The play is surely a classic (from what I've heard) but this is a pretty troubled film.
For one, the misogynistic attitude of the Frank Butler character makes Seven Brides for Seven Brothers look progressive by comparison and Annie Oakley is portrayed as so stereotypically backwater that the Beverly Hillbillies would probably have boycotted this film. While we have to accept that cultural values have shifted just a little bit, some of the blame rests with the way Howard Keel and Betty Hutton approached their parts.
I hate to say that because they were two of MGM's most underrated treasures but Hutton's aw shucks hillbilly demeanor was over-the-top and her overeffusiveness of Keel's Butler in the opening scene bordered on cartoonish (I was half-expecting a heart to start visibly beating out of her chest like Pepe le Pew).
Similarly, Keel's Butler seemed to have little more than a passing interest in Hutton's Annie Oakley and it never really felt like a love story in that respect. Without the chemistry, the film falls apart because it almost seems like Oakley has an unhealthy obsession with this Frank Butler who kissed her once but otherwise treated her like either dirt and Buffalo Bill is just an enabler.
The number "Anything you can do I can do better" is still a showstopper and "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" still has some enthusiasm although Hutton's hillbilly diction takes away from it.
The film has many of the trademarks of the MGM films of the era with the rich color palette, lavish period details, and orchestral backing to the songs.
For one, the misogynistic attitude of the Frank Butler character makes Seven Brides for Seven Brothers look progressive by comparison and Annie Oakley is portrayed as so stereotypically backwater that the Beverly Hillbillies would probably have boycotted this film. While we have to accept that cultural values have shifted just a little bit, some of the blame rests with the way Howard Keel and Betty Hutton approached their parts.
I hate to say that because they were two of MGM's most underrated treasures but Hutton's aw shucks hillbilly demeanor was over-the-top and her overeffusiveness of Keel's Butler in the opening scene bordered on cartoonish (I was half-expecting a heart to start visibly beating out of her chest like Pepe le Pew).
Similarly, Keel's Butler seemed to have little more than a passing interest in Hutton's Annie Oakley and it never really felt like a love story in that respect. Without the chemistry, the film falls apart because it almost seems like Oakley has an unhealthy obsession with this Frank Butler who kissed her once but otherwise treated her like either dirt and Buffalo Bill is just an enabler.
The number "Anything you can do I can do better" is still a showstopper and "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" still has some enthusiasm although Hutton's hillbilly diction takes away from it.
The film has many of the trademarks of the MGM films of the era with the rich color palette, lavish period details, and orchestral backing to the songs.