Annie Get Your Gun (1950) User Reviews

Annie Is Wonderful, Wonderful, So They Say

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 27 July 2006]

Despite the fact that Ethel Merman wasn't even considered by MGM to repeat her Broadway triumph and Judy Garland fell by the way side, Annie Get Your Gun is still as alive and as fresh as the day it debuted on Broadway and for 1147 performances starting in 1946. It was Irving Berlin's biggest stage success both quantitatively and qualitatively. It sure had the most hit songs coming out of it, maybe the most for any Broadway show.

Because they had Garland, so they thought at MGM, for box office, producer Arthur Freed felt they could go with an unknown for Frank Butler. Both John Raitt and Howard Keel tested for the role and Keel won the toss. Then Keel broke his ankle falling off a horse on the set and they shot closeups and around him, putting pressure on Judy Garland's fragile psyche. On top of that Frank Morgan who was playing Buffalo Bill died suddenly in the middle of the film. Most of it had to be reshot when Betty Hutton was borrowed from Paramount.

Annie Get Your Gun was the perfect musical to appeal to the Rosie the Riveter crowd who competed and won in a man's world during World War II. Those women who became feminist icons certainly identified with another feminist icon in Annie Oakley.

The real Annie Oakley was not as brassy as her character in Annie Get Your Gun. By all accounts Phoebe Annie Mosee, aka Annie Oakley was a quiet retiring woman when away from the spotlight. She let her skill with weaponry do her talking.

Irving Berlin wrote so many hits out of this film it's staggering. Ballads like They Say It's Wonderful and The Girl That I Marry were recorded by many artists down to the present. My Defenses are Down also sold quite a few platters back in the day.

But of course the theatrical profession got its anthem when Irving Berlin wrote There's No Business Like Show Business. There's a really fine recording of it that Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes and the Andrews Sisters did of it with the flipside being Anything You Can Do also another gem from this show.

Some songs didn't make the cut. A good one that Ethel Merman did called I Got Lost in His Arms is absent from this film, a pity. And Berlin wrote a song called Let's Go West Again which was to be done on the cattle boat by Hutton and the ensemble was cut. Al Jolson made a recording of it for Decca though.

Louis Calhern and Edward Arnold as Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill play a fine pair of frontier rogues. Calhern captured the character of the real later Cody quite well.

With feminist issues by now means settled, Annie Get Your Gun is maybe more relevant now than when it first came out.

A highly enjoyable movie from a simpler time.

[sydbirchall · 8/10 · 4 February 2007]

I saw Annie Get Your Gun at a special screening for lovers of music from the 30s to the 50s. I found it very entertaining with marvellous songs from Irving Berlin. In fact, while I am an admirer of Berlin, his songs from this movie exceeded expectations. However, the absolute star of the show is Betty Hutton whose dynamic rendition of Berlin's music just blew me away. She had enthusiasm and energy unrivalled in that genre with the possible exception of Ethel Merman. Yet Betty could sing softly and sweetly in songs such as "They Say It's Wonderful".

Howard Keel was perfect for his role as Frank Butler and the competition between Frank and Annie is the cornerstone of the movie.

I have to cringe at the patronising portrayal of the American Indians but, of course, together with black Americans, this was typical of the culture and attitudes of the time -- all of which was to change radically during the next 15 years.

There are lots of haters of this film...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 27 July 2021]

... many of them fans of Judy Garland, some of them fans of the actual characters in the film, insulted by how Annie Oakley is portrayed as a backwoods hick, how Frank Butler (Howard Keel) is turned into a jerk that the real Annie would have shot full of buckshot, and how Irving Berlin's music may be as toe-tapping as ever, yet his lyrics strip every bit of dignity, and intelligence from these two fascinating people and gives us whining stereotypes in their stead. Their feelings not mine.

Yes, the film is a bit over-produced in typical MGM fashion, but is generally very good. Too bad a few lovely tunes from the Broadway show were cut, as well as Betty Hutton's touching "Let's Go West Again" number. As much as I adore Judy Garland, Betty Hutton is fabulous as Annie and far more similar in temperament to original creator Ethel Merman than Judy could ever have been and especially by 1949-50. Annie was tailor made for Betty and her energy and talents. The film was a tremendous box office hit and MGM attempted but failed to buy Hutton's contract from Paramount, despite how she was treated on the set.

Hutton is dynamite!

[geostan · 31 May 1999]

I disagree with those who feel Judy Garland would have been better than Betty Hutton. As a youngster, I saw the released version, and I've also seen a take with Garland singing "I'm an Indian too." I know Judy had a great voice, but Hutton was dynamite. She gave the role everything she had. No, I'm afraid this time, I think destiny gave us the best.

A Classic Musical Gets the MGM Treatment

[ijonesiii · 7/10 · 3 January 2006]

1950's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN was originally planned to star Judy Garland in the title role; however Garland had just finished a stint in rehab and doctors recommended a year off. Instead she was given two weeks off and was assigned to report to wardrobe tests for the film. She even filmed a few scenes and a couple of musical numbers (which are included on the DVD), but Garland looks worn and haggard and she clearly was in no shape, physically or emotionally to work, so she was replaced by that bundle of bombastic( an adjective which I think the actress has the patent on)energy, Betty Hutton, who makes the most of this role and the classic Irving Berlin score (not Rodgers and Hammerstein as a previous poster stated). I have to admit I wouldn't have minded hearing Garland's interpretation of "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" or "They Say that Falling in Love" (Hutton's weakest moment) but for the most part Hutton shines as Annie and gets solid support from handsome Howard Keel as Frank Butler. Their duet "Anything you can do" is another highlight. A first rate stage musical gets first rate screen treatment from the MGM dream factory.

Betty, Get Your Coat

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 22 October 2005]

This is MGM musical film-making at its polished best and, considering the raft of memorable songs the film contains and the potential for spectacle within its storyline, it's surprising that Annie Get Your Gun is nothing more than passable entertainment. For me, the main reason for this is Betty Hutton's performance – I'm no fan of her bombastic delivery, and don't understand why so many comediennes of the era felt it necessary to pull faces and eschew their femininity in order to obtain laughs. Judy Garland was a fine movie comedienne as well as a first-rate singer and she never resorted to the overblown style of Hutton and her ilk. Garland would have been much better in the role had her health been good but, from the numbers she did film it's clear from her gaunt features and skeletal frame that she was not well, and this illness is sadly reflected in her performance. Watching her in these out-takes it's difficult to believe that only ten years before she had portrayed Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

The trouble with Hutton's style is that when she is called upon to come over all sensitive for her romantic numbers she has to become a completely different person, someone whose gentle sensitivity is totally at odds with the comical hayseed that she is portrayed to be most of the time. She even loses her hillbilly accent. Her love interest here is Howard Keel who booms out his numbers with gusto but comes across as bland when sharing the screen with her, which makes their romance that much less believable. The highlight of their pairing – and the film – is 'Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,' a comedy number that elevates the film above the ordinary for a while. Like Keel, Louis Calhern is curiously understated in his role as Buffalo Bill, but Keenan Wynn gives a fine performance as Charlie Davenport, Bill's right-hand man.

Betty Hutton, Betty Hutton and Betty Hutton

[Bob-45 · 9/10 · 26 January 2002]

Despite some INCREDIBLE mistakes by MGM executives, "Annie Get Your Gun" is a terrific movie, a triumph for three reasons: Betty Hutton, Betty Hutton and Betty Hutton. Those who might quibble that "Garland would have been a LOT better" should take an objective look at the the outtakes on the DVD. Garland is terrible; way too modern, urbane and understated for the "larger than life" role of Annie Oakley. Rogers and Hammerstein understood what type of person ot took to

play Annie. That's why they hired Ethyl Merman, who triumphed on Broadway in the role. I've always loved Garland and always considered Hutton to be too bombastic. But, here, she is perfect and carries this movie on her the strengh of her "hit 'em in the rafters" performance. In fact, only four actors play it right. Hutton, Brad Muro (Lil' Jake), J. Carroll Naish (Sitting Bull) and Keenan Wynn. Louis Calhern is usually wonderful; here, his continental, understated style is horribly out of place, turning "Buffalo Bill" into a bore . The usually reliable Edward Arnold seems lost in his unattractive "Pawnee Bill" makeup. Perhaps the biggest disappointment, however, is Howard Keel, who displays little of the charm he revealed in the same year's "Calloway Went Thataway". This MUST have been the decision of Louis Mayer and George Sidney. Hutton reported that Mayer didn't want her, had no confidence in her and didn't even invite her to the New York premiere. Hutton, radiant even at 80, revealed to Robert Osborne, that she was so miserable by her treatment at MGM (no one applauded ANYONE at the end of shooting a scene), that it finished her career (though another triumph for Hutton, "The Greatest Show on Earth" was just two years away).

Despite its flaws, "Annie Get Your Gun" is a keeper. Why? Betty Hutton, Betty Hutton and Betty Hutton.

Despite an unfortunate start, an entertaining musical

[doc-55 · 7/10 · 2 January 2001]

The MGM high production values are the "stars" of this film. The role of Annie is a challenge for any performer. She must dominate the show, as Ethel Merman did on stage, even when I saw her in a 60s revival when she was in the 60s herself. Hutton did not have the star power to do this. But the outtakes from Garland, in which she appears rather listless,with "health problems" suggest that her performance would not have been among her best. Hutton does her best work in the novelty numbers, which were previously her stock in trade. Her athleticism could not have been matched by any other performer of her time. But when delivering a ballad or serious dialogue she simply was not up to the task. Who would have been a better choice, to combine some of Hutton's and Garland's strengths? Maybe Debbie Reynolds, who was not a major figure at that time. Frank Morgan was missed. His brief outtake as Buffalo Bill calls to mind his Wizard: a lovable fraud. Howard Keel was always dependable as a leading man. Here he is the strongest presence on the screen, which is in itself a comment on the remainder of the cast.

A Glutton for Hutton.

[davidallen-84122 · 10/10 · 23 July 2017]

Now,I'm the first one to abhor overacting (there is one particular leading lady that I can't watch anymore) but I think Betty Hutton is the perfect Annie Oakley. I'm not interested in comparing her to anyone else;Betty is in the finished product and that's it.Most of the other reviews indicate that "Annie Get Your Gun" is remembered,and newly appreciated,with joy and affection.That's what entertainment is all about.Every song bounces off the screen and I love all of them.'There's No Business Like Show Business' is thrilling and Betty responds to the men with both vulnerability and unbridled enthusiasm.By the time 'They Say It's Wonderful' comes along we are ready for romance and I relish the way Betty positively purrs in response to Howard Keel's masculine charm (the whisper in her voice is exactly right for this lovely duet).Betty Hutton may have been a force to be reckoned with,on and off screen but she deserves recognition as a truly unique talent,never more so than with her ebullient interpretation of Annie Oakley.

Annie Get Your Gun still is a Fun Watch!

[movie-viking · 7/10 · 5 September 2013]

A fun movie partly based on Real Life Annie Oakley, girl sharpshooter. Yes, Oakley really did shoot a cigarette out of the mouth of the German Kaiser. Imagine if she had missed...would we still have had WW1 later on???

Native Americans are the leaders in some of this film (they have to finance some of the shows--some counsel naiive Annie). This is slightly advanced for 1950, in giving Native Americans the positions of the better counselors for this young naiive girl.

Lots of fun songs, fun moments, and Betty Hutton as the Naiive but Talented Annie Oakley.

Betty Hutton seemed to BECOME her roles (or...perhaps directors cast her in roles that resembled the real life exuberant Betty Hutton).

The only awkward moment for me was the "I'm an Indian Too" song...where she dances with Native Americans (who actually appear to be true native Americans, not white people with dark makeup). They dance beautifully, but Hutton's naiive mugging doesn't work for me...in this scene.

Hutton is all wrong!

[RichWall · 1/10 · 8 December 2004]

Betty Hutton is all wrong for Annie Oakley. She overplays every scene and she mugs unmercifully in almost every song. But that's her style. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think Judy Garland would have been right for this film, either. My real wish is that they'd have hired Ethel Merman to recreate her Broadway smash. Merman would have been much more "natural" in the part and she knew where the jokes and the comedy were. And The Merm only had to open her mouth and the great songs came out. Hutton screams almost everything, usually off pitch. After Merman, I would have preferred someone like the cowgirl comedienne Judy Canova play Annie. Now, that would have been funny!

Still, I'm glad we have the film of this great Irving Berlin show. Howard Keel is great in his first movie role, and the politically incorrect Native American issues are handled delicately and with taste.

Betty Hutton has fantastic energy!

[HotToastyRag · 9/10 · 20 February 2018]

If you grew up listening to the Broadway soundtrack of Annie Get Your Gun, you'll come to associate Ethel Merman's fantastic, belting voice with Irving Berlin's songs. It's completely understandable that you'd watch the film adaptation and be disappointed by Betty Hutton's less-than-stellar vocals. But I appeal to you, as a fellow musical lover, to give the film a fair shot.

The original casting choice for the tomboy cowgirl Annie Oakley was Judy Garland, and if you buy the DVD, you can watch her perform a couple of songs. Only after watching the outtakes can you see just how far she would have dragged the film down. Her energy was low, her timing was slow, she was too old for the part, and her expressions were too troubled. Annie is supposed to be innocent, fresh, exciting, and endearing: all qualities a 1950 Judy Garland wasn't. Betty Hutton might not have been able to sing all the songs as well as the immortal Ethel Merman, but she was young, innocent, fresh, exciting, and endearing. Her energy was off the charts! And while the part was practically made for Doris Day-Warner Brothers wrote and filmed a knock-off version, Calamity Jane, for the blonde star three years later-Betty was an excellent choice. She made the audience care about her, and she delivered the lines with such sincerity, she even made the audience take the silly story seriously.

Howard Keel played the big-voiced, ridiculously handsome, self-assured Frank Butler. Every time Betty looks at him during their first few scenes together, her jaw drops and she turns to jelly. It's very funny, and I'm sure you'll find yourself mimicking her-I did! He's so incredibly handsome and charming in this movie, it's no wonder he was cast in basically the same role in Calamity Jane-Hollywood just didn't want him to take his cowboy hat off! His handsomeness aside-I know, it's impossible not to notice-he does a very good job in what was only his second film!

Louis Calhern plays Buffalo Bill, and when he meets Betty, she asks if he's really the famous Colonel. He says he is, and he's so convincing throughout the movie, I found myself believing that he really was! I didn't even recognize the veteran actor until the movie was almost over, and he actually looked handsome and distinguished in his long hair and goatee. Also, he was very warm-hearted, a choice of delivery that was welcomed, since Betty wasn't often met with warmth throughout the film.

All in all, this is a great film adaptation of a Broadway show, combining elements that seem to come directly from the stage-hammy but lovable songs-with additions that could never have been seen onstage-rodeo performances. The production values are very good, including breathtaking costumes by Walter Plunkett. Give it a try, even if you're skeptical of Betty Hutton. She's cute as a button!

Light and airy biography of Annie Oakley

[szekeong123 · 7/10 · 16 March 2005]

The only reason to recommend this fluffy film is the great works of Irving Berlin. The fact that Berlin wrote the score and songs for the musical makes it the more impressive. Some film musicals pick the ideal songs from the existing works of a song writer.

Other than that, there is not much to the film. The art direction is disappointing for a MGM film musical, despite of its huge budget. The film provides some mild humours.

Betty Hutton is a talented actress and singer, but she don't have the right acting range for the role (Her over-acting gets annoying sometimes) and the perfect vocal range for the songs (Her rendition of the songs is slightly below satisfactory. Comparing her with Ethel Merman and Judy Garland makes the casting of Hutton for the title role more regrettable). Beside, she don't have much chemistry with her co-stars. Howard Keel has a great singing voice, but doesn't display much of his acting talent.

Give this film a try if you like musicals.

One of the less memorable films of the MGM era

[Okonh0wp · 4/10 · 5 July 2015]

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.

Great Movie

[Celia-2 · 7 August 1999]

I think this was one of the best films ever made and would love to be able to buy it on video. I adore Howard Keel and I think the part was made for Betty Hutton. It is a shame generations are missing out on this movie.

Disappointing!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 25 January 2017]

The TRUE STORY: It was a day of mixed blessings for Phoebe Mozee when she first met up with Bill Cody, proprietor of a Wild West Show. On the one hand, she found everlasting fame as the star of his show. On the other hand, Cody continually borrowed money from her or deferred her salary as, due to his mismanagement, the Wild West Show plunged from one financial crisis to another. Mozee and her husband, a former sharpshooter named Frank Butler who gave up his own career to manage hers, made many attempts to break with Cody. Finally Fate took a hand: Phoebe Mozee was critically injured when Cody's special train was wrecked. She lingered on for many years, a pitiful pain- wracked shadow, until Death eventually released her in 1926. Her husband, Frank Butler, who had lovingly cared for her during her lengthy illness, and who had often declared he couldn't live without her, indeed died of grief a few days later.

That, my friends, is but a flimsy precis of the true story of Annie Oakley. But it seems to me, as a writer, that anyone who couldn't weave a vividly moving play and film out of these elements, has no business writing at all! But here, instead of the real Annie Oakley and the real Buffalo Bill, we are handed a lot of raucous, garish and/or cloying clichés. The characters of Oakley and Cody are as far removed from real life as possible. I can only conclude that the writers deliberately decided to make it easy for themselves by presenting characters that were in all respects exactly opposite to the truth. The real Buffalo Bill, so beset with his own importance and glorification, was a faker and fraud on such a large scale that he managed to create a legend, despite his own breathtaking incompetence. The real Annie was demure and unassertive, uneducated yet eager to learn, unsophisticated but no fool, reticent rather than garrulous, even when poor always extremely neat and tidy in appearance, possessing a quiet assurance in her skill as a sure- shot. (Well, almost sure. One day she shot at 5,000 glass balls, tossed into the air. She missed 228 times).

NOTES: The film commenced under Busby Berkeley's direction with Judy Garland in the title role and Frank Morgan as Buffalo Bill. The film closed down after Garland became ill (she had already recorded all the songs). Betty Hutton was borrowed from Paramount to replace Garland. Frank Morgan died on 18 September 1949. Louis Calhern was then brought in and shooting recommenced under George Sidney. Garland version shooting from 7 March to 21 May 1949. Hutton version shooting from 10 October to 16 December 1949, with one day of re-takes on 6 February 1950. The stage musical opened on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on 16 May 1946 and ran a phenomenal 1,147 performances. Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton starred. Dolores Gray starred in the London production which did even better, running 1,304 performances.Negative cost: $3,768,785, including $1,877,528 spent on the abandoned Judy Garland version. Initial domestic gross, only $4,650,000, although placing the film equal third at the U.S./Canadian box-office for 1950, still meant that Metro was up for a whopping loss of around $3,000,000. Fortunately, overseas rentals plus a domestic re-issue in 1956-57 increased the studio's total gross return to $8,010,000.

Although Conrad Salinger's orchestrations made a major contribution to the score, only Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens were awarded the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. (Music co- coordinator Lela Simone deserved recognition too). Annie defeated Cinderella, I'll Get By, Three Little Words and West Point Story. Number 3 at U.K. ticket windows, number 7 in Australia.

COMMENT: A disappointment. Too long, too talky, too loud. Betty Hutton plays the title role in a stridently raucous manner; Howard Keel, in his first American film, is a tuneful but colorless Frank Butler; and the support players tend to act with all stops out. The script would be improved by considerable trimming. It seems to go on and on, shuffling long-windedly from one dreary anti-climax to the next. The direction and other production credits are so smooth all the vitality has gone right out of them. The production numbers are staged in a dull and uninteresting fashion. Only the songs remain — and a great deal of their appeal has been whittled away by loud and cumbersome orchestrations. Maybe I'm a bit hard on this movie. I'd love to see it again. But in all the thirty-plus years that I subscribed to Turner Classic Movies, "Annie Get Your Gun" was never scheduled.

Soothing the ruffled male ego...hillbilly style

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 27 June 2010]

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play based on real-life female sharp-shooter Annie Oakley comes agreeably to the screen, with Irving Berlin's tuneful songs intact and Betty Hutton filling in nicely for Ethel Merman (who played it on the stage). Annie is a whoopin' & hollerin', unrefined and uneducated hillbilly who is asked to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where she falls head over heels in love with her male-counterpart, Frank Butler. The plot is something of a pre-feminist nightmare; it all comes down to Annie winning the guy by hiding her light under a bushel (and Butler, being an egotistical lunkhead, falling for it--or pretending to). However, the songs are colorfully presented and the art direction has surprising dollops of awe and beauty. George Sidney stepped in to direct after two others had been let go; he keeps the spirit of the piece rambunctious and happy. Hutton (a replacement for Judy Garland, who was fired by MGM after roughly four weeks of work) plays to the rafters, as she is supposed to, and keeps the familiar plot chugging along in full-throttle. **1/2 from ****

Hutton was great!

[edesmond · 9/10 · 20 January 2005]

I disagree with the previous reviewer who said Garland would have been better in this role. Betty Hutton was great. She may not have been the singer that Garland was, but she did a excellent job of looking really unpolished in the beginning and cleaning up to be a very attractive woman. Her portrayal of Annie has a lot personality and humor. If you rent or buy the anniversary tape or DVD for this movie, they've included some scenes that had been already shot with Judy before they decided to recast her role. There is no comparison. Judy was not up to the role at that point in her life and it really shows. I'm glad Betty was cast. I think it's a great movie/musical due to her performance.

Great adaptation of hit Broadway musical - with one major flaw

[scooterberwyn · 7/10 · 1 July 2012]

I love movie musicals - especially when they're done by the Freed unit at MGM. With ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, MGM stayed a lot closer to the source Broadway musical than they usually did. Due to Irving Berlin's sagacious business acumen, there are no major song excisions or substitutions by lesser song writers (Roger Edens, anyone?).

As most people know, the role of Annie Oakley was originally assigned to Judy Garland, but when she called out sick, she was unceremoniously fired. Replacing her is Betty Hutton on loan from Paramount Studios. Unfortunately, Hutton mugs and poses and emotes with a frantic, manic energy that I find exhausting to watch. Her Annie Oakley would have fit right in to her film "The Perils of Pauline" portrayal of Pearl White.

The rest of the cast is exemplary, with Howard Keel as a handsome, virile Frank Butler. But Betty's shenanigans make her scenes almost painful to watch. The only reason I rate the film as highly as I do is that it's a reasonably faithful rendition of a classic Broadway musical.

A True Classic Movie

[namcpeart · 10/10 · 23 February 2000]

I saw Annie Get Your Gun as a teenager at our local small town movie. I loved it. The comedic energy of Betty Hutton and the chemistry between her and the talented Howard Keel was unforgettable. I have tried for years to find the video, writing and phoning various sources. With the revival of "Annie" on Broadway, I was hoping MGM would realize what a treasure they have in the 1950 version and issue it on video. It's good to know I'm not the only one wanting to see this wonderful movie again. They don't make musicals like that anymore.

The Drollery Of Annie-Frank

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 3 June 2007]

This show had more than its fair share of bad luck in both incarnations. The original composer, Jerome Kern, dropped dead in the street before starting work and was replaced by Irving Berlin, which meant that the original lyricist, Dorothy Fields, was out of a job - Berlin wrote both words and music - and had to content herself with co-writing the Book. When MGM came to film it, the original film Annie, Judy Garland, was unable to hack it whilst the original film Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan, died shortly after shooting began and they were replaced by Betty Hutton and Louis Calhern respectively. Despite this the end result is reasonably entertaining. This was arguably one of the first musicals to portray real people using real names and utilize factual events albeit amended slightly in the interests of creating dramatic interest and accommodating several musical numbers. Rodgers and Hart had actually put FDR on stage a decade before Annie Get Your Gun but had contrived to have him meet a pair of young lovers in a park. Nuff said. Once you get past the idea of an illiterate (by her own admission) young woman possessing the sophistication to sing stuff like You Can't Get A Man With A Gun and providing you can get past Betty Hutton at all, this is vastly entertaining - at least for one viewing - though it's a pity that a couple of fine numbers, Moonshine Lullaby and I Got Lost In His Arms, were dropped from the movie. Ironically Dorothy Fields lost out twice when a third screenwriter, Sidney Sheldon, picked up a Gong for Best Screenplay. Hollywood doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to adapting Broadway Musicals - or it didn't at the time, which was way, way before they finally got it right with My Fair Lady - and on balance this is no better or worse than Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate, Can Can, etc.

What an Awful Film

[david-burns · 1/10 · 21 October 2002]

I'm constantly amazed at how people's opinions vary at watching the same film. How anyone can say they enjoyed watching this confuses me. This film was awful from start to finish. I bought the dvd as my wife and I both enjoy watching musicals. We've got the excellent King and I and The Sound Of Music, both fantastic films. Then we sit to watch Annie Get Your Gun. It starts with a very poor opening number and continues with cringe type performances of Doing What Comes Naturally and You Can't Get A Man With A Gun. The constant overacting from Hutton, poor sets, unforgettable songs along with a terrible storyline make this one dvd to avoid. The Judy Garland outakes are interesting to watch, although she is clearly uncomfortable playing this role. What a dreadful film.

Betty Hutton makes this film!

[brennans-1 · 9/10 · 31 October 2005]

This really is one of the greatest musicals ever written. It has 11 songs of which 10 are instantly memorable (only "I'm an Indian Too" is not up to scratch). The scene "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" is one of my favourite screen moments. I never grew up with this film (I'm 37) since it was never on TV screens on the UK due to legal wrangling. I had to make do with the inferior (but still good!) Calamity Jane. Betty Hutton's performance is one of the great musical performances- up there with Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. She carries the whole film. I cannot believe anyone who thinks that Judy Garland would be better. I have shown this film to all of my friends and relatives (sad, I know!) and all of them without exception agree that Judy Garland is no patch on Betty Hutton-she is too refined and completely miscast! The deleted song "Going West Again" is fantastic and should have been included in the stage show and film.

After Judy Garland dropped out, it's Betty Hutton's best work, with Howard Keel

[jacobs-greenwood · 7/10 · 13 December 2016]

This much troubled production of the highly successful Broadway musical finally came to pass with Betty Hutton in the title role of Miss Oakley, Howard Keel as her sharpshooting rival and love interest Frank Butler, and Louis Calhern as showman Buffalo Bill Cody.

Judy Garland had been originally cast as Annie, before her physical and emotional breakdown and collapse, and Frank Morgan had been Buffalo Bill, before his death in September, 1949. The final film, which was directed by George Sidney (after Busby Berkeley and Charles Walters), is quite good; it features perhaps actress-singer Hutton's best work, certainly her most enthusiastic performance despite any problems she claims to have had as the Paramount Pictures replacement for MGM studio favorite Garland.

Academy Award winning songwriter Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields wrote the story (their brother Joseph, with Ewart Adamson, had written the story for the biographical drama Annie Oakley (1935) starring Barbara Stanwyck).

This one was adapted by Sidney Sheldon and the result was a Western, comedy, romance Musical that's a biography-dramatization of the real Annie Oakley, the backwoods sharpshooter who was discovered by Butler et al and became a sensation performing for Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, an extravaganza that portrayed a glorified view of the old West (complete with circle-your-wagons "Cowboys & Indians" and gunplay) to the rest of the country and the world. The romance and 'rivalry' between Annie and (fictionalized?) jealous Frank provide the conflict that moves the story along, to its predictable end.

The film's Adolph Deutsch-Roger Edens Score, which includes Irving Berlin written hits like "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)", and even "There's No Business Like Show Business" won the Oscar; its Color Art Direction-Set Decoration and Cinematography, as well as its Editing, also received nominations.

J. Carrol Naish plays Chief Sitting Bull, Edward Arnold is Cody's competitor Pawnee Bill, Keenan Wynn plays Butler's press agent and show manager Charlie Davenport, and Benay Venuta as Dolly Tate and Clinton Sundberg as Foster Wilson, proprietor of the hotel where Annie was discovered (it was hotelier Jack Frost in real life) round out the cast.

Annie Get Me a Gun....So I Can Shoot Myself

[evanston_dad · 4/10 · 30 May 2006]

A loud, garish, headache-inducing screen adaptation of the stage musical, with an unwatchable performance by Betty Hutton in the title role.

Hutton mugs and grimaces her way through the film like she's performing on the biggest of big Broadway stages, an acting technique that, when confined to the cozy quarters of your living room, sails right past annoying and becomes downright disturbing. There's a fun story to be had, and a boatload of popular Irving Berlin songs, but it's all ruined by the leading lady.

Louis Calhern shows up briefly as Buffalo Bill, which, taken together with his performance as an oily villain in "The Asphalt Jungle" and his Oscar-nominated turn as Oliver Wendell Holmes in "The Magnificent Yankee," made him perhaps the most prolific actor of 1950.

The DVD of "Annie Get Your Gun" shows some early takes of Judy Garland in the role, before her failing health caused her to be replaced. Even wan and obviously not well, Garland's scenes tease us with the promise of what might have been had she been cast instead of Hutton. Alas....

Grade: C-