CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY
US, 1951, 81 minutes, Black and white.
Fred Mac Murray, Dorothy Maguire, Howard Keel, Jesse White, Stan Freberg.
Directed by Melvyn Frank and Norman Panama.
Callaway Went Thataway is only brief but it is a very entertaining, sometimes delightful film from the early 1950s. It opens with cowboy films being watched on television - an echo of the popular cowboys on screen in the 1930s and 40s like Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Some smart marketers want to reprogram the films for television and want the star to go around America promoting the films. The difficulty is that he has disappeared - and in fact is a womaniser and a drunk. They get the bright idea of finding a lookalike who then, reluctantly and in an 'aw shucks' way, agrees to do the impersonation. While things go very well - and it is interesting to see in 1951 the amount of merchandising that accompanied films, not just a later development by George Lucas and co - but there is a twist when the real cowboy is found by an enterprising agent and comes back, wanting a share of the money. In training, he is hopeless, hides a lot of his liquor. Desperately, the marketers have to call back the impersonator. In the meantime, he has been rebuked by a lady talking about the ill children and has signed away all his earnings for a charitable foundation.
Fred Mac Murray is at home in this kind of role, the brash entrepreneur. Dorothy Maguire, always charming, is his assistant. The surprise of the film is Howard Keel in a very early role, just after he made Annie Get Your Gun. He portrays both the cowboy, Smoky Callaway, and the farmhand, Stretch Barnes, with quite some differences bringing each of them to life. At one stage he has a trick photography fight with himself! Jesse White is the agent.
The film was written and directed by Melvyn Frank and Norman Panama who had a long career of writing and directing together. Soon after this they had great success with Knock on Wood, White Christmas and The Court Jester.
1.An entertaining supporting feature? In later decades?
2.Hollywood, agencies? The world of television? Business executives, marketers, promoters? The world of the 1950s compared with later decades? The emphasis on merchandising? Promotional tours?
3.Black and white photography, the comic sequences, the action sequences, the western films?
4.Mike and Deborah, their work together, collaboration, watching the Smoky Callaway films? The idea of promoting them? The spiel to the executives? Their trying to find Callaway? Their sending George Markham to find him? The pressure, the popularity of the films? The demand for the tour?
5.The decision to find a substitute, photo, going to Colorado, meeting Stretch Barnes? His manner, style, the opposite of Callaway? Genial, not having travelled? Their powers of persuasion to get him to take Callaway's place?
6.Stretch and Los Angeles, his final agreement, his getting used to living in Los Angeles? The rehearsals, his mistakes? His being too nice? The sequence where he went to the club and met Esther Williams, Elizabeth Taylor and Clark Gable - and had no idea who they were?
7.The tour, the style of promotion, Stretch and his meeting the children, the public, the huge turnouts? The western action?
8.The effect on Stretch, his feeling guilty? The woman reprimanding him about the children? His going to the bank, his decision to give away the money, setting up the contract?
9.George Markham finding the real Smoky, in the bar, with the women, alcoholic? Bringing him back to Los Angeles? The contact with Mike and Deborah? Their dilemma, handling it, the effect on Stretch?
10.The behaviour of Smoky, trying to go into training, his being ineffectual, hiding the drink, alcoholic?
11.The final promotion, desperation, trying to persuade Stretch to perform once again? Deborah and her relationship with Stretch, his respect for her, her having to admit the deception, Mike and his admittance? Stretch and his final agreement - with the result that the money went to the children?
12.The humour at the expense of Hollywood, agents, promoters, television? The authentic feel of the cowboy from the authentic American west?
