Mother Wore Tights (1947)

A young girl (Betty Grable) fresh out of high school is supposed to attend business college but she ends up in the chorus of a vaudeville show. The show's headliner (Dan Dailey) takes a shine to her and invites her to partner with him. Based on the novel by Miriam Young and directed by Walter Lang (THE KING AND I). While I love musicals, I'm not fond of Fox's period musicals usually starring Grable, Alice Faye or June Haver. This one starts off better than most but once Grable and Dailey get married and start a family, the film takes a nosedive into corn and sentimentality. The movie was a huge hit in 1947 and many consider it Grable's best film. She's appealing as ever but if the film belongs to anybody it belongs to Dailey. Still, what can you say about a film whose highlight is a performance by Senor Wences (a ventriloquist who uses his left hand as a talking puppet)? Anne Baxter does the narration and the rest of the cast includes Mona Freeman, Connie Marshall, Lee Patrick, Sara Allgood, Robert Arthur, Ruth Nelson, Sig Ruman and Lottie Stein.