Moon Over Miami (1941)

hyped garbage

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"Moon Over Miami" is a reworking of "Three Blind Mice" and years later the plot was reworked significantly as "How To Marry a Millionaire" (also starring Betty Grable). The significant difference between "Three Blind Mice" and "Moon Over Miami" is that the latter film has singing and is shot in Technicolor (and is quite lovely because of this).A family is expecting a large inheritance. When it turns out to be not so large, one of them (Betty Grable) convinces her aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) and sister (Carole Landis) to invest their small windfall in a trip to Miami to hook a rich husband. The plan is to check into a swank resort and have her sister and aunt pose as her secretary and maid respectively. Soon, two guys (Bob Cummings and Don Ameche) are VERY interested in her...VERY. But which to pick? She likes them both and both appear to be loaded.Despite being very familiar, this film is still enjoyable--perhaps a bit more than the original. But be forewarned--it's pure escapist fun and you can't think too much about the plot or else you'll really dislike Grable and her family (after all, they are liars and fortune-hunters). Well acted and slickly made.By the way, the Florida locations are a bit of Hollywood escapism. While the film is supposed to be in Miami (and a few exterior shots are of Miami), a lot of the film was filmed at Cypress Gardens (now Legoland--and 3 1/2 hours away) and around Ocala (4 hours away). Back in the day, such trips would have taken MUCH longer in the age before superhighways.

Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Charlotte Greenwood, two sisters and their aunt work as carhops in a drive-up Texas diner and they get a letter from a lawyer. Another relative has up and died and left the family fortune to them. But after the court and Uncle Sam have taken their share, it's only several thousand apiece. Betty has her sights set on landing a millionaire husband as any bright girl in that era would. Landis and Greenwood don't need much convincing to pool their resources and go to Miami and hang out where the millionaires do. Betty pretends to be a millionaire heiress herself with Landis as a secretary and Greenwood her maid.I shouldn't say too much more, but as this was a film of pure escapism with happy endings required, you should be able to figure out the rest. The men sure liked looking at Grable and Landis and the women dreamed of being in their place, courted by the likes of Don Ameche and Bob Cummings.Songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin contributed a good score that showcases the considerable musical talents of Ameche, Grable, Greenwood and Jack Haley who plays a suspicious waiter at the resort the girls are staying at. What I don't understand is that the title of the film is the title of a very big hit song from the Thirties and it is only used under the title credits and as background. Of course it wasn't written by Robin and Rainger, and maybe that was the reason, they didn't want their music competing with an established tune.Even with world war once again breaking out in Europe, Africa, and Asia, audiences still loved this escapist stuff. Films like this are what made Betty Grable the GIs number one pin-up girl. This is what the GIs loved as Robert Strauss from Stalag 17 would so testify. After all, Animal did say he saw all her films on multiple occasions.If he did, he was well pleased with Moon Over Miami.

This wonderful movie is filled with great songs and dance numbers featuring Betty Grable at her absolute best. She dances and sings beautifully...and after watching this movie (I've seen it at least 50 times) I can never stop singing "You Started Something". Both Don Ameche and Robert Cummings are also perfectly cast in their light romantic and debonair roles. As stand-outs though you can't compete with Charlotte Greenwood (who could lift her legs higher than anyone from her generation) and Jack Haley who's comic mugging for the camera never fails to make me laugh. The movies colors and gowns are everything you could want and then some of a great Hollywood Musical. The sets, too, are the stuff Hollywood Dreams are made of...the height of chic. I love watching this movie with Spring Time in the Rockies and Down Argentine Way for a full on Betty Grable Musical Film Fest.

This is one of my favorite movies, with the singing and dancing of one of my favorites, Charlotte Greenwood, and the Nicholas Brothers, also favorites of mine. The story is light and fluffy, and that's why I like watching movies; I want to be entertained, not so much to think! It's a little zany with the bellman and the plot to snare a rich hubby, and the sister posing as the secretary really in love with the rich guy, and the sister who's supposed to marry the rich guy really loving the ne'er do well friend. This story has a happy ending, just the way I like it! cosie3