O'Connor later called the film the best picture he ever made.[6]
Plot
Ethel Merman as MollyMitzi Gaynor as Katy
In 1919, Terence and Molly Donahue are a husband-and-wife vaudeville team. By 1923, their children, Steve, Katy and Tim, have joined the act, with the troupe billed as The Five Donahues. As the children mature, Terence and Molly enroll them into a Catholic boarding school in Boston. One Saturday, as their parents are performing, Steve and Tim attempts to leave but are caught by Father Dineen. The father contacts Terence and Molly by telegram, and tells them the boys miss their parents and performing, but insist they have the capability to become leaders. Molly however insist the children stay enrolled. The family moves to New Jersey. In October 1929, the stock market crashes, and the theatre stock company drops the Donahues in favor of motion pictures. Terence and Molly take whatever job they can find, including performing a carnival act and singing radio advertisements.
Before long, movie theaters begin providing live entertainment before screenings, and the Five Donahues are performing once again. In 1937, Tim has graduated from high school, Katy becomes a dancer, and Steve develops a talent for singing. After a live performance, Tim and Katy sneak out on separate dates at the Gallagher's nightclub, worrying Molly and Terence. At the nightclub, Tim dates Lillian Sawyer, an older chorus girl, while Katy dates Eddie Dugan. There, Tim meets with an aspiring performer, Victoria "Vicky" Hoffman, who performs a solo number. Impressed, Tim arrives at Vicky's dressing room, and impersonates being a journalist for Variety. Eddie and talent agent Lew Harris also arrive at her dressing room where Vicky learns Tim is part of the Five Donahues. Vicky dismisses him in favor of talking with Eddie and Lew.
Back at home, Steve tells the family he has decided to become a priest. Terence is disappointed at his son's decision, but their discussion is interrupted by Tim, who has returned home drunk. Eventually, the family accepts Steve's decision, and throw him a farewell party. The troupe, now billed as The Four Donahues, accepts an engagement in Florida, where Tim meets again with Vicky (now billed as Vicky Parker) during rehearsal. Tim allows her to perform a tropical-themed musical number his family had been intended to perform. Afterwards, Tim falls in love with her though she pushes aside his romantic advances.
The next morning, Vicky calls the Donahues informing them that Lew Harris is arranging a Broadway show starring her, and she wants Tim and Katy to join her. Molly, despite her prior irritation over Vicky using their tropical number, agrees to let them do the show. During rehearsals, Katy begins dating Charlie Gibbs, the show's lyricist, and marries him after Steve has been ordained into the priesthood. Tim continues courting Vicky, but becomes angry when she arrives late for an evening dinner after disagreeing with a costume change with Lew Harris. Tim accuses Vicky of being romantically involved with Lew, gets drunk, and becomes involved in a car accident.
Before the night of the premiere, Lew considers cancelling the show, but hires Molly to take Tim's place. Meanwhile, Terence visits Tim at the hospital where the two fall into an argument. The next morning, Molly and Tim arrive at the hospital but learn Tim has left without indicating where he is. They open a missing persons investigation and attend various nightclubs looking for him to no avail.
On the closing night of the Hippodrome Theatre, Steve arrives backstage unexpectedly. Molly performs the film's title song, and sees Tim, wearing a U.S. sailor uniform, in the theatre wing. Tim reconciles with his family, and for the first time in years, the Five Donahues reunite for the elaborate finale.
Before the film's production, Marilyn Monroe had been placed on suspension from 20th Century-Fox after refusing to accept the leading role in a film version of a Broadway musical titled The Girl in Pink Tights. During her suspension, she married baseball star Joe DiMaggio and the two honeymooned in Japan, during which time she entertained American soldiers in Korea. Fox had intended to cast Sheree North in There's No Business Like Show Business, going so far as to screen-test North in Monroe's own studio wardrobe. When Monroe returned to California, her Fox suspension was lifted, and studio executives offered her a role in the ensemble cast of There's No Business Like Show Business as a replacement project for having refused to make Pink Tights. Monroe initially refused to make There's No Business Like Show Business just as she had for the previous project until Fox assured her that her next vehicle would be The Seven Year Itch.[9] She also demanded a pay increase of $3,000 a week.
Ethel Merman had first sung "There's No Business Like Show Business" in the original Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun in 1946 and would go on to sing it again in the 1967 television broadcast of the subsequent Lincoln Center revival of that musical comedy.[10]
Release
To publicize the film, Monroe wore a black cotton polka-dot swimsuit. It went on auction at Christie's in London in 1991 and sold for $22,400 to collector David Gainsborough Roberts.[11]
Reception
Box office
During its second weekend, There's No Business Like Show Business was the number-one box office film, screening in 17 key cities.[12] It held the number-one position a week later before it was displaced by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) during its fourth weekend.[13] By January 1956, There's No Business Like Show Business earned $5 million in estimated box office rentals from the United States and Canada.[14] However, the film's negative cost was $4.3 million, and Variety reported the film needed to earn $6.5 million to break even.[15]
Critical reaction
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film a "major success", in which he praised Donald O'Connor's performance in particular. He also noted that Mitzi Gaynor had surpassed Monroe's "wriggling and squirming" which were "embarrassing to behold."[16]Harrison's Reports praised the film, calling it "a feast to the eye, the ear and the heart. It is a delightful mixture of Irving Berlin's popular songs, intimate and spectacular production numbers, heartwarming comedy and human interest, adding up to a musical extravaganza that is one of the top entertainments of the year".[17]Abel Green of Variety praised Ethel Merman as "a belter of a school of song stylists not to be found on every stage or before every mike" and Dan Dailey "an effective actor" with "polish and conviction." Monroe's "Heat Wave" number was described as needing to "be seen to be appreciated", while noting she's "more competitive to Mae West in her delineating."[18] Television host Ed Sullivan described Monroe's performance of the song "Heat Wave" as "one of the most flagrant violations of good taste" he had witnessed.[19]
A review in Time magazine called the film "an Irving Berlin potpourri, containing some good old sweetmeats along with a few fresh-picked sour apple." Gaynor was noted as having "a finely machined set of ball bearings, becomingly encased, and Marilyn Monroe will undoubtedly singe the eyebrows off front-row patrons in her Heat Wave number, in which she bumps and grinds as expressively as the law will allow."[20] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times felt: "Those who like Miss Merman—and that will be New Yorkers or the New York-minded especially—will feel that this is one of her most sterling efforts, and that she and Dailey form a first-rate mature team. Miss Gaynor, who is away out in front, and O'Connor are also splendidly matched." He was more critical of Monroe's performance, writing "there is much stress on this to the point where much of the time she seems almost inarticulate."[21]
