User Reviews

I may be the only person to source this movie because it features Frank Loesser in an acting role. Since earliest childhood my twin passions have been movies and Popular Song, which is how we used to refer to what w have now been taught to call the Great American Songbook, a volume in which Loesser rates a full chapter to himself. Because of my interest in and knowledge of the GAS there was no danger of me mistaking this title for the Cole Porter Broadway show of the same name which caused friction between its three stars - Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, and Ethel Merman - each of whom aspired to top billing, a situation resolved via a three-sheet resembling a Toblerone. The movie was a vehicle for Betty Hutton, who enjoyed roughly a decade in the spotlight, most of it at Paramount where Loesser was one of a classy group of staff songwriters - Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin,Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans - and more than held his own. He began around 1937 as a lyricist for hire and graduated to composer lyricist in the following decade. As a lyricist he had already provided Hutton with a hit 'Murder, He Says', and as composer/lyricist he scored three of her late movies (The Perils of Pauline, this one and Let's Dance) the manic side of Hutton fazed him not a jot and he came up with The Sewing Machine, Rumble, Rumble, Rumble, Poppa Don't Preach To Me but he also threw in a couple of gorgeous ballads (theoretically wasted on Hutton yet she was able to handle them) for Pauline he penned I Wish I Didn't Love You So, and though it lost Best Song Oscar to the inferior Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah, it did get to number One on Your Hit Parade. For this movie he wrote Where Are You (Now That I Need You), which was only a pick-up note behind I Wish. As a piano playing gangster Loesser doesn't have a lot to do but he manages to convince and the movie is fairly painless.

This was not certainly one of Victor Mature's better films. In fact, he is terribly miscast here. Mature always excelled in roles where he played the villain or tough police officer. Instead, in this film, he plays a director who is in love with the ever zany Bette Hutton. Keeping up with Miss Hutton, who gives a wonderful performance, is more than anyone else could endure.

June Havoc, who died recently at age 97, appears in the film as Hutton's room-mate. She is given little to do here. Remember her as Gregory Peck's Jewish secretary in "Gentleman's Agreement?"

The ending of "Red, Hot and Blue" becomes inane. How they get the best of the bad guys here is rather ridiculous, but it's fun to watch Hutton vamp and sing around the foolish script.

Betty Hutton is a chorus girl hoping for a big break who is all of a sudden the target of the mob. She recounts her story for the gangsters (and the audience) of how she got involved. It includes lecherous producers, backers and a loyal boyfriend (Victor Mature), and features several wacky numbers, including a burlesque of "Hamlet" that refers to the story of Shakespeare's classic play with the lyrics, "And the name of this omelet is Hamlet!" (And you thought "Gilligan's Island"'s Hamlet parody was camp!) Typically, this "omelet" really could have laid an egg itself, but thanks to Hutton's vivacity (which everybody came to expect in her films), it doesn't. June Havoc ("Gypsy's" real-life Dainty June) plays a secondary role, an irony over the fact that Hutton later played her mother in a summer stock production of that classic Jule Style/Stephen Sondheim musical. Broadway's Frank Loesser, who later wrote songs for the gangsters of "Guys and Dolls", wrote the music for this, and plays a featured role.

Minor but fairly enjoyable little programmer goes on too long but shows Betty Hutton's versatility: she can do comedy, slapstick, drama, musical, and apparently action as well (she kicks major ass in the climactic warehouse fight). Wildest number is a brassy musical version of Hamlet! **1/2 out of 4.

Any die-hard William Talman fans may blow a gasket waiting for "Perry Mason" actor William Talman to appear in John Farrow's screwball comedy "Red, Hot, and Blue," co-starring William Demarest, June Havoc, and Frank Loesser. Talman plays a smooth as silk mobster who wants to produce a Broadway play. He invites Eleanor Collier (Betty Hutton), a young, naïve, wannabe actress from Ohio, to his apartment to discuss a role in his proposed forthcoming play. Incidentally, Bob Hope once called Hutton "a vitamin with legs," and his assessment is painfully accurate. Eleanor makes nothing but trouble for her boyfriend, Danny James (Victor Mature of "Kiss of Death"), who is trying to launch a play he has been rehearsing for stage. William Demarest is cast as Eleanor's agent; Danny and he don't see eye to eye about Eleanor's career. Meantime, Hutton is loud, obnoxious, and never seems to shut up as she barrels through this romantic farce with the screws coming loose. No matter how many times Danny and Eleanor break up, they wind up back in each other's arms, only to break up again. Seems Hutton had gone to see Talman when a mysterious assassin interrupted them and shot him dead on the spot with a silenced pistol. Bunny's hired guns henchmen kidnap Hutton, and this half-baked crime comedy occurs largely in flashback. Mind you, there are some amusing moments, although William Shakespeare might spin in his grave at the silly version of "Hamlet" that Mature's song and dance troupe perform for prospective Broadway producers. Personally, the best way to survive this fast-paced nonsense is to mute Hutton when she turns into a brassy bombshell.

This little-remembered Betty Hutton B&W musical farce actually includes an excellent sampling of Betty at her zaniest, and certainly should be sought by all of her fans. Currently, you can enjoy it at YouTube. Her first zany performance accompanies the song "I Wake up in the Morning Feeling Fine", composed by Frank Loesser, who composed all 4 of the featured songs. The idea is that Betty awakens early, full of energy, in contrast to her 2 roommates Sandra(June Havoc) and NoNo(Jane Nigh). Betty does all she can to encourage them to wake up, including dumping them out of bed. Later, Betty sings and dances raucously to "That's Loyalty" when auditioning for a part in a play. When she attends a rehearsal of "Hamlet", she does an raucous alternative interpretation of Ophelia. Later, in an apartment, she sings the romantic ballad "Now that I Need You".

William Demarest, as Charlie, sets Betty up with a middle-aged millionaire: Alex, who tries to paw her in the back seat of a car. Later, his wife arrives at the restaurant where they are. Being used to seeing him with a young blond on his arm, she pours ice water on Betty, to 'cool her off'. Betty retaliates by smashing a cream pie in her face....Later, Betty goes to the apartment of a gangster posing as a show producer. After trying to seduce her, he is shot dead by an unknown assassin. As a result, she's in trouble with the police and his fellow gangsters.

I don't believe Victor Mature(Danny) was miscast as Betty's boyfriend, as several reviewers suggest. He was handsome and muscular. and had costarred with Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth in musicals. You couldn't have Howard Keel as her costar in every picture! Besides, his muscles came in handy when rescuing Betty from the gangsters. This latter segment is quite amusing if you like slapstick. It begins with Betty yelling as loud as she could the song "Now that I Need You", which Mature serendipitously hears while cruising outside the apartment. He gains entry by posing as a piano tuner,(of all things). It didn't take long to decide that he was a phony, wherein he starts a brawl with the gangsters. Eventually, he manages to untie Betty, who then joins the slugfest, throwing heavy loose items, dumping a barrel of molasses on them, turning a fire hose on them, and using her martial arts training. She even accidentally knocks out Mature after the others are subdued.