I'm starting to think I've already seen all the old musicals that aren't so badly dated that they'd make a tough sell on stage today. I'm not talking about the music style or the humor; it's the social values.
The titular Deadwood sharpshooter (Doris Day) not so subtly crushes on Lt. Dan...ny Gilmartin (Philip Carey), while she and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) are close yet mutually vitriolic friends. She's also compassionate enough to help saloon keeper Henry Miller (Paul Harvey) after he makes a severely unpopular mistake in a show's billing. She rides up to Chicago and brings back whom she believes to be famed singer Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins) but is actually Miss Adams' newly dismissed assistant, Katie Brown (Allyn Ann McLerie). Katie has enough beauty and charm of her own -- which proves a problem when Danny has eyes for her. You may guess the resolution.
This is not as much of a comedy of errors as it sounds. The story's only about half over before Katie publicly announces her identity. Beyond that, the confusion is almost completely relegated to how characters feel about each other. Funny? Passably. Heartwarming? Kind of.
Probably none of the depicted events happened in the life of the real Martha Jane Canary, any more than this version of the South Dakota town resembles the one on the Deadwood TV series. But given what little we know for sure about her, it hardly matters. At least the movie indicates that for all her impressive moves, she greatly exaggerates her past feats.
I was not surprised to learn that the movie made way for a stage play. It must be a little tricky to depict speeding wagons and gunshots that break drinking glasses, but only slightly more of a challenge than Oklahoma! While there isn't much in the way of dancing per se, Calamity (whom Bill calls "C'lam") does her share of strutting, leaping, and other antics during some numbers. There's enough to keep the eyes occupied throughout.
As for the ears, I doubt that many of the songs could stand alone, missing one of my mom's standards for a good musical. Nevertheless, "Secret Love," which doesn't call for a thick twang, won an Academy Award.
Calamity and Katie spend a good amount of time together, usually talking about things other than men. They even became a hit among LGBT viewers, despite both having only male love interests. Unfortunately, in most scenes, no other women are present. I think Adelaid is the only other to have any spoken lines. This makes sense when you consider that Calamity mainly hangs around a bar that caters to men. No, they don't give her a hard time about it; she's "just one of the guys," albeit frequently the center of attention. Katie even mistakes Calamity for a man at first.
That leads me to how the film rubs me the wrong way. The rugged tomboy (seeming rather inorganic as performed by Day) becomes embarrassed about being one and is pleased to discover her feminine side. To my modern mind, neither femininity nor masculinity is a cause for shame in either gender, and Calamity's identity is so tied into her feral ways that she strikes me as bland when she puts them aside. I don't begrudge Bill finding her hotter in a dress than in deerskin, but he seems to think she could never hold her own in a manly contest, despite her doing just that with pretty much anyone other than him. He also accuses her of illogical, over-emotional "women's thinking," and she doesn't gainsay it.
FWIW, Keel starred in Kiss Me Kate the same year and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers the next. It was definitely not a pleasant cinematic period from a later feminist standpoint. That said, I could see these pictures as mildly progressive in some ways.
The other reason for my use of the "politically incorrect" label is that the Whites are not on great terms with the Sioux. Calamity brags about shooting many of them while riding between towns. Admittedly, that conflict is historically accurate and too incidental to the present story to make any of them "villains." Perhaps we should be thankful that the Sioux characters never speak or do anything particularly caricaturesque.
I won't recommend CJ for a school production, but I might recommend a screen viewing to someone who digs old musicals. Just because it's not timeless doesn't mean it can't entertain anymore.
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