After the immense success of "Singin' in the Rain", Donald became a favourite for big, splashy musicals amoung the major studios. Only one year after appearing in "Singin' in the Rain", he was loaned out to MGM again to appear in "I Love Melvin", then was shifted over to Fox Studios for "Call Me Madam", and then hopped back to his own Universal Studios to do "Walking My Baby Back home", all in one year. None of these 3 films became box office successes like "Singin' in the Rain" - "I Love Melvin" was the worst, with Debbie Reynolds quoted as saying that "MGM probally grossed about $4.50 with this film!". But they all had their charming moments, and Donald gave each film his best shot. The following year, he was asked to be loaned out to Fox Studios again for another musical - this time it was a bigger budget film, plus it would be one of the first to be shot in the new Cinemascope that the studio was using. The film was called "There's No Business like Show Business".

There's No Business Like Show Business was really a new breed of the Musical genre, and that was part of the reason it didn't do too well at the box-office. Instead of combining a happy, joyful story line with bright and cheerful characters breaking into song now and then, There's No Business Like Show Business was pretty much the complete opposite. The Musical numbers in the film are mostly kept to perfomances on stage to further the point of the movie being about Vaudevillians, and the story line is far from happy and joyful, with bickering between the family members and regular references to drinking. It was an ingenius idea, but the public of the mid-50's just wasn't ready for it.
The film starts off with introducing us to the main two characters in the film - Molly and Terence Donahue, a Vaudevillian married couple who are slowly rising to fame on the circuit while adding their kids to their act. We see two of their numbers before the plot starts to come in, with Molly and Terence deciding to take their kids to a boarding school instead of putting them into Vaudeville. We go back and forth between numbers and their kids, until finally we come to when the kids have reached their 20's, and are performing at the Hippodrome with their parents. After another lengthly number it's back to the plot, where their youngest kid, Tim, meets a hatcheck girl called Vicky who's about to make it big as by singing part-time as a Nightclub Singer. Tim falls head over heels in love with her, but doesn't get a chance to see her again for another year or so. Steve, Tim's older brother, decides he wants to become a Priest and goes off to study for a good 3 years, leaving the Donahues with only 4 people in their act. They keep going anyway, and they get a gig in Florida doing a number called "Heatwave". Incidently, Vicky is also performing on the same night doing the same number! Tim falls for her all over again, and lets her have the number at the expense of his family. Afterwards, Vicky and Tim go out for dinner and kiss outside her door, which leads to Donald's solo number, "A Man Chases a Girl". Tim and Vicky start dating regularly after that, but Molly is still sour over Tim giving Vicky the "heatwave" number. We then find out that Vicky's agent came to see the Donahue's show the last night, and decided that he wants Tim and Katy to appear in Vicky's broadway show. Molly and Terence let them go, but Molly still keeps her grudge against Vicky. While at rehearsal for Vicky's broadway show, Tim becomes suspicious of Vicky and her Manager's relationship, and thinks that she's having an affair with him. Then when Vicky is supposed to go out for dinner with Tim but instead goes into her Manger's office to fight over which dress she's wearing for the show, it puts Tim over the top. He goes and gets drunk, then he and Vicky have a fight. After that, Tim ends up in a car crash, and Terence goes to face him in hospital. They argue, and Terence slaps Tim. Terence and Molly decide to go back to the hospital the next day to patch things up again, but Tim has run away, and on the opening night of Vicky's broadway show. Molly has to step in and take Tim's part with Katy, while Terence goes and looks for Tim. A while later, the Hippodrome is closing down and they're having one last show, so the Donahues are set to perform there. When Molly is singing onstage, Tim comes back dressed in a Navy uniform (he obviously signed up) and everybody hugs and makes up. A happy ending for all.

"There's No Business Like Show Business" might've been about the behind the scenes drama, but just as much was going on behind the scenes of the actual making of the film. At the time, Marilyn Monroe was married to Joe DiMaggio who was having her followed by various people to track what she was doing. This, as you might imagine, caused problems on the set, and her castmates became increasingly worried for her privacy and mental well-being. Marilyn was also arriving on set late as she often did, and production was held up several times because of her habit. Ethel Merman wasn't a fan of Marilyn either - if it wasn't for the persistance and patience of Mizti Gaynor there would've been some ugly fights between the two ladies. If Mitzi saw that Ethel was becoming annoyed with Marilyn, she'd wink at Ethel whenever Marilyn went into her trailer with a man to suggest that there was "something going on" between the two. If Ethel could imagine there was some "hanky-panky" going on, then she could keep her cool.

But Donald wasn't without his problems during filming either - his marriage to Gwen Carter was falling apart at the time, and she was dating Dan Dailey who played his father in the film. Things become increasingly tense and tight between the two men on set, and it eventually resulted in an on-camera dispute. There's one scene where Donald's character is in a hospital after getting into some trouble, and his father comes in and they start verbally fighting. It escalates, and the father is supposed to walk out. Instead, Dan Dailey decided to slap Donald squarely across the face. Nobody was expecting things to get this bad, and feared the worst from Donald as he had highly developed reflexes and was considered one of the best boxers in Hollywood. Everybody on set held their breath as they waited for Donald to do something. But, Donald being the ever-gentleman, decided to take Dan out for drinks instead to talk things over.
Donald also had his problems with Marilyn too, mostly concerning the fact that Marilyn was taller than Donald with heels. During the scene where Tim Donahue kisses Vicky Parker, the director asked Donald if he could stand on an apple box so he'd appear to be taller than Marilyn. Donald was hurt - couldn't the director just ask Marilyn to remove her shoes? The director said that he couldn't ask Marilyn Monroe to do that! So Donald decided to go over to Marilyn and tell her the whole situtation, and ask her to remove her shoes. She replied happily and kicked her shoes off, saying what a silly man the director was! Things weren't always happy between Marilyn and Donald, though - at the start, she thought Donald was too young to play her lover in the film, but Donald was in fact 9 months older than Marilyn!

Recently, a musical number that was deleted from the original print of the film, has been unearthed. It was a number featuring 4 of the Donahues (Ethel, Dan, Donald and Mitzi), called "Anything you can do, I can do better". It's featured on the documentary called "Hidden Hollywood", but it would've done well if they put it on the DVD release of the film.

Released by: Fox

Colour: (DeLuxe), and in Cinemascope

Runtime: 117 minutes

Cast:(Mains only)
Ethel Merman - Molly Donahue
Donald O'Connor - Tim Donahue
Marilyn Monroe - Vicky Parker
Dan Dailey - Terence Donahue
Johnnie Ray - Steve Donahue
Mitzi Gaynor - Katy Donahue

Release and filming dates:
Premiered in America: 16 December 1954

All the musical numbers that Donald is featured in. I'll have a link to the other numbers in the film soon!

After Molly and Terence do a German version of the song, the curtains open again to reveal a bunch of Scottish Highland dancers, with Donald in a loud Yellow and Green outfit in the middle! This is Donald's first solo number in the film, and he does very well with it. Trying to dance Scottish Highland style without being taught for years how to do it is particularly hard, but Donald pulls it off with such charm and grace that you'd think he was a natural at it! In this part of the number, Donald is sending up a famous Scottish Highland dancer who constantly brought back his act again and again, even when he was well into his 80's! That's why alot of the dancers have canes/sticks, and Donald's accent is particularly thick. The number goes on to Donald performing a little solo bit in a circle of dancers, and accindently starts doing the Charleston at one point! After that, Donald and the dancers form a pyramid and disappear into the hole in the floor, with Donald waving his cane with a flourish.

When That Midnight Choo Choo Leaves For Alabam' (Reprise): At a party held for Steve to celebrate his choice of learning to become a Priest, Katy and Tim surprise everyone by doing a little tribute to their parents. They sing the first song that appeared in the film, but do it very comically. Mitzi Gaynor pulls of Ethel Merman's voice so well, while still sending it up at the same time. Both Mitzi and Donald are brilliant in this number, and it marks the first time the two will perform together in this movie. (The second being during lazy.) Instead of having a full blown train front like in the original version of this number, Tim comes out with a big tin scrubbing dish with a train number painted on the front, and Katy has a waste-paper basket with "That's All brother!" painted on the back of it attached to her back. At the end of the number, they bring out a toy doll and do some slapstick with it like Molly and Terence did with Steve when he was a baby, and they do the whole "two Donahues" becoming "Three donahues" gag. (Song sung by Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor, but wasn't released on the soundtrack. It's a pity, because Mitzi does such a great impression of Ethel, plus the song is as long as the original version so it's not like it's short or anything.)

SPECIAL DELETED NUMBER- Anything you can do I can do better: As you can see in this picture on the right, the four Daonhues (minus Steve who went to be a priest) are dancing on stage in their "Cuban Costumes". If you can remember, this didn't appear in the film at all! It's actually part of a deleted scene that ended up on the cutting room floor after the first preview of the film - the film was too long, and they had to cut a number somewhere so they cut this one. The number would've appeared in the film right after Vicky's "Heatwave" number. Part of the deleted scene was Vicky going backstage after her number to thank Tim for letting her have the song, and then the 4 Donahues go on stage and sing/dance to "Anything you can do I can do better". The song was chosen for obvious reasons - Vicky stole (or Tim gave in and gave it to her) their big number, so most likely Molly was trying to get back at her. Interestingly enough, this entire deleted footage has re-surfaced on DVD, as part of "Hidden Hollywood". It's a wonder to me why they didn't put it on the DVD release of There's No Business Like Show Business!

A Man Chases A Girl (Until She Catches Him): This is Donald's solo number in the film, similar to his solo number in "Call Me Madam", which incidently is also an Irving Berlin musical, and both of Donald's solo songs were written especially for him by Mr Berlin. In this number, Tim has just kissed Vicky goodnight and is feeling lighter than air. He starts singing outside her apartment, and then dances around the fountain and the surrounding area. Half way through the number he stumbles and is hit over the head with a coconut (this is Florida, so of course there's lots of palm trees around). Suddenly, all the statues in the fountain start to come alive, and dance with him! He tries to get away from them while still dancing. Then, as he reaches the fountain again they go back to stone. The number finishes with all the fountains coming on and Tim getting soaked, until finally jumping and landing into the outstretched arms of one of the statues.

Lazy:This scene is Tim, Katy and Vicky rehearsing a number for Vicky's broadway show. It's mostly Donald and Katy dancing in the background and providing humourous quips while Vicky answers the telephone and tells quite a few men why she can't see them. The number then dissolves into Vicky singing by herself, and then it goes back to a fast-paced dance with Tim and Vicky. It's a bit of this and it's a bit of that, and it doesn't work all that well, but Marilyn's vocals are great in this number and Donald and Mitzi's dancing is fantastic as always.

There's No Business Like Show Business:This is the finale number in the film. First, we have Molly singing by herself, and then Tim comes back right at the end of her part. After that, Terence comes on stage and explains that the 5 Donahues are together for the first time since the original Hippodrome performance, and then it leads into them doing a short reprise of "Alexander's Ragtime band", which then dissolves into "There's No Business Like Show Business". At this part we get just about every extra and dancer in Hollywood being various "show business" things, like clowns, tumblers and such parading around a big pedestal on which the 5 Donahues plus Vicky are standing and singing. It's a big, gaudy affair but that's what Musicals are all about so it's enjoyable anyway.

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Here are various photos that I've found from the film on Ebay and around the internet. If any of these are from your site, please let me know so I can give you proper credit! Also, all photos are thumbnailed so click on one for a bigger version.

Behind the scenes filming of "A Man chases a girl" (taken from Corbis) -