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By PAUL BRENNER
Broadway legend Ethel Merman is known more these days for her infamous "The Ethel Merman Disco Album" and for badgering Milton Berle in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." This is because her brilliant Broadway star turns -- "Panama Hattie," "Dubary Was A Lady," "Annie Get Your Gun," "Gypsy" -- are all lost to history, the film versions of her Broadway roles played by Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, Betty Hutton, and Rosalind Russell, brilliant women all but no Merman. The exception to the rule was Irving Berlin's "Call Me Madam," the archetypal Merman star vehicle, for which Merman won a Tony Award. This was one performance where Merman was the whole show and, in 1953, a film version had to have Merman as the lead. Twentieth Century Fox did right by Merman in Walter Lang's breezy and brassy adaptation. The problem has been in seeing it. Due to legal problems with the Irving Berlin estate, the film has never been released on video and only available through sporadic television showings. That is until now. The new Fox Home Entertainment release settles that question once and for all.
Berlin's energetic Broadway show is, on the surface, extremely dated. The Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse book is a gentle satire of the Washington scene circa 1951, so there is a plethora of Harry Truman jokes that may have been hilarious in 1951 but in the history-less millennium may been greeted with obtuseness from viewers whose sense of history expires with "Pitch Black." It is also an old-fashioned musical vehicle, the slim plot being an excuse to showcase Merman (although with the success of Hugh Jackman's "The Boy From Oz" this type of musical show may be making a comeback).
But what a showcase! Merman plays Sally Adams, a Washington hostess loosely based on the real life Perle Mesta, a Washington party-thrower whom Truman picked as ambassador to Luxembourg. In "Call Me Madam," the Luxembourg is the fictitious Lichtenburg. Taking along Kenneth (Donald O'Connor), her private secretary, Sally falls in love with a quieter, gentler (and Ezio Pinza-esque singing) George Sanders, while Kenneth pines for the royal princess (Vera-Ellen).
Merman sells her songs like a tobacco auctioneer -- she telegraphs his vocals so loudly that you can turn the volume down all the way and still hear her clearly -- and her blaring voice rides through your spinal column (during their numbers together, O'Connor purportedly wore earplugs) like quicksilver. But her energy level is electric and when she is on-screen attention must be paid. It is doubtful that anyone else can be imagined singing "The Hostess With the Mostes On the Ball," "Can You Use Any Money Today," and "The International Rag," She is one performer who delivers constantly and, based upon her commanding performance here, one regrets the extreme lose of her presence in the film version of "Gypsy."
O'Connor, in arguably his greatest post-"Singin' in the Rain" dance performance, ably holds his own with Merman in the delightful "You're Just in Love" and cuts loose in a drunken solo turn in "What Chance Have I." He also all smooth style singing "It's a Lovely Day Today" crooning to Vera-Ellen.
Lang's direction is pedestrian and clunky, a particular stylistic bump of Fox musicals, but who cares? This is a premier performance film and the performers are paramount. Particularly Merman. And, with "Call Me Madam," it is Merman at her "mostes."
The extras include an audio commentary by Miles Kreuger, a teaser trailer and trailer, along with trailers for other Fox musicals. The DVD provides English stereo and English mono tracks and is subtitled in English and Spanish. |
