Musical Monday: I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947)

Posted on by

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:
I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1947) – Musical #832

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Lloyd Bacon

Starring:
Mark Stevens, June Haver, Martha Stewart, Reginald Gardiner, Lenore Aubert, William Frawley, Gene Nelson, Truman Bradley, George Cleveland, John Arledge (uncredited)

Plot:
Biographical film on songwriter, composer Joseph E. Howard (Stevens) and his rise to fame. Katie (Haver), the niece of Joe’s guardian, is also eager to be part of Joe’s musical career and lies to tag along. Katie continues to cause trouble along the way as he tries to find success, sabotaging Joe’s partnership with singer Lulu Madison (Stewart) and being jealous of Broadway star Fritzi Barrington (Aubert).

Trivia:
• Working title was “Hello, My Baby.”
• Celeste Holm was originally considered for the role of Lulu Madison. The role ended up going to Martha Stewart
• Linda Darnell turned down the role of Katie, which eventually went to June Haver.
• Gene Nelson’s first post-war and credited film role.

Highlights:
• Gene Nelson dancing in the “Glowworm” dream sequence

Notable Songs:
• “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” performed by June Haver
• “Honeymoon” performed by Mark Stevens (dubbed) and June Haver
• “Goodbye, My Lady Love” performed by Mark Stevens (dubbed) and June Haver
• “The Glow-Worm” danced by Gene Nelson and June Haver, performed by the chorus
• “Hello! Ma Baby” performed by Martha Stewart

My review:
With more than 525 songs and 22 stage musicals to his credit, Joseph E. Howard was a prolific composer and lyricist on Tin Pan Alley.
Because of this, it’s a shame that Howard wasn’t afforded a better biopic than I WONDER WHO’S KISSING HER NOW (1947).

In the fictionalized biopic, composer Joseph E. Howard (Mark Stevens) and his rise to fame. Katie (Haver), the niece of Joe’s guardian, is also eager to be part of Joe’s musical career and lies to tag along. Katie continues to cause trouble along the way as he tries to find success, sabotaging Joe’s partnership with singer Lulu Madison (Martha Stewart) and being jealous of Broadway star Fritzi Barrington (Lenore Aubert).

“Let’s stop trying to make June Haver a thing,” is what I would be saying if it was 1947 and I was watching this movie.

Okay, I know that seems mean. I love Haver and Fred MacMurray as a couple, but as an actress, I find her just okay and like a carbon copy of Betty Grable. I think part of my irritation with her in this film is that they wrote her character to take over the story Joe Howard’s character. I’ve tried really hard to like her, but I really don’t care for her here. There’s a finale number of her singing “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” where she tries to have a French accent, which is just terrible.

Who I do enjoy is actor Mark Stevens, who plays Joseph E. Howard, who is underrated and underutilized. Stevens is handsome and most definitely isn’t doing his own singing here.

I’m curious if they were trying to make Haver and Stevens a screenteam, since they were later cast in OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL (1949).

Another fun surprise is Gene Nelson, who randomly appears at the end. We get to see him dance a bit, but not to his full potential that we get to see later in his films.

I also think it’s interesting to see Lloyd Bacon directed this, since I know him primarily from Warner Bros.

The singing and dancing in the film is just okay. For some reason, Haver is put in black face for one number. However, I WONDER WHO’S KISSING HER NOW (1947) is filmed in Technicolor, and it is very pretty.

With a run time of an hour and 40 minutes, the film feels it meanders and only picks up with any plot excitement with 40 minutes left in the film.

When it comes to the heyday of 20th Century Fox Technicolor musicals, this film unfortunately doesn’t illustrate it well.

Other places you can follow Comet Over Hollywood: 

Thank you for reading! What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.