Rating: NR
Genre: Musical
Release Date: 05/29/2001
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD4.0/DDS2.0
Run Time: 118 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox

Like Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), 20th Century-Fox's There's No Business Like Show Business is a "catalogue" film, its thinnish plot held together by an itinerary of Irving Berlin tunes. The story chronicles some twenty years in the lives of a showbiz family, headed by Dan Dailey and Ethel Merman. Two of the couple's three grown children -- Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor -- carry on the family tradition, while the third, Johnny Ray, decides to become a priest. There are a few tense moments when O'Connor falls in love with ambitious chorine Marilyn Monroe and loses all sense of perspective, but the family reunites during a splashy production-number finale. Highlights include Dailey and Merman's Play a Simple Melody duet, O'Connor's A Man Chases a Girl solo, and Monroe's tempestuous rendition of Heat Wave (her delivery and stage presence both compensate for her unflattering bare-midriff costume). Of historical interest, There's No Business Like Show Business was Fox's first CinemaScope musical; as such, it is best viewed on TV in "letterbox" format.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Ethel Merman - Molly Donahue
Donald O'Connor - Tim Donahue
Marilyn Monroe - Vicky
Dan Dailey - Terrance Donahue
Johnnie Ray - Steve Donahue
Mitzi Gaynor - Katy Donahue
Richard Eastham - Lew Harris
Hugh O'Brian - Charles Gibbs
Frank McHugh - Eddie Duggen
Rhys Williams - Father Dineen
Lee Patrick - Marge
Eve Miller - Hat check girl
Robin Raymond - Lillian Sawyer
Lyle Talbot - Stage manager
Alvy Moore - Katy's Boyfriend
Chick Chandler - Harry
Henry Slate - Dance director
Nolan Leary - Archbishop
Gavin Gordon - Geoffrey
Mimi Gibson - Katy at Age 4
Linda Lowell - Katy at Age 8
Jimmie Baird - Steve at Age 6
Donald Gamble - Tim at Age 6

Production:
Walter Lang - Director
Sol C. Siegel - Producer
Irving Berlin Alfred Newman Lionel Newman - Composer
Robert L. Simpson - Editor
Henry Ephron Phoebe Ephron - Screen Writer
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director
Robert Alton - Choreography
Leon Shamroy - Cinematographer
Charles LeMaire - Costume Designer
Miles White - Costume Designer
William Travilla - Costume Designer
Alfred Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision
Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision
Lamar Trotti - Screen Story
Irving Berlin - Songwriter
Ray Kellogg - Special Effects
John De Cuir - Production Designer

Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band
    Tyrone Power / 1938
The Band Wagon [2 Discs]
    Fred Astaire / 1953
The Great Ziegfeld [Repackaged]
    William Powell / NR / 1936

1954 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie