fox--modeled on the career of Perle Mesta--being one of them. Merman plays a Washington, D.C. hostess who is appointed U.S. Ambassador to Lichtenberg by her good friend Harry Truman, whom she telephones once in a while to check up on. Farcical, frantic and thoroughly insincere, the picture is still a marvel to behold as seen in unreal Technicolor (looking like 20 different flavors of Jell-O). Finger-snapping Merman is a hoot in her duet with lackey Donald O'Connor ("Your heart goes pitter-patter/I know just what's the matter..."), although Ethel never really adjoins herself to anybody else: she's intent on towing this ship fully on her own steam. It's a snug, entertaining concoction, though one which is apt to amusingly perplex and frazzle those unfamiliar with Merman's impertinent charm and gimme-some-elbow-room gusto. **1/2 from ****

Cover your ears, here's Ethel Merman, shouting her dialogue and her songs – many of them at George Sanders. She's the American hostess becoming ambassador to a small European kingdom and falling in love with the foreign minister, in this colourful adaptation of a stage musical. Merman's performance is enormous: far too big for the film, and though she raises a handful of laughs with a fitfully witty script, she's pretty grating. Thank goodness then for second leads Donald O'Connor and Vera-Ellen, who light up the screen as one of cinema's most enchanting couples. O'Connor's drunken barroom dance is the absolute highlight here, but the pair's six numbers (four of them together) are all delightful. Sanders is amiable but bland. A good supporting cast and some wonderful sets help.(3 out of 4)