IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

SimonJack Never having seen the stage play by this same name, I can't compare a stage production to the movie. But as a movie, "Du Barry Was a Lady" needs to stand on its own. I remember watching Red Skelton and Lucille Ball on their TV shows. Everyone knows about Lucy. I think Skelton was terrific on TV. His comedy characters, Clem Kadiddlehopper and Freddie the Freeloader especially always got tons of laughs, and skits with his guest stars often had we viewers rolling with laughter. I've seen a couple of Skelton movies that were fairly good, and several in which Lucille Ball was quite good. Unfortunately, this is not a good film for either star, or for Gene Kelly. I read a couple of reviews that seemed to make excuses for MGM having to scrap much of the stage original stuff to satisfy censors. I don't buy it. I think that's letting MGM and the writers, directors and everyone off the hook. All one has to do to verify this is to look at the many good and great comedy romance and musical films that Hollywood was producing at the time. No, this one suffers from a lack of anything very funny, and I think that rests with the writers first. This just isn't a very good screenplay. It isn't funny, and its so choppy that we get poor performances out of the main stars. Still, I give this film six stars for one reason -- the appearance and playing of Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra. Dorsey does several excellent numbers – he looks to have the full size complement of his group at its peak – around 25 to 28 musicians. Anytime a movie features one of the top big bands of the swing era, I will give it six stars to begin with, and then build up from there. Because of the era and the type of music that swing was, and its lasting effect on American music especially, and its longevity in films and on the air, I think movies that feature the most prominent of the big bands have a historical value as well as their entertainment value. So, Tommy Dorsey and his excellent musicians are the only good thing about this movie. And, that's enough of a reason to watch it if one hasn't seen it before.

dougdoepke Well, there's not that many laughs despite Skelton and Mostel, while the music and dance numbers are pretty spotty despite Dorsey and Kelly, and even the queen of slapstick Lucille Ball seems a tad on the stiff side. No, the material is not up to the level of talent involved. Even the screenplay comes across like a series of hasty compromises. Now, if any other studio were in charge, I would say the results are only for hardcore fans of any of the above. But this is big-budget MGM, and this is a musical, so the production values are simply superb even when all the rest falters. In short, the color is lavish, the costuming exquisite, and the dream-sequence sets ornate down to the smallest detail. Thus, whatever other shortcomings, the movie amounts to a literal feast for the eyes. Now, I'm no particular fan of that famously detached studio, but this is precisely the kind of production where MGM's dream-factory values excelled. So there are real compensations to the general mediocrity of the material.In passing—I expect wartime audiences really enjoyed this lavish brand of escapism. However, I worry about it's being shown to our troops abroad—all those full-color close-ups of ravishing girls spreading the glamour on a mile thick. One of two results is going to happen—either the boys are going to win the war in short order, or there'll be more guys swimming the oceans than you can count. Fortunately, it looks like the boys decided to win the war first.

edwagreen Mild fanfare with Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Gene Kelly in this farce about what's going on at a local nightclub.Lucy is Lucy and Red does his usual nonsense. Kelly tries to play it straight but isn't given the substantial material needed. Zero Mostel, young and chubby looking, is along for the ride as a seer. You may not recognize him here but after all, it's 1943!The film begins to take off during Skelton's dream sequence of being transported back to revolutionary France as Louis XV. The costumes of that period along with the singing and dancing of modern music are a joy to watch.While Red, as Louis, has been over-taxing his subjects, he's in for a rude awakening when he gets up. Tax man Donald Meek is there to take away most of the money that he won in the sweepstakes.Much more of Cole Porter's fine music is missing in the film version.

theowinthrop It is a good musical, but it lacks...Cole Porter's score? DU BARRY WAS A LADY was a successful Porter show, mostly due to the antics of it's stars Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman. Merman was pretty svelt in her early Broadway and Hollywood career, and she was able to play the role of May Daly as it really was written - a gold digger who did not like the attentions of Lahr's Louis Blore (in the musical the attendant in the men's room of the nightclub in the modern portion of the story). When playing Du Barry, Merman's May is constantly keeping Louis at arm's length - and enjoying his discomfort. That is not the situation in the film...but the film varies in many ways.Besides the fact that squeamish MGM people changed Louis into a cloak room attendant, he faces two rivals for May. In the musical it was only Alec (Gene Kelly here), but in the film there is also Willy, the nightclub owner (Douglas Dumbrille) who actually turns out to be quite a nasty customer towards his monarch in the 18th Century section. In the show Willy was a trifle more sleazy in both modern and 18th Century sections, and actually sells a half interest in the club to Louis when he is enriched by his Irish Sweepstakes winnings.There was no Swami character in the musical - but it's nice to see Zero Mostel in one of his earliest roles: he plays the Swami for all he can squeeze out of it, wild-eyed in his crystal gazing (and managing to get a five dollar bill out of Andrew Toombs, as one of the customers). By the way, his name in the 18th Century section is not Taliostra, but Cagliostro - he is fitted into that section as the 18th Century charlatan who was dragged into the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. Mostel also does his imitation of Charles Boyer in the show, which was apparently from his own nightclub act (according to Robert Osborne, on Turner Classic Movies tonight).There was also no Ginny (Virginia O'Brien) character to pair off with Louis at the end. But there is no reason to be critical of this - Louis does deserve something for his giving up on May.This film version does preserve two songs of Porter's score. "Do I Love You Do I?" which Gene Kelly first sings and then dances to on stage is a good number. By the way, his dance routine here with the chorus girls may be the first time (on film) that he did that "push-up" positioned jump slide that he later repeated in THE PIRATE). There is also the conclusion of the musical with the principles (including band leader Tommy Dorsey) doing "Friendship". Lucille Ball would later sing the same song with Vivian Vance on I LOVE LUCY, so she sings it here. Oddly enough in that number she uses her real voice. Earlier it was dubbed to sound more sultry. One may also catch in some background dance music a third number from the show, "What a Swell Party This Is!" which was later to pop up and be sung in HIGH SOCIETY.But the most interesting song change (due to it's risqué lyrics) was "In the Morning No!" That song, a duet in the 18th Century section of the film between King Louis and DuBarry, has lines like, "Do you like Pike's Peak my dear? Kindly tell me so. Yes, I like Pike's Peak my dear...but in the morning no!!" In the film it is replaced by a duet in DuBarry's bedroom between the King and her, and here the double entrendres of the new song deal with food (cheesecake, for example). Who was fooling who here? Rags Ragland's character is a busboy in the original, and a pain in the neck to Louis Blore. But he does transform into the Dauphin (future Louis XVI) and does accidentally shoot an arrow into Louis's behind (not his back as in the film). He too had a song dropped from the film - "Give Them the Ooh La La!" which is better forgotten. Not one of Porter's best lyrics or songs.But then, I have an advantage. In the late 1960s I saw DU BARRY in a revival at the old Equity Library Theater on West 103rd Street in Manhattan. It was a good production, but I best remember it for the performance of the actor playing the Dauphin. Impish with a sinister grin, he was the charismatic figure in that production - even singing that awful tune with all the brio he'd bring to other roles. It was the only time I saw Danny DeVito in a stage production. He was wonderful.