Movie Review: Doll Face (1945)
“Doll Face” Carroll (Vivian Blaine) is a burlesque queen who wants to move into Broadway productions. When slightly snobbish producer Flo Hartman (Reed Hadley) scorns her audition because Doll Face isn’t “cultured”, her manager Mike Hannegan (Dennis O’Keefe) comes up with the idea of making her seem more accomplished by having her write an book.
The problem there is that Doll Face has no idea what to write, even if she were lettered enough to try. Mike assures her that this will not be an issue, as he will hire a ghost writer to help her create an autobiography. This writer is top-seller Frederick Manley Gerard (Stephen Dunne), an intellectual who loves lofty vocabulary and has no interest in burlesque. He does, however, take an interest in Doll Face.
Frederick turns out to be willing to fudge the facts considerably to make Doll Face’s biography more interesting (moving her birthplace from Brooklyn to Arden Hills, for example.) His smooth talk and kindness also make him a strong contrast to the overbearing and uncouth Mike. Cynical and sarcastic friend of the main couple Chita (Carmen Miranda) sees where this is going and tries to head it off to no avail.
In a subplot, singer-songwriter Nicky Ricci (Perry Como) tries to woo showgirl Frankie Porter (Martha Stewart), who only has eyes for Mike, who only likes Doll Face.
Mike tries to cancel the autobiography when he thinks enough publicity has been milked out of it, Doll Face disagrees, and they quarrel. When a bizarre coincidence makes it appear that Doll Face and Frederick are having it on, Mike dumps Doll Face. This leads to misery for everyone, but the show must go on….
This 1945 musical was based on the play Naked Genius by Louise Hovick (better known to most of us as Gypsy Rose Lee.) The name change was one of the many alterations required by the censors; the burlesque seen in the film is toned way down (though there are still some risque costumes on the ladies by the standards of the 1940s.) There’s a brief mention of World War Two in one of the songs.
The music is quite good, and Perry Como is terrific as a singer to no one’s surprise. There’s a couple of especially good lines, too. “Do you always swim with your top hat on?” “Only in opera season.”
Less good, especially by modern standards, is Mike. He engages in “playful” aggression towards Doll Face, and advises Nicky to beat Frankie up, or at least threaten to, to gain her affection. (Sadly, threats of force are shown to work on Frankie.) Mike also prefers to do all the thinking for the couple, and gets sore when Doll Face decides otherwise. This makes Frederick much easier to root for as a love interest, despite him having some controlling tendencies too; he at least will let Doll Face have her head.
Chita Chula is mostly in the story for her big number “Chico Chico (from Porto Rico)”, but is not portrayed stereotypically by the script–the character could have been any ethnicity. And she scoffs at the idea she’s anything like Carmen Miranda.
The script is rather lackluster, but the musical performances are good, so it’s an enjoyable watch outside the cringeworthy bits. If you’re watching it with younger viewers, you may need to talk to them about the kind of boyfriend Mike is and why that behavior isn’t appropriate.
