Du Barry Was a Lady (film)

Du Barry Was a Lady

theatrical release poster
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Produced by Arthur Freed
Written by Nancy Hamilton (adaptation)
Wilkie C. Mahoney (add'l dialogue)
Screenplay by Irving Brecher
Based on Du Barry Was A Lady (1939 musical play)
by Herbert Fields
Buddy G. DeSylva
Cole Porter (music)
Starring Red Skelton
Lucille Ball
Gene Kelly
Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra
Virginia O'Brien
Music by Cole Porter
Cinematography Karl Freund
Howard Kress (uncredited)[1]
Edited by Blanche Sewell
Production
company
Distributed by MGM/Loew's Inc
Release dates
  • August 19, 1943 (1943-08-19) ('NYC)
  • 1943 (1943) (US)
Running time
 96 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,296,000[2]
Box office $3,496,000[2]

Du Barry Was a Lady is a 1943 American musical comedy film, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly and Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra. It is based on the 1939 stage musical of the same name. Shot in Technicolor, the film was directed by Roy Del Ruth and produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Cast

Source: The New York Times[3]

Songs

Musical numbers featured Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra[4][3] (featuring Buddy Rich and Ziggy Elman), Dick Haymes, Jo Stafford, The Pied Pipers, Six Hits and a Miss, and the Music Maids. Lucille Ball's singing voice was dubbed by Martha Mears in most of the picture,[4][5]but her real voice is heard in "Friendship".

Production

MGM originally purchased the rights to Du Barry was a Lady for $80,000 as a vehicle for Ann Sothern Publicity posters (as seen above right) and the doll behind screen credits clearly bear Sothern's likeness.[6] When Sothern turned down the revised role, MGM decided to cast Lucille Ball.[7] Sothern reportedly turned down the role because she was pregnant with her daughter, Tisha Sterling.[8]

The film used very little of the original Cole Porter score. According to Time Out, "this adaptation of the Cole Porter musical ditches most of the songs - and the lusty bawdiness that went with them - to fashion a vehicle for Skelton and Ball, in the process interpolating more 'suitable' numbers."[9]

According to TCM, "MGM bought the rights to a popular stage property... then proceeded to make so many changes that it’s hardly the same show. Much of the Cole Porter score was scrapped for the film version...it retained only a few of the original songs and substituted new material by studio songwriters. The movie also cut out the racier overtones in the musical’s story."[4] New characters were added, and many of the original characters' names were changed. The basic outline remained the same, although the relationships of some of the characters were different. In the film, Ginny (another singer) pines away for Louis, who is too infatuated with May Daly to notice, and it is only at the end that he realizes that Ginny loves him.

The dream sequence was purposely delayed by more than forty-five minutes, with vaudeville-type acts performed as a floor show before the sequence got underway. The Louis XV/Mme. DuBarry scenes, unlike the play, featured very little singing.

Reception

Critical response

Bosley Crowther, in his review for The New York Times, wrote: "they have caught most of the humor of the original, with a lot of Red Skelton's own thrown in. And they have added Rags Ragland and Zero Mostel to be funny when Mr. Skelton is not... particularly they have given the whole show a Technicolor sheen, an eye-filling opulence and splendor, which is fabulous in these rationed times."[3]

Box office

According to MGM records the film earned $2,572,000 in the US and Canada and $924,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $857,000.[2][10]

References

  1. 1 2 Du Barry Was a Lady at the American Film Institute Catalog
  2. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. 1 2 3 "Review. 'Du Barry Was a Lady' (1943)" New York Times, August 20, 1943
  4. 1 2 3 Fristoe, Roger. "Du Barry Was a Lady" (article) TCM.com. Accessed: October 30, 2015
  5. ↑ Fordin, Hugh. "'DuBarry Was a Lady'", M-G-M's Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit, Da Capo Press, 1975, ISBN 0306807300, p. 70
  6. ↑ "Straight From New York". The Milwaukee Sentinel. March 11, 1941. p. 14. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ Films in Review , Volume 39. 39. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 1988. p. 135.
  8. ↑ Karol, Michael. Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia, iUniverse, 2004, ISBN 0595752136, p. 128
  9. ↑ "Review. 'Du Barry Was a Lady'" Time Out. Accessed: October 30, 2015
  10. ↑ Staff (January 5, 1944) "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety p.54
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