Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

mark.waltz The color of the Canadian territory of the Yukon is proudly displayed in this beautiful to look at semi-musical about a Saloon owner (Randolph Scott), his former flame (Gypsy Rose Lee) who arrives to entertain, the saloon's manager (Charles Winninger), and his pretty daughter (Dinah Shore) who is in love with a man supposedly married with children (William Marshall). Scott is involved in a scheme to defraud the local residents thanks to a phony professor ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" grandfather Victor Kilian) and when he is on the verge of being exposed by Ms. Lee, he changes his plans. Another villain (Robert Armstrong) uses this as an opportunity to take away the gold stashed in Scott's newly opened bank, while Sheriff Guinn "Big Boy" Williams has various supposedly humorous encounters with hick Bob Burns that usual end up with Burns holding Williams' gun. The last minor plot is unfunny, and gives Burns (a "B" star at Paramount in the 30's and early 40's) no sense in being there.However, the major plots of the story are the romances between Lee and Scott, and Shore and Marshall. There are obvious problems in the first romantic storyline; Scott is ill-defined as a supposedly honest saloon owner who would cheat his customers out of their gold. Also, Ms. Lee is a very wooden actress. When her character in the musical "Gypsy" exclaims that June (Havoc), her sister, was the one with all of the talent, she wasn't kidding. She was fine when making specialty appearances in the Fox musicals of the 30's, but to star in a film is downright silly of the producers. In the opening musical number, she has to keep saying over and over "Every girl is different". Not looking unlike MGM comic Virginia O'Brien, here she acts like her too, but without the hilarity that the delightful Ms. O'Brien had. (Watch "The Big Store" to see Ms. O'Brien "rock it baby" and try not hold your sides from laughing too much!) I laughed here, but it was more on account of how bad it was. And how many Saloons in the Yukon of this era had a stage that large? The production number has some elaborate costumes, but is simply bad. It's not even camp like "The Lady in the Tootie Frootie Hat".As for Dinah Shore, I enjoyed her TV show as a youngster and found her to be charming in some of her other films ("Thank Your Lucky Stars" and "Aaron Slick From Punkin' Crick"), but here, she is not only directed badly, but outfitted and made-up badly as well. She wears a red wig that does not suit her, and the scarlet lipstick and corsets make her appear to look like a cartoon character. I instantly thought of Helena Hyena from "Roger Rabbit" when I saw her in a too-tight corset that seemed to squish her waste down to 12 inches and give her an enormous backside and an outlandishly large top. I've heard of hour glass figures, but that sand couldn't get through the tiny little tube between the top and bottom! Obviously, Ms. Shore was not a trained actress, so one can't expect much, but she did much, much better in her other films, so obviously the director must be faulted. She did better in her cameo as herself in "Oh, God!" than she does here. William Marshall is handsome, and a good fit with Ms. Shore, but it is very obvious that he is innocent of what Shore's father (the delightful Charles Winninger) has accused him of.Winninger is hysterically funny with the little he has to do, drinking sasparilla throughout and choking on it. As Ms. Lee's companion, the delightful Florence Bates shines as well. They have a very cute romance that is quickly passed over. I would have loved to seen more of them, even though they are both past their prime. They are adorable together! It's hard to think of a worse color musical of the 40's (perhaps "The Kissing Bandit", but that had a few good songs and a few more good performances). Here, the songs are weak, the leading couple (Lee & Scott) have no chemistry, and the beautiful landscape is only fleetingly viewed. Unless you are a film connoisseur who must try to see every major release of every year movies were made, skip this one!

Terrell-4 Belle of the Yukon is the kind of mid-Forties Hollywood misfire that can lead earnest cinephiles to make clever wisecracks. My advice...put the rented DVD in the player, start folding the laundry on the coffee table and enjoy yourself. The movie is something of an uncertain romantic comedy-musical-western with a clever con. Randolph Scott is Honest John Calhoun, charming and untrustworthy. Gypsy Rose Lee is Belle De Valle, a high class music hall entertainer. The river town of Malamute plays the Yukon during the gold rush days. Honest John and Belle have a history that goes back to Seattle, where Honest John, then Gentleman Jack, had to skedaddle just ahead of the law, leaving Belle in the lurch. When Belle shows up with her troupe of dancers to play the music hall in Malamute, she finds the owner is Jack, now Honest John. He swears he's reformed. She's not so sure...there's a lot of gold dust in the town. When Honest John, who doesn't gamble, suggests the town pick an upright, non-gambling man to start a bank, guess who gets picked. We know the con is on, but we're not sure what the con is. Not to be too critical, but the director, William Seiter, gives us plodding direction even as the Technicolor photography looks like a million dollars. The dance hall costumes and Belle's dresses are so garish even Vincente Minnelli would have gawked. With one exception, the songs are no more than Hollywood professional. The acting varies from satisfying (Scott) to interesting in a kind of unformed way (Lee) to standard cliché (Charles Winninger and Guinn Williams) to pre-nostalgia (Bob Burns sounding like what Andy Griffith will) to really awful (Dinah Shore and William Marshall). The important thing to remember, while reining in the temptation for MST3K commentary, is that this is all done with good humor and good intentions. There are happy endings all over Malamute. Belle of the Yukon does no harm. Gypsy Rose Lee with her 37-23-36 figure, her great voice and her ability to make dialogue sound like one-liners can be forgiven for being no actress. I doubt if she ever thought of herself as one except when she was stripping. She seems to be enjoying herself. She was an intelligent, honest woman with a fine, skeptical sense of humor. She even wrote a best- selling mystery, The G-string Murders. Even though she probably received some help from Craig Rice, a good friend, she did most of the heavy writing herself. Barbara Stanwyck played a bumping, grinding Gypsy Rose Lee, now named Dixie Daisy, in Lady of Burlesque: The G- String Murders, the movie made from the book. William Wellman directed. It's a movie worth seeing. I'd skip the lumbering movie made from the Broadway hit Gypsy, based on her autobiography. The television special of Gypsy starring Bette Midler isn't bad. Gypsy Rose Lee had to grow up fast. Dinah Shore and William Marshall play the young lovers. Shore is Lettie Candless, daughter of Honest John's saloon manager. Lettie is an innocent young woman who sings at the music hall. Shore has two major romantic songs that stop the movie dead in its tracks. "Like Someone in Love" is pleasant enough, but the numbers were used only to showcase Dinah Shore. They are as out of place as...well, as romantic ballads in a Yukon music hall. The makeup department did Shore no favors. Her bright red Technicolor lipstick emphasizes how much teeth she has, Reassuringly, the older Shore got the more interesting she became. Maturity suited her. William Marshall plays Steve Atterbury, the music hall's piano player. Marshall was a big, passive guy without, as far as I can tell, any acting talent. He got by on impressively blond good looks. Close your eyes and you'd think you were listening to the high school lead in Brigadoon. Randolph Scott is just fine as a friendly, well-dressed saloon owner you'd be wise not to trust. He's often been the best thing in the movies he's starred in. I enjoy watching his old- fashioned (by current tastes) approach to good guy Hollywood leading men.

jeffhanna3 Although the plot of Belle of the Yukon is so tired that its not worth recounting (but isn't this true of most old musicals?), this gorgeously technicolored musical/western has some pleasing elements of interest for fans of 1940's nostalgia. The young, brunette Dinah Shore (with an eye-poppingly voluptuous figure) sings beautifully two lovely standards, "Like Someone in Love," and "Sleighride in July." What a warm, pleasing voice she had. One of the all-time great singers. Her blonde, blue-eyed love interest, William Marshall, is so ridiculously pretty that he looks like a vintage comic book hero come to life. Gypsy Rose Lee is relaxed and fun with her foot-high pompadours and Belle Epoque gowns by Don Loper, and a very handsome Randolph Scott is clearly enjoying himself.

bkoganbing Randolph Scott tones it down a might, but he continues in the role he had in The Spoilers as a con man in Alaska. He's running a gambling establishment in Malamute and has taken great pains to establish his identity as HONEST John Calhoun. Up pops Gypsy Rose Lee an old girl friend who heads a group of chorus girls who support her act. She's rightly suspicious and Randy has a con working with the help of Bob Burns, Charles Winninger and especially Victor Killian. I'm not going to say more, except it's a beaut.The main problem with the film is Gypsy Rose Lee can't act. But with those two prominent weapons of mass destruction she's sporting, who cares. William Marshall who's the second lead also can't act worth anything and he doesn't have what Gypsy has for a distraction.Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke wrote two of their biggest songs from the 40s for this film and interestingly enough NOT introduced by Bing Crosby although he did record them. The introducer is Dinah Shore who plays Winninger's daughter in the film and she sings Sleigh Ride In July and Like Someone In Love and does them well. What she saw in William Marshall I can't figure out.If you like Randolph Scott and Gypsy Rose Lee's assets that's a good enough reason to watch this.