Something for the Boys (film)

Something for the Boys is a 1944 musical comedy film directed by Lewis Seiler. It stars Carmen Miranda, Michael O'Shea, Vivian Blaine, Phil Silvers, Sheila Ryan and Perry Como.

The screenplay was written by Robert Ellis, Helen Logan and Frank Gabrielson based on the 1943 Broadway musical of the same name starring Ethel Merman with Cole Porter's songs.

Plot
Cousins actress Blossom Hart, defense plant worker Chiquita Hart and inventor Harry Hart learn that they are heirs to a large plantation in Masonville, Georgia. As they are all poor, they are thrilled by the inheritance, but when lawyer Jefferson Calhoun takes them to Magnolia Manor, they discover that the formerly glorious plantation house is now in ruins. They also learn that paying the plantation's property and inheritance taxes will place them deeply in debt.

Staff Sgt. Ronald "Rocky" Fulton, a well-known orchestra leader before joining the military, arrives with some of his men, including Sgt. Laddie Green. Fulton explains that the married servicemen of nearby Camp Dixon want to rent rooms in the manor for their wives. The men help the cousins restore the manor. Fulton, who has begun a romance with Blossom, suggests that they stage a musical show to raise funds for the renovations. On the day that the show is to open, Blossom is stunned by the arrival of Melanie Walker, a snobbish, rich woman whom Fulton is forced to admit is his fiancée. When Melanie announces the changes that she intends to make to the manor, Blossom is infuriated and refuses to speak to Fulton, but he tells Chiquita that he loves only Blossom.

The show is a great success, and the next morning, Chiquita advises Blossom to fight for Fulton if she loves him. Lt. Ashley Crothers visits and discovers that Harry is hosting a dice game for f the soldiers, none of whom have wives staying at the manor. Crothers arrests the soldiers and recommends that the house be restricted for all military personnel. Col. Grubbs approves Crothers' suggestion, and soon the wives are packing to leave.

After Harry learns that carborundum from the defense plant in causing Chiquita's dental fillings to receive radio programs, he decides to build an invention around the idea. One afternoon, Fulton visits to talk to Blossom, who refuses to see him. He is supposed to be on duty for war games and is captured by the enemy army, which has taken the manor as its headquarters. Fulton enlists the aid of Chiquita and Harry, who build a transmitter to send a message to his unit through Chiquita's teeth. The message is sent and the cousins distract the enemy army with a song-and-dance show while Fulton's army assembles for its attack. His side prevails in the maneuvers, and in appreciation of the help offered by Blossom, Chiquita and Harry's, the manor is reopened for the military men and their wives. At a celebratory party, Fulton announces that he has been selected for officer candidate school and Blossom reconciles with him.

Cast

 * Carmen Miranda as Chiquita Hart
 * Michael O'Shea as Sergeant Ronald 'Rocky' Fulton
 * Vivian Blaine as Blossom Hart
 * Phil Silvers as Harry Hart
 * Sheila Ryan as Melanie Walker
 * Perry Como as Sergeant Laddie Green
 * Glenn Langan as Lieutenant Ashley Crothers
 * Thurston Hall as Colonel Jefferson L. Calhoun
 * June Haver as Chorine

Production
The film is based on the 1943 Broadway musical of the same name, which features songs by Cole Porter and was a starring vehicle for Ethel Merman, who played Blossom. However, the film version employs only the title song from Porter's score and otherwise features no music from the stage show. Chiquta's role was expanded for Carmen Mirand; in the musical, it is Blossom who receives messages from her fillings.

According to 20th Century Studios records, in November 1942 the studio advanced $62,500 to Michael Todd and Savoy Productions for production of the musical and then purchased the screen rights to it in 1943. Per the agreement with Todd, the studio could not release the film until at least the summer of 1944 in order to avoid competing with the touring stage musical. William Perlberg was originally slated to produce the film, with Irving Cummings to direct it and Betty Grable scheduled to star.

In January 1944, H. Bruce Humberstone was assigned to direct the film and Brenda Marshall was set for the female lead. Humberstone auditioned the Jeepers, a seven-piece novelty orchestra, but they do not appear in the completed film.

Writers Harry Segall, Marian Spitzer, Eddie Welch, Snag Werris, Samuel Hoffenstein and Betty Reinhardt all worked on various versions of the screenplay. Twentieth Century-Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck wanted the same writers who wrote Greenwich Village, a 1944 film starring Miranda, to write Miranda's dialogue for Something for the Boys because "they wrote especially for her, with mispronunciations, etc., and she is very funny when she is given this style of writing."

The medley "Southland Routine", performed by Phil Silvers, includes excerpts from the songs "Southland" by Silvers, Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh; "Dixie's Land" by Dan Emmett; "All Over God's Heaven," a traditional spiritual; "Shortnin' Bread", with words by Jacques Wolfe; "Indian Dance" by Urban Theilman; and "Climin' Up Dem Golden Stairs" by Adamson and McHugh. The studio records contain letters from songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, who stated that the "Southland Routine" was based on their work. In early 1945, the studio paid the composers $3,000 in order to abandon their claim. The owners of the radio show The Court of Missing Heirs filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the producers and owners of the play Something for the Boys.

Release
The film was released on November 1, 1944.

In June 2008, Something for the Boys was released on DVD as part of Fox's Carmen Miranda Collection.

Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther called the film "quite a pleasant fable" with "plenty of music, much gay humor and a superabundance of beautiful girls. As a matter of fact, the latter element is so winsomely and generously revealed that the senses pulsate at such extravagance. If it's girls the boys want, that's what they'll get. Tall girls, small girls, fair girls, red-heads and raven brunettes, all in lovely Technicolor—and all of them shapely."

Time magazine wrote that the film "turns out to have nothing very remarkable. There is not Carmen Miranda." Variety 's review found the film "sufficiently diverting and tuneful to warrant more than moderate success at the box-office" and that Perry Como "makes a good appearance before the cameras," with his songs "quite listenable and well sold."