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 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Incendiary Blonde (1945) – Musical #411

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Betty Hutton, Arturo de Córdova, Charles Ruggles, Bill Goodwin, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker, Mary Phillips, Eduardo Ciannelli, Frank Faylen (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited), Johnny Johnston (uncredited), Catherine Craig (uncredited)
Themselves: Maurice Rocco, The Maxellos

Plot:
Biographical film on the life and career of performer and speakeasy owner, Texas Guinan (Hutton). Guinan was known as “queen of the nightclubs” in the 1920s. The film shows Guinan leaving home to work in a Wild West Show and then working her way up to fame through Broadway shows, films and then a leading nightclub entertainer. Along the way, Guinan pines for Bill Romero Kilgannon (de Cordova).

Trivia:
• Texas Guinan died in 1933 at age 49
• The project was originally planned as early as the late-1930s.
• Alan Ladd was originally set as the leading man. Ladd was then replaced by Barry Sullivan, who was assigned to another film, and finally Arturo de Cordova was cast, according to Betty Hutton’s autobiography. Brian Donlevy was also offered a role in the film.
• Betty Hutton had 38 costume changes in the film, according to her autobiography.
• According to a New York Times article, Guinan’s family contributed the family archive of news clippings to Paramount for background research.
• Working titles included: “The Smoothest Gal in Town,” “The Life of Texas Guinan” and “Texas Guinan.”
• Robert Emmett Dolan was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture).

Highlights:
• Exquisite costumes designed by Edith Head
• The “Row, Row, Row” number
• The appearance of pianist Maurice Rocco

Notable Songs:
• “It Had to Be You” performed by Betty Hutton
• “Oh By Jingo! (Oh By Gee, You’re the Only Girl For Me)” performed by Betty Hutton
• “Row, Row, Row” performed by Betty Hutton
• “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” performed by Betty Hutton
• “What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?” performed by Betty Hutton and Johnny Johnston

My review:
Texas Guinan is a name synonymous with a larger than life personality and entertaining. Though Guinan died in 1933 — more than 90 years ago — she is still referenced in films and TV, inspires characters, and a recent biography has been published about her.

Born in Texas, Mary Louise Guinan had a career on the stage as an entertained and appeared in nearly 50 full-length and short films. Before her death at age 49, Guinan was in three talkies playing variations of herself — QUEEN OF THE NIGHT CLUBS (1929), GLORIFYING THE AMERICAN GIRL (1929) and BROADWAY THRU A KEYHOLE (1933). Unfortunately, I’ve only see the last film in this trio, but I can recommend it as great fun.

More than her stage and film acting, Guinan is perhaps best known as a Prohibition era nightclub hostess, where she would great her guests with “Hiya, Suckers!” and entertain with jokes and songs. This aspect of her life is the one that we see personified on screen the most.

Many people have played Guinan, either by name or inspired characters, but it was actress Betty Hutton who brought her exuberance to the character in the musical biopic, INCENDIARY BLONDE (1945).

In this fictional biopic, the story follows Texas Guinan (Hutton) from her early days in Texas and how she left home to perform in Cherokee Jim’s (Charles Ruggles) Wild West Show. While in the show, Texas falls in love with Bill Romero Kilgannon (de Cordova). Kilgannon directly or indirectly dictates Texas’s career throughout the story. When she finds out he’s married, Texas leaves the show for New York City to perform on the stage. Texas rises to staring roles on the stage, but leaves for Hollywood when she finds out Kilgannon is producting films. There she stars in silent western pictures. When Kilgannon’s studio loses money and Texas believes he betrayed her and her father (Fitzgerald), Texas returns to New York City where she reinvents herself as a super club host, entertaining packed night clubs with songs and hosts. Kilgannon eventually catches up with her, and gangsters want to take over their successful nightclub.

The film is told in a retrospective manner, beginning with Texas’s 1933 death with her father and ex-husband (Bill Goodwin) mourning her at her funeral. Interestingly, the funeral scene doesn’t book end with the funeral and it ends with another scene, but the film does not have a happy ending, which is interesting.

I know Betty Hutton isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I for one and a fan, and feel she was perfectly cast to play a character who is often depicted as brash and going to the beat of her own drum. The only drawback is that Hutton may actually be too beautiful — while attractive, Guinan looked more like Tallulah Bankhead. Hutton does an excellent job in a film filled with songs, dance numbers and quick lines.

The whole story is depicted in vibrant Technicolor and with incredible songs throughout. Edith Head pulled out all the stops with stunning gowns. It seems almost every one of Texas Guinan’s performance costumes are outfitted with feathers or sequins.

Hutton in particularly loved the evening blue sequined gown she wore in the “Row, Row, Row” number, calling Head “marvelous,” in her autobiography, “Backstage, You Can Have.”

Hutton also loved the songs in the film, and the choreography by Danny Dare for the number “Row, Row, Row.” While the songs are great throughout, this is the standout number. Hutton is incredible but it’s also quite funny with jokes throughout. Dare’s choreography of including items from dinner tables to look like a boat is very creative.

In addition to this number, Hutton can also tone it down and sing a beautiful number. Here it’s “It Had to Be You.”

While I’ve said Hutton is incredible in this film, it also seems that she’s caring this film on her own. Character actors Charles Ruggles and Barry Fitzgerald are always wonderful, and their roles in INCENDIARY BLONDE are no exception. However, they are underutilized.

In her autobiography, Betty Hutton lamented that she didn’t have a better leading man – which I don’t disagree with. Arturo de Córdova is fine, but just not very interesting. I’m not certain who he was supposed to be in real life, as his character is fictional. Bland Bill Goodwin was even better than him, and I was sad to see them divorce in the film. Goodwin’s newspaper man, Tim Callahan, is likely based on Hutton’s real life husband, newspaper artist John J. Moynahan, who she was married to from 1904 to 1906. Guinan was married a second time to film editor Julian Johnson from 1910 to 1920. Neither of these measure of to the Jack of all trades, Bill Romero Kilgannon.

How much of the rest of the film is accurate? Well Guinan was in films and was a nightclub host. But was she really in wild west shows? The jury is out, even with her 2023 biographer, Louise Berliner. Berliner writes that the wild west show came from the fictionalized stories Guinan would tell about her life, and while she potentially was in a show, the timing doesn’t quite add up. Guinan herself said: “Exaggerate the world,” Berliner quoted.

And did she have troubles with gangsters like in the film? That’s not likely. Berliner notes that Guinan had an in with the underworld, noting “It was hardly a secret along Broadway that Tex was on intimate terms with the gangsters who financed her club.”

However, I need to finish reading the book and will report back on how accurate this film is. Even if it’s not fully historical accurate, it captures Guinan’s larger than life personality.

The only downside of INCENDIARY BLONDE? While it’s stunning to watch, it has never been commercially released by DVD (because it seems Paramount Pictures doesn’t care about releasing their films). The only online upload is a bit fuzzy. But whenever it airs on Turner Classic Movies, it captures the beauty of this stunning film.

Other performers who played roles inspired by Guinan include Barbara Nichols in “The George Raft Story,” Phyllis Diller in “Splendor in the Grass,” Mae West in “Night After Night” and Gladys George in “The Roaring Twenties.” In addition to Hutton, Diller and George are the probably the best casting.

Honestly, I swear I had reviewed this previously this as a Musical Monday, but I guess not. That’s okay, because I got to revisit this wonderful film. And it’s perfect for the New Year, as it ends on New Year’s Eve! Catch this one if you can. It’s great fun.

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