One of 4 films Grable made with favorite male costar Dan Dailey. They made a perfect 'A' team with their vaudevillian broad entertainment talents. Her previous male costars, with matinée idol looks, could sometimes sing acceptably, do social dancing and a bit of comedy, but only Dailey could keep up with Betty in the dance routine department and match her comedic talents.This made less necessary the inclusion of supporting specialty dancers, such as the Nicholas Brothers, and multitalented supporting entertainers of either sex, such as Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood,Jack Oakie and Cesar Romero, which were standard in her films of the early '40s. Nonetheless, young newcomer Mitzi Gaynor is featured several times as a dancer-singer and girl on the make for the affections of Dan. She and Dan are featured in a sexy sophisticated dance routine while singing "Live Hard, Work Hard, Love Hard".Cleverly, Betty is watching this performance at home on her TV, and joins in, with the implication that this girl had better watch out if she makes a play for Dan(as she does).
In this film, children, specifically infants, become the main focus of the melodramatic elements, rather than the on again, off again, romantic and professional relations of the stars, which was the usual source of melodrama in Betty's other musicals. As the commentary version of the 2006 DVD says, babies were an especially appropriate topic at this time, with the post-war baby boom. The periodic topic of children being an income tax deduction related to the increased income taxes following WWII.The unusual topics, especially for a musical of that period, of miscarriage and the trials of adopting a child, are featured in the melodrama. As was often the case for the romantic and professional ups and downs in previous Grable films, the ups and downs of acquiring a baby get overblown and a bit tedious.Throughout much of the film, Betty's desire to interact with an infant is frustrated by the hazard of stress-induced miscarriage, the excessive legal complications involved in adopting a child, and a very bossy nurse maid, who considers Betty too inexperienced to care properly for an infant.These problems are finally resolved in a madcap ending, thus justifying the title and theme song. As a counterweight to their frustrating experiences in trying to acquire a child of their own, they have a good time entertaining the kids of a friend with their Halloween skit. As in the later MGM musical "Always Fair Weather", the emerging competing medium of TV is incorporated into the story. Again, the often inane TV commercials are parodied, with Mitzi serving as the presenter. Anachronistically, TV pictures are presented as being in color, presumably to fit in with the rest of this color production. This was several years before the earliest color TY broadcasts, and at least a decade before color TVs were common.
The "Friendly Islands" musical routine clearly is a take-off of the then smash Broadway hit "South Pacific", with Dailey parodying the operatic singing style of Ezio Pinza(duplicated by Rossano Brazzi in the later film version) and Betty sporting a wild bird-like outfit and brunette wig in the later portion, to accompany a wild dance, which Dailey joins. Reminded me more of an Aztec or African dance. Having previously played a caucasian who could dance the hula on a small South Seas island("Song of the Islands"), Betty's performance could also be interpreted as an extension of her performance in that film. In the last, long, musical number: "Don't Rock the Boat, Dear", Betty and Dan cavort on a ship in a rocky sea, symbolically reaffirming their devotion to each other. These two performances, along with the "Live Hard, Work Hard, Love Hard" number were the musical highlights for me.
