So-so musical celebrating a bygone show biz era
MGM, Warner Brothers, and 20th Century-Fox were the major producers of musicals in the 1940s. MGM had Astaire, Kelly, and Garland and Warners had Doris Day. Fox’s box office bonanza was Betty Grable, star of several musicals for the studio, including 1947’s “Mother Wore Tights,” her personal favorite.<br /><br />During and immediately after World War II, Hollywood produced many films that celebrated the good old days of old-fashioned family values and simpler times. Musicals such as “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Lillian Russell,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Easter Parade,” “Hello, Frisco, Hello,” and “In the Good Old Summertime” dealt with periods before the world was plunged into war and families were separated for the duration.<br /><br />“Mother Wore Tights” departs from the typical musical plot of a romance that blossoms, hits bumps, and turns the lovers into bickering adversaries until all is resolved in a happy ending. Based on a memoir about her vaudevillian parents by Miriam Young, “Mother Wore Tights” begins with elderly Mother and Daddy sitting on a porch as their story is told in flashback. Small-town business school graduate Myrtle McKinley (Betty Grable) moves to the big city and meets self-centered, brash song-and-dance man Frank Burt (Dan Dailey). There is a bit of flirtation and before you know it, they partner up, travel the country, and eventually marry and have two kids. Their fortunes increase and the family is soon living well enough to enroll their girls in a costly private boarding school.<br /><br />Focus shifts when daughter Iris (Mona Freeman) becomes attracted to well-to-do Bob Clarkman (Robert Arthur) on vacation and dreads that he and his parents will discover her parents are show folk. Later, she befriends affluent friends at school who look down on entertainers and becomes increasingly embarrassed by her parents’ line of work. The film suffers by diverting attention from Grable and Dailey, and Ms. Freeman’s weak performance doesn’t help.<br /><br />Musical numbers emerge naturally out of the action, since this is a story about entertainers. Grable, in ragged top hat and tailcoat, performs the old music hall ditty “Burlington Bertie From Bow” and, dressed elegantly in a glamorous Orry-Kelly gown, sings the romantic Oscar-nominated ballad “You Do,” which is reprised twice.  Alfred Newman won an Oscar for the score. In a party sequence, Señor Wences and his puppet Johnny, frequent guests on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” do a routine, and the Banana Man, another Sullivan regular, appears in a too-short sequence in which he retrieves endless bunches of bananas from his frock coat as he sings a high-pitched wordless tune.<br /><br />Ms. Grable once noted that she wasn’t much of an actress, couldn’t sing, and didn’t dance very well. She may have been overly modest. She certainly conveys enthusiasm and has more than enough personality to get by. Dailey, who would make three more pictures with Grable, is a pretty good song-and-dance man, with an athletic, energetic style similar to that of Gene Kelly.<br /><br />The movie is directed by Walter Lang, who directed “The King and I” and many other musicals. He appears to be coasting in “Mother Wore Tights,” letting Ms. Grable’s shapely legs and rosy personality carry the show. A major problem with Lamar Trotti’s screenplay is its almost complete lack of conflict. With the exception of Iris’s feeling that her parents are an embarrassment, everything moves along relatively smoothly. The film is pleasant enough and was a big hit in its day but doesn’t stand the test of time very well. It could have used a dose of Carmen Miranda, a colorful novelty star who often livened up the screen in Fox musicals.<br /><br />The unrated 107-minute Blu-ray is released as a Limited Edition of 3,000 units. Bonus materials include a radio program, booklet, and Twilight Time catalogue.
The movie title "Mother Wore Tights," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.4 from 130 reviewers. 
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 {"MPAA rating": "Unrated (Not Rated)", "Package Dimensions": "6.69 x 5.35 x 0.39 inches; 2.54 Ounces", "Media Format": "Color, Full Screen, Limited Edition, Blu-ray, Subtitled, Digital Sound", "Run time": "147 minutes", "Actors": "Dan Daley", "Subtitles": "English", "Studio": "Twilight Time", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Song-and-dance dynamos Betty Grable and Dan Dailey spectacularly pair as married footlight troupers for the first of four well-regarded films they made together, Mother Wore Tights (1947), an effervescent vaudeville family showbiz saga from director Walter Lang (State Fair, The King and I) that boasts, in the best nostalgic Fox musical tradition, pitch-perfect Technicolor-tailored production finery and an expertly curated menu of beloved popular songs. Mona Freeman and Connie Marshall play the couple’s kids, and character favorites Sara Allgood, William Frawley, Veda Ann Borg and more get moments to shine. For his work here, musical director Alfred Newman won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture..