Somebody Loves Me (1952)

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Did Ralph Meeker do his own singing in this movie? He had been a music major in college, so it's possible, and rendered more likely to my twisty mind because his singing voice is nothing at all like his speaking voice. Anyway, this movie starts off in 1906, with Betty Hutton as Blossom Seeley about to debut, but the San Francisco Earthquake intervenes. After a brief interlude in which a temperamental star tries to steal "Toddling the Todalo", she becomes a great star herself and in a couple of minutes and one medley, we get to the armistice and Mr. Meeker; another half hour and they get married, but he isn't standing for being "Mr. Seeley", so he has to be a big success on his own, making everyone miserable.Like many another biopic the amount of truth in this picture is debatable. The point is to hear those good old songs, which had fallen out of favor, and they're well performed, with some nice choreography. More than that, this was an attempt to recast Betty Hutton's screen image. She had come into the movies fourteen years earlier as a jitterbug wailing "Dipsy Doodle", but for the past seven years, Paramount had taken notice of the fact that she was over 21. She's definitely an adult in this movie, and quite lovely and talented, but this was the last movie on her Paramount contract.

At the time I'm writing this, late 2010, there are 6 glowing reviews of this film on IMDb, all seem like they are written by the same person, a big Betty Hutton fan and fan of this film. Netlix recently put this on their watch instantly list and I watched about half.Somebody Loves Me is completely undistinguished, barely mediocre, far from Hutton's best, and lightyears inferior to Singin' In The Rain, made the same year. Hutton sings well, but the songs are a bore, mostly very old fashioned material. The script is third rate; at least Warners, and occasionally MGM, made well written and emotionally moving musical bio's; this one is bland.Ralph Meeker is badly miscast, he brims with dangerous macho sex appeal, perfect for Mike Hammer, all wrong for this picture. And he "sings" several songs; the vocal double is a complete mismatch, though if you'd wanted someone to imitate Bing Crosby, the singer was just about perfect.Betty's costumes are gorgeous, but the rest of the production, including musical numbers, looks cheap.One interesting aspect, Hutton plays a character who is somewhat of a prima donna, demanding and self absorbed. Apparently this is a mild version of the real Betty Hutton.

For Betty Hutton's last film with Paramount and her next to last appearance on the big screen altogether she plays the fourth and last of four real people she was cast in her career as. Betty plays Blossom Seeley vaudeville and musical comedy star who was still performing when this film was made. Betty's other real life characters on screen were Annie Oakley, Pearl White, and Texas Guinan. However unlike Seeley, the other three women were deceased when films about them were made.Not only was Seeley still around, but so was her husband Benny Fields who was in ill health pretty much at that time. And one guy who is not mentioned at all in the film is Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Rube Marquard. He was Blossom Seeley's second husband, she had two of them before she met Fields. That part of the story is not told, but her first husband was a gentleman named George Kane whom she left for Marquard. The notoriety of baseball and show business was equivalent to Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe in that time and Alex Rodriguez and Madonna in the present day. Marquard used to appear with her in vaudeville and he outlived both Blossom and Benny living to the ripe old age of 93 and dying in 1980.But that was all in the past when most of this film's action takes place. Blossom is a big star who decides to expand the act by hiring a trio to perform with her that includes, Ralph Meeker, Sid Tomack, and Henry Slate. But Meeker wants to make it a duo.Meeker's part as Benny Fields is poorly written and should have been played by a singer. It would have been great had Betty Hutton got Frank Sinatra as she wanted. Meeker's part is written as a heel, but Fields and Seeley were an established team still known in 1952. Sounds like the writers and director couldn't figure out how Meeker should come across. The unknown singer they got for Meeker sounded reasonably like Benny Fields.And Blossom Seeley's style was as brassy as Betty Hutton's was so her casting was no stretch. In fact Betty and her numbers are the best thing about Somebody Loves Me. Starting with the title song, the score is made up of period standards plus three new songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.There is a short that Warner Brothers made of the two of them right around the time they were introducing The Jazz Singer. It's the only record of their act around and I did do a review of it. I remember as a lad watching the Ed Sullivan Show and seeing Blossom Seeley performing well into the Sixties. I appreciate now that I saw one of vaudeville's last remaining stars still performing in her seventies. You can also see Blossom in the Russ Columbo film, Broadway Through A Keyhole where she has a supporting role.Though Rube Marquard was edited out of Blossom's life for this movie, probably at his request, and Ralph Meeker is miscast, Somebody Loves Me is definitely a film that Betty Hutton's fans will enjoy.

This was Betty Hutton's last major film at Paramount and she gave her all playing Blossom Seeley. She looked beautiful and was singing better than ever. Blossom worked with Betty on the songs and movements. If Paramount ever releases this film on DVD, it would be a good idea to track down some of Blossom's early musical shorts and include them. Blossom's partner, Benny Fields, is played by Ralph Meeker and he does a fine job with his numbers. His singing is dubbed by Pat Morgan, but it's a good match. Betty wanted Frank Sinatra. Great idea. Too bad it didn't happen, but everything turned out quite well and it's one of my favorite movies starring my favorite bombshell. There are nearly 20 songs and maybe someday there will be a decent soundtrack released on CD. The 10 inch LP that RCA put out at the time was a very sloppy mix of Paramount studio tracks and RCA studio sessions. You can hear the splices.