Movie Musical Challenge: Annie Get Your Gun

In Movie Musical Challenge, I'm watching 20 films I picked as great films or films I wanted to watch.  My first film for this year's challenge is the effervescent Annie Get Your Gun from 1950, starring Betty Hutton and Howard Keel.

Annie Get Your Gun is a really fun film to watch.  Because I like Westerns, the Western theme makes me happy, and the main character Annie is high-spirited, talented and engaging.  Betty Hutton was so perfect as Annie - she played Annie's lack of refinement, but excess of enthusiasm so perfectly.  Her transformation was surprising to me too - in the beginning of the film, when she is just fresh from the backwoods, she did not look even old enough to be enamored with (the very handsome haha) Frank Butler.  I mean she looked really young! I was like - isn't anyone going to ask how old she is before asking her to join the show??  That's great makeup and acting I guess.  And when she fixes herself up to become more lady-like, the difference is very striking.

The romance is sweet but just a little problematic to me though.  I get why Annie is so taken by Frank Butler, but I wish he could have accepted that Annie was a better shot than him and still loved her.  It seems sad that she can't be her best but still get the man.  Frank was a little annoying with his overweening pride.  And he went back and forth a lot - feeling like he loved Annie, to getting so angry when she showed her talent.  I was completely in agreement with the character of Charlie Davenport in telling off Frank over his selfishness.  So even though I really enjoyed this movie and even the romance at times, the ending made me a little sad for Annie.

The best part of the film has to be the one song that I was familiar with in this show - "Anything You Can Do" which is a hilarious scene where Annie and Frank are trying to one up each other.  And the lyrics are so clever.  I was looking forward to this scene when I first started watching, and it didn't disappoint.  Annie and Frank have wonderful chemistry together despite their antagonism.

There are lots of clever and catchy songs in this film, although not all of them stand out as much as "Anything You Can Do" and "There's No Business Like Show Business."  I'm glad I finally watched this one though - it made for great entertainment.