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Wonderful character development!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Memorable, crazy movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

To call "Doll Face" dated would be an understatement. First of all, it deals with burlesque. Secondly, Dennis O'Keefe recommends hitting women to keep them in line. And third, and most egregious, lyrics of one song celebrate the bombing the Japanese.Vivian Blaine, called Doll Face, real name Mary Elizabeth, plays a queen of burlesque who auditions for a Broadway musical, only to be recognized by one of her patrons. Though she's a lovely singer, she's rejected for the show because the producers don't feel she has enough class for their production. Nowadays they would put a chimpanzee in a Broadway musical if they thought he could make money, so there's another indication that this is an old movie.Her boyfriend (O'Keefe) decides she should ghost-write her autobiography and, after using a lot of high-faluting language, she'll be classy enough for Broadway. The man he hires, however (Michael Dunne), becomes interested in Doll Face, and not just as a client. Problems ensue.For me, this film was interesting because of the presence of a very young, extremely adorable Perry Como. I grew up with him, every Saturday night, and it was a delight to see him and hear him sing. He had a beautiful voice, singing "Red, Hot, and Beautiful," "Here Comes Heaven Again," and "Dig You Later." Martha Stewart, a vivacious performer, did an energetic job as someone wanting to take Doll Face's place. And Carmen Miranda was...Carmen Miranda, singing "Chico Chico."There were lots of numbers in this film and not much story. The music was by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson and was pleasant. It was just hard to get past extolling domestic abuse and bombing innocent people. Don't get me wrong. The Japanese government was very aggressive against the U.S., and what they did in China was atrocious. But that was their government, and not its citizens, who were told Japan was winning. The bombing remains controversial. And it doesn't belong in a song.

Although it is also loosely based on the life of burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, this uninspired film is much less interesting than the 1962 musical Gypsy with Natalie Wood in the title role. Here, Vivian Blaine struggles through a tedious script, with Dennis O'Keefe blustering his way through as her lover. The best reason to watch this film is to see Perry Como, later to become a crooning television superstar, in a rare film role and Carmen Miranda dancing and camping her way through "Chico Chico." Como and Blaine bring some culture shock to the film when they sing "Dig You Later (A-Hubba Hubba Hubba)," mocking Japan for losing World War II and homogenizing African-American hep-cat style for a white audience. Available on DVD in the 20th Century Fox "Marquee Musicals" series, Doll Face is a curiosity, not a classic.

The back of my DVD jacket features a large picture of Carmen Miranda wearing a lighthouse attached to a turban. Curiously, this doesn't appear in the film! However, there is an outtake on my DVD of Carmen prancing around on a burlesque stage in her signature platform sandals, a shimmering skimpy outfit, and this lighthouse headpiece, singing "True to the Navy", with a sailor group backup. According to this web site, somebody at Fox forgot to get permission from Paramount to use the featured song until it was too late to cut out some of the advance film publicity shots when Fox learned that Paramount refused to let them use their song. Thus, we are left with only one Carmen specialty number, and in B&W, whereas in her previous Fox films, she had 2 or 3 specialty numbers, all in gorgeous Technicolor. Her number : "Chico, Chico" is lively , with quite a few 'colorful' background characters. Carmen dances around in bare feet, in a Puerto Rican peasant market place-themed production. She wears a simple turban, but many of the extras have various imaginative headpieces. As in "The Gang's All Here", her changing background occasionally appears to greatly extend her headpiece. Actually, it's one of her best productions. Still, for a woman who practically singlehandedly induced Fox to start filming many of its musicals in color, it must have felt like a slap in the face to have her last 2 Fox musicals done in B&W, and to have, in her last 4 films, some of Fox's "B" musical stars, rather than her accustomed "A" team costars. Perhaps the thinking at Fox was that Carmen, as an established star, could guarantee an audience for films otherwise featuring their "B" leads. On the other hand, it was also true that the need to promote FDR's 'good neighbor ' policy toward Latin America was nearing its end, and the perception was that the novelty of Carmen's outrageous screen persona was beginning to wane with audiences. This is the 3rd of a series of 4 musicals released in 44-46, in which Carmen was teamed with new "B" musical leading lady Vivian Blaine, who basically replaces Alice Faye or Betty Grable in Fox's "A" team, getting to sing the romantic ballads and participate in the main romantic entanglements. Also, established singer, but newcomer to Hollywood, Perry Como was included in 3 of these films, as either primarily a singing specialist or a leading character in the plot. Here, it looks like they wanted him to be the leading romantic man, but knew his acting was stiff and bland, and he often looked sleepy. Hence, better when his screen time and role was limited, as in "Something for the Boys". He sings the slow ballad "Here Comes Heaven Again", once solo, and again with Vivian in the finale. He also sings twice the up tempo romantic piece "Red Hot and Beautiful", with female chorus. But, the hit of the film was the upbeat novelty "Hubba, Hubba, Hubba", also featuring Martha Stewart, in her film debut. A former band singer, Martha would remain a supporting actress in a limited Hollywood career. I remember her as a significant presence in the musicals "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?" and "Are You with It?". At least she actually sang her songs, while some much more hyped actresses were mostly dubbed. After Perry sings his sleepy version of "Somebody's Walking in My Dream", she steps off a crescent moon in the background and does a sexy up tempo version. She again upstages Perry, following his staid 2nd rendition of "Red Hot and Beautiful", with an appropriate sexy version, while prancing around the burlesque stage in mimicry of Vivian's prior performance. Actually, I think she outdoes Vivian as well, being an excellent actress as well as singer. Incidentally, the Wikipedia site and this site fail to credit Martha with this performance, only mentioning Vivian's prior performance! I can't really fault any of the songs. Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson did a good job with the all original score. There weren't a lot of songs, so several were used several times, often by more than one soloist. That's better than more songs, but half stinkers!Returning to the hit "Hubba, Hubba, Hubba": Perhaps more than any other song of the times, it expresses the jubilation over the recent conclusion of WWII, thumbing their noses at the defeated Japanese, and telling the servicemen to go home, have some frivolous fun, then find a girl to marry, and get ready for a bright future. The expression "Hubba Hubba" was then in vague as an alternative to a 'wolf whistle', or to denote excitement about anything. In this production, both usages are evident. Vivian used it informally in her next film: "If I'm Lucky".As others have detailed, the screenplay is rather trifling and standard fare, with the lead female going back and forth between 2 men, and with the much repeated ambition to rise from low class performances to Broadway status. Unlike most of her other Fox films, Carmen doesn't have anyone with comedic talent to interact with. Too bad someone like Bob Hope, Red Skelton,or Phil Silvers wasn't included, as she had great comedic talent, given the right setup. Instead of comedy between the musical numbers, as in "Something for the Boys", we get mostly lackluster drama. Yep, the male leads and supports were all pretty faceless, save for Perry, and their romance with 'Doll Face' unconvincing. Nor does Vivian make a convincing stripper. If you have a DVD, fast forward between the musical numbers, and you won't miss much.

Veteran song and dance beauty Vivian Blaine plays Mary Elizabeth Carroll, better known as burlesque star 'Doll Face', has her sights set high for the legitimate stage. Her boyfriend manager Mike Hannegan(Dennis O'Keefe)is her number one booster; and convinces her to hire a ghost writer, Fredrick Manly Gerard(Michael Dunne), to help with an auto-biography to prove she has attained 'class'. Of course, the writer comes between the songstress and her guy.Blaine sings "Somebody's Walking in My Dream" and reprises a couple of nice tunes, "Here Come's Heaven Again" and "Red, Hot and Beautiful" with crooner Perry Como, who sings one of his break-through songs "Dig You Late(A-Hubba Hubba Hubba)". And the one and only Carmen Miranda as Chita Chula sings "Chico Chico". This fun over-looked musical is based on a play by Gypsy Rose Lee.