It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“Meet Me After the Show” –Musical #497

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Richard Sale

Starring:
Betty Grable, MacDonald Carey, Eddie Albert, Rory Calhoun, Lois Andrews, Irene Ryan, Fred Clark

Plot:
Broadway star Delilah Lee (Grable) is about to start another successful run of a new show written by her husband Jeff Ames (Carey). Jeff discovered Delilah as a cheap singer in Florida and groomed her to be a top star. When Delilah finds out Gloria Carstairs (Andrews) is backing the show and also has the hots for her husband, Delilah leaves him and the show. When Jeff can’t pay the alimony, Delilah feigns amnesia-going back to her performance roots in Florida- to win him back.

Trivia:
-Produced by George Jessel

Highlights:
-Chorus sing “Me-Oh-Miami” as scenes of Miami are shown. Same song was used in the Betty Grable film, “Moon Over Miami.”
-Gwen Verdon as a specialty dancer

Notable Songs:
-Meet Me After the Show performed by Betty Grable
-Betting on a Man performed by Betty Grable

My Review:
For a film that is a musical, I preferred the plot lines over the singing and dancing.
“Meet Me After the Show” has a fairly funny plot line and the non-singing leading men – Eddie Albert and MacDonald Carey- make the film for me. While I love Betty Grable, her performance was overshadowed by the terrible songs that were in this film.
Grable, 20th Century Fox’s top star since the 1940s, has always been able to sell a song with her energy and dancing. But the material she’s given is lousy. One song consists of a lot of body builder-looking men dressed as Romans and Grable dancing around and repeatedly saying “Joe.” I wasn’t sure what Joe and Romans had to do with anything, but the song was annoying. In the number “I Feel Like Dancing” with Gwen Verdon, the two start out dressed like robbers, talk about how they feel like dancing and then suddenly they have Grable in an evening gown. I felt like I missed a major plot line in this song.
The overall film and plot line are fun and funny, but most of the songs had me wishing they would in. However, I wouldn’t overlook it just because of the silly songs. Any Betty Grable film is generally a fun one.

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