Annie Get Your Gun

Betty Hutton stars in a role originally intended to be for Judy Garland (she proved to be too overwrought to be usable) as the film was originally to be directed by Busby Berkeley in this slight romance about starry-eyed backwoods girl, Annie Oakley, who joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and must best her rival, Frank Butler (Howard Keel) as a sharpshooter but finds that winning isn't everything where love is concerned.

Hutton is an energetic scrubber but no Garland nor even an Ethel Merman, who played the part in the original Broadway smash, whilst Keel, in his screen debut, is all big grin and little else. The production overwhelms its characters with Technicolor gaudiness, although George Sidney's direction lacks sparkle (what might Berkeley have done with the closing rodeo number). For those willing to go the distance, however, Irving Berlin's score includes some of his most memorable songs, including They Say It's Wonderful,  Doin' What Comes Natur'lly, You Can't Get A Man With A Gun, Anything You Can Do and the classic There's No Business Like Show Business.

 

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