Somebody Loves Me (1952)

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

At the time I'm writing this, late 2010, there are 6 glowing reviews of this film on IMDb, all seem like they are written by the same person, a big Betty Hutton fan and fan of this film. Netlix recently put this on their watch instantly list and I watched about half.Somebody Loves Me is completely undistinguished, barely mediocre, far from Hutton's best, and lightyears inferior to Singin' In The Rain, made the same year. Hutton sings well, but the songs are a bore, mostly very old fashioned material. The script is third rate; at least Warners, and occasionally MGM, made well written and emotionally moving musical bio's; this one is bland.Ralph Meeker is badly miscast, he brims with dangerous macho sex appeal, perfect for Mike Hammer, all wrong for this picture. And he "sings" several songs; the vocal double is a complete mismatch, though if you'd wanted someone to imitate Bing Crosby, the singer was just about perfect.Betty's costumes are gorgeous, but the rest of the production, including musical numbers, looks cheap.One interesting aspect, Hutton plays a character who is somewhat of a prima donna, demanding and self absorbed. Apparently this is a mild version of the real Betty Hutton.

For Betty Hutton's last film with Paramount and her next to last appearance on the big screen altogether she plays the fourth and last of four real people she was cast in her career as. Betty plays Blossom Seeley vaudeville and musical comedy star who was still performing when this film was made. Betty's other real life characters on screen were Annie Oakley, Pearl White, and Texas Guinan. However unlike Seeley, the other three women were deceased when films about them were made.Not only was Seeley still around, but so was her husband Benny Fields who was in ill health pretty much at that time. And one guy who is not mentioned at all in the film is Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Rube Marquard. He was Blossom Seeley's second husband, she had two of them before she met Fields. That part of the story is not told, but her first husband was a gentleman named George Kane whom she left for Marquard. The notoriety of baseball and show business was equivalent to Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe in that time and Alex Rodriguez and Madonna in the present day. Marquard used to appear with her in vaudeville and he outlived both Blossom and Benny living to the ripe old age of 93 and dying in 1980.But that was all in the past when most of this film's action takes place. Blossom is a big star who decides to expand the act by hiring a trio to perform with her that includes, Ralph Meeker, Sid Tomack, and Henry Slate. But Meeker wants to make it a duo.Meeker's part as Benny Fields is poorly written and should have been played by a singer. It would have been great had Betty Hutton got Frank Sinatra as she wanted. Meeker's part is written as a heel, but Fields and Seeley were an established team still known in 1952. Sounds like the writers and director couldn't figure out how Meeker should come across. The unknown singer they got for Meeker sounded reasonably like Benny Fields.And Blossom Seeley's style was as brassy as Betty Hutton's was so her casting was no stretch. In fact Betty and her numbers are the best thing about Somebody Loves Me. Starting with the title song, the score is made up of period standards plus three new songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.There is a short that Warner Brothers made of the two of them right around the time they were introducing The Jazz Singer. It's the only record of their act around and I did do a review of it. I remember as a lad watching the Ed Sullivan Show and seeing Blossom Seeley performing well into the Sixties. I appreciate now that I saw one of vaudeville's last remaining stars still performing in her seventies. You can also see Blossom in the Russ Columbo film, Broadway Through A Keyhole where she has a supporting role.Though Rube Marquard was edited out of Blossom's life for this movie, probably at his request, and Ralph Meeker is miscast, Somebody Loves Me is definitely a film that Betty Hutton's fans will enjoy.

Somebody Loves Me is a terrific vehicle for Betty Hutton, who in turn elevates an undistinguished script by being simply sensational in each musical number of the film. She is gorgeous in this movie, and her singing was never better, especially the title song plus 'Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", "San Fransisco Bay", "Rose Garden" and "Dixie Dream".As everyone knows, Betty Hutton has no peer in belting out a song, but she also has the most amazing ability to sing a torch song or a ballad in such a way as to break your heart. She was always under-appreciated--probably because her films didn't benefit from the big budgets that MGM put into their musicals--but if you watch 'Somebody Loves Me', I think you'll agree that no one was better in making entertaining musicals.God bless her soul.

Betty Hutton sings all or part (medleys) of about 18 songs, the final documentation of Hutton at her best. The film biog was certainly routine and Ralph Meeker, a non-singer, dubbed, was miscast. He had a role somewhat like that of James Mason in Star is Born but nowhere the talent. He was dubbed with a Bing Crosby-like singing voice that also did not fit. Hutton was a spitfire in the dramatic scenes but Meeker was weak. I have read that the role was offered to Frank Sinatra but he was otherwise engaged in a film. What a different film it would have been. Sparks would have flown rather than the sparks coming only from the magnetic, truly one of a kind star, Betty Hutton. She did have vocal cord surgery and it left her not at all diminished and rather with more 'color.' As the years wore on her voice fragmented too rapidly because of the surgery, leaving her with little range by the late 1950's. Still, as of a few years ago on TCM when she was interviewed in depth, she was funny, poignant, incredibly honest and forthright. I have everything I can get on Betty - an incredible talent, never to be seen again.