SOMEBODY LOVES ME

US, 1952, 97 minutes, Colour.
Betty Hutton, Ralph Meeker, Robert Keith, Adele Jergens, Jack Benny.
Directed by Ivan Brecher.

Somebody Loves Me is the biography of singer Blossom Seeley. She was portrayed by Betty Hutton, often a raucous singer but subdued here in this biography.

Betty Hutton had made an impact with The Perils of Pauline, the story of the silent screen actress who was always in adventures. She had a good role as Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun and appeared in the same year, 1950, with Fred Astaire in Let’s Dance. She was also the star of Cecil B. de Mille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. However, Somebody Loves Me was to be her last major film. She made a few more and appeared in television (dying at the age of eighty-seven in 2007).

Ralph Meeker plays her husband Benny Fields. The film is as was the case in most of these film biographies, a rather sanitised version of the life of its central characters. However, it presents images of show business in the first half of the 20th century and features Blossom Seeley and her songs.

Director Ivan Brecher was a writer, who contributed to some of the Marx Brothers films in the 1930s.

1. Was this an interesting biography, good theatre story, good musical?

2. A musical of the fifties, the staging of the songs, the representing of San Francisco at the turn of the century, the re-creation of Broadway at its height? Colour, costumes, musical styles?

3. How much did the success of the film depend on Betty Hutton, her verve and her style? Her particular style and movement when singing? The presentation of the character of Blossom Sealy and her success and style?

4. The contrast with Ralph Meeker, his musical style as Benny Fields? When he was playing second to Blossom, when he developed his own style? The particular attitudes of the early part of the century for a male musical singer?

5. The impact of San Francisco in 1906, Blossom and her energy and hopes, the humorous use of the earthquake? The build-up of her career, the importance of the monkey on the singer's dress and people laughing at her? Chance success for Blossom? Was it credible that she should have made such an impact at the beginning? The film's collage presentation of ten years of growing success? The momentum of her career?

6. The re-creation of the world of burlesque and vaudeville, backstage story, the audiences, the staging of the comedy and the songs, the low?class theatres, Broadway itself? Audience response to this popular kind of theatre? Nostalgia and its passing?

7. How well did Betty Hutton portray the character of Blossoms her origins, success and wealth, her relationship with her agent, dependence on her maid and her wisecracks, her coping with success? Her finding of Benny, her loving him and yet being blind to him? How convincing was she in her hostility towards him, her marrying him? Their clashes and the effect on her? Her disbelief at his going, her pulling out of the Ziegfeld Follies? Her joy at his return, her coaching and pushing him? Her deal for his success? Were these activities credible? What was going on in her?

8. The contrast with Benny? A suave self?opiniated character, his push, his relationship with his friends and their mistake in upstaging Blossom? His staying on, using her? His callous attitude in marrying her? The fact that everybody could see it except Blossom? The impact of his marriage for success?

9. How convincing was his discovery that he was ‘Mr. Sealy' and that he loved Blossom? People talking, using his wife’s name? How convincing was his leaving of her, his being humiliated in San Francisco? The agent explaining that he should go back, his decision to go and her persuading him to be a musical success?

10. The transition in his personality with the help of Blossom, his finding his own musical style? His disillusionment to discover the truth on his opening night, his defiance and his success? His recognition of his relationship with Blossom? Their final singing together? How convincing was this human backstage story?

11. The presentation of the various songs, in San Francisco, at rehearsals, the Broadway numbers to illustrate Blossom's versatility, her Ziegfeld number? the title song? The use of the title song and its meaning, especially at the end?

12. How conventional was the material of this film? How well was the conventional material presented?