Moon Over Miami

Plot synopsis:
After the main title and opening credits, the audience enters Texas Tommys drive-in greasy-spoon on Texas State Highway 73 (Texas Tommys slogan is Service with a Song) where the carhop sisters, Kay and Barbara Latimer, sing What Can I Do for You? A much anticipated letter from a lawyer arrives. Together with their Aunt Sue, the drive-ins cook, the sisters open the letter to discover they have inherited $55,000. They are ecstatic until they learn that their share after court cost, lawyer fees, and taxes is only $4,287.96. Terribly disappointed, they decide to invest the money by heading to Miami, the millionaires playground, to look for husbands.
The next scene is a Miami travelogue as an off-screen chorus sings Oh Me, Oh Mi-ami. Kay, dressed in finery that looks like they spent most of their inheritance on her outfit, Barbara, as Miss Sears, Kays secretary and Aunt Sue, as Kays maid, arrive at their bungalow. They sing and dance their version of Oh Me, Oh Mi-ami.
Jack, one of the resorts waiters, delivers champagne compliments of Mr. Jeffrey Bolton. During Jacks visit to their bungalow, he flirts with Aunt Sue. He also agrees to help Kay discern the difference between male fortune hunters and actual millionaires.
Kay telephones Mr. Bolton to thank him for the champagne, but complains about its flatness. When Jeffrey comes over to check out the problem, he is so impressed with Kay that he invites her to a party at his suite, where most of the guests are asleep (the party has been going for days). Once the band leaves after having played for sixteen hours, Jeff plays the piano and sings You Started Something. Another band arrives and joins in as Kay sings. After a short duet by Jeff and Kay, she performs a cute seated tap routine with the Condos Brothers.
Kay meets Phil, apparently another wealthy playboy, at the party. Thereafter throughout the film, Jeff tries to get Kay away from Phil or visa versa. When Phil and Kay dance at the party, Phil sings a reprise of You Started Something. In the following scene, while Phil and Kay drive in a convertible, Phil sings Ive Got You All to Myself, but Jeff pops up in the backseat.
The next few scenes were quite obviously not shot in Miami a speed boat chase between the two guys was filmed in Lake Eloise and the grounds of Cypress Gardens, near Winter Haven, Florida, while Phil and Kay are shown at Silver Springs, near Ocala, Florida and, Phils and Kays romantic underwater tête-à-tête was filmed at Rainbow Springs in Dunnellon, Florida all three locales are hundreds of miles north of Miami.
Kay is having difficulty choosing between these two handsome millionaires, so she brings her sister, disguised as her secretary along to a dinner dance. Back at the bungalow, Jack kisses Sue and they sing and dance to Is That Good? During the dinner, while Kay and Phil dance, Barbara/Miss Sears gives Jeff a pep-talk about his ability to amount to something without relying on his fathers wealth.
Later that evening, in another Cypress Gardens scene, Phil and Kay cruise some canals in an electric boat. They sing Loveliness and Love, and kiss. After this romantic scene, however, Phil confesses to Kay that he is broke and Kay confesses she was going to marry him for his money.
Later, Phil tells Jeff that Kay is more interested in him, so he immediately proposes. She accepts.
At a party honoring Kays and Jeffs engagement, she sings Kindergarten Conga. She and the crowd dance the conga, and then she and a guy (Hermes Pan, the films choreographer) perform a tap routine.
It appears that Phil has turned his attention to Connie Fentress (Cobina Wright, Jr.), a grocery store heiress and Kay is jealous. Jack, who has been hired to help serve at the party, tries to tell Jeff that Kay is only marrying him for his money, but he gets locked in the bathroom.
Jeff, Kay and Miss Sears/Barbara travel to Jeffs island home where Jeff introduces the girls to his wealthy father (William Willie Bolton is played by George Lessey ). Willie is cooking gas-house eggs. At breakfast the next morning, Jeff and Barbara/Miss Sears have been horseback riding. Phil shows up because he says he is Jeffs best man. Jack, finally out of the locked bathroom, arrives on the island to inform Jeff that Kay is a gold digger, but the Latimer girls convince him not to tell Jeff for a little while. At another party for Jeff and Kay on the island, a group of dancers (Jack Cole and Co. and the Condos Brothers) perform a big production number to Solitary Seminole.
When Phil and Kay dance together at the party, he can sense she is unhappy. Shes in love with Phil even though shes supposed to marry Jeff. Jeff, due to Barbaras influence, takes a job in Brazil to prove he can accomplish something on his own without his fathers money. When Kay runs upstairs and starts packing, Phil follows. He tells her they are going away together. Before they can depart, Jeff comes upstairs and informs them he wants to marry Miss Sears.
In the last scene, the audience sees three happy couples: Phil and Kay, Jeff and Barbara, and Jack and Aunt Sue (skiing with Sue on Jacks shoulders).

Tags: romantic

Review:
One of my favorite Betty Grable films!
Betty's costumes were really stunning and I wonder if the studio used a different designer for this film.
It's all about losing out on an inheritance for the two Latimer sisters and their Aunt Susan because of taxes, so the three take off for Miami so Betty can find a millionaire husband.
MGM is always the studio that film historians gush about for turning out great musicals.
Unfairly snubbed is 20th Century Fox that used the richest, most brilliant color composition in the rainbow for its unforgettable string of Technicolor sundae delights starring Bette Grable.
"Moon Over Miami" begins with the bouncy, adorable Texas Tommy Hamburger Drive-in sequence where Grable and Carole Landis show off their figures and talents.
Grable is unusually great looking in her gray ensemble trimmed in fur and she and Landis and Charlotte Greenwood prance around to "Oh, Me, Oh Mi-Ami!" Other fantastic numbers follow, showcasing Grable at her verviest--like her tap dance routine to "You Started Something," then onto "I've Got You All to Myself" and maybe the best, "Conga to a Nursery Rhyme." Banton's costumes, shimmering photography by Leroy Shamroy, electrifying charisma of Grable and the very hunky Don Ameche (who surprises with an outstanding singing vocie), all help make "Moon Over Miami" a sheer delight.
Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Charlotte Greenwood, two sisters and their aunt work as carhops in a drive-up Texas diner and they get a letter from a lawyer.
Landis and Greenwood don't need much convincing to pool their resources and go to Miami and hang out where the millionaires do.
Betty pretends to be a millionaire heiress herself with Landis as a secretary and Greenwood her maid.I shouldn't say too much more, but as this was a film of pure escapism with happy endings required, you should be able to figure out the rest.
The men sure liked looking at Grable and Landis and the women dreamed of being in their place, courted by the likes of Don Ameche and Bob Cummings.Songwriting team of Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin contributed a good score that showcases the considerable musical talents of Ameche, Grable, Greenwood and Jack Haley who plays a suspicious waiter at the resort the girls are staying at.
Of course it wasn't written by Robin and Rainger, and maybe that was the reason, they didn't want their music competing with an established tune.Even with world war once again breaking out in Europe, Africa, and Asia, audiences still loved this escapist stuff.
Films like this are what made Betty Grable the GIs number one pin-up girl.
Shopworn plot but Grable, Ameche and Cummings in top form....
While the plot is a flimsy one, it does give Betty Grable fans a chance to glimpse her in a fluffy technicolor musical (with location photography in Florida), engaged in romantic shenanigans with two leading men (Don Ameche and Robert Cummings), and supported by pros like Jack Haley, Charlotte Greenwood, Carole Landis and Minor Watson.It's a typical Fox musical made to order for Grable fans and photographed in some scenic Florida locales serving as Miami.
Robert Cummings and Don Ameche are impeccably clad and flashing the kind of smiles that belong in a toothpaste ad--thus serving as perfect foils for Betty's curvaceous blonde charms.Some of the specialty numbers are good--especially those by the Condo Brothers--and Betty herself gets to do a couple of sprightly tap dance routines.
None of the music is memorable but it's easy to see why Grable was so popular at the box-office in escapist films of this nature at a time when war weary audiences craved this kind of entertainment at the start of World War II.
Her modest talents are on full display here--and Ameche and Cummings show that they had a definite flair for this kind of romantic comedy--especially Cummings who was always better in lighter assignments as opposed to dramatic roles--contrary to what another commentator says.Carole Landis can do little with her role as Betty's sister (posing as her maid).
This movie is fun because there's Betty Grable,And Robert Cummings, and Don Ameche.
What's amazing is that this big party goes non-stop, with music in the background non-stop, reflecting how esteemed a place Miami was back in 1940, for the idle rich or the psuedo-rich!This is nostalgia at it's zenith.
It makes you want to party non-stop around the pool, and not have to work for a living like the rest of these people(so it would seem), until Don Ameche announces that he'll sell refigerators!.
This wonderful movie is filled with great songs and dance numbers featuring Betty Grable at her absolute best.
She dances and sings beautifully...and after watching this movie (I've seen it at least 50 times) I can never stop singing "You Started Something".
Both Don Ameche and Robert Cummings are also perfectly cast in their light romantic and debonair roles.
The movies colors and gowns are everything you could want and then some of a great Hollywood Musical.
I love watching this movie with Spring Time in the Rockies and Down Argentine Way for a full on Betty Grable Musical Film Fest..
fun, music and love in Miami, Florida.
Beautiful music and scenery, and the comedy of Jack Haley, Charlotte Greenwood, Carole Landis.
And, also Robert Cummings plays as a comedian in this; something I didn't remember him ever doing because he was usually a good dramatic actor.
I spent much time on Flagler Ave and the beach at night under that big beautiful moon over Miami..
I honestly can't find any fault with this movie.......the plot, music, scenery, acting......all perfect!
Thank goodness we have great movies like this to watch instead of the incredible garbage that is out there today.
This is Hollywood at its finest......and the vivid technicolor photography makes you feel like you're in 1940 Miami.
Don Ameche gives a fabulous performance and Betty Grable's dance numbers are wonderful.
This is a must-have DVD.....for anyone who enjoys class, style, great acting and wonderful music!
This is one of my favorite movies, with the singing and dancing of one of my favorites, Charlotte Greenwood, and the Nicholas Brothers, also favorites of mine.
The story is light and fluffy, and that's why I like watching movies; I want to be entertained, not so much to think!
They were what they were and MOON OVER Miami is one of the better Betty Grable flicks.
Great color, location work, acting and especially the singing and dancing.
Have the Grable collection and they are all enjoyable but Fox needs to put the rest of her movies on DVD, especially MOTHER WORE TIGHTS, WABASH AVENUE; CONEY ISLAND and SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES as well as BILLY ROSE'S HORSESHOE REVIEW.
The plot of MOON is similar to THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE and the wonderful HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE.
Moon Over Miami is one of the best Fox musicals of the 1940s!
The plot is simple - two beautiful (but broke) sisters go to Miami in search of rich husbands.
Betty Grable and Carole Landis play the sisters and they both give fabulous performances.
Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Haley, Don Ameche, Robert Cummings, and Cobina Wright round out the talented cast.
The songs in Moon Over Miami are fun and catchy - You Started Something, Kindergarten Conga, What Can I Do For You. The costumes are gorgeous and the cast looks amazing filmed in Technicolor.
Moon Over Miami is one of my favorite movies and everyone who loves musicals should enjoy it..
Fox musical starring Betty Grable.
It's a shame, because there was nothing more fun than a Fox musical and the Fox cover pallet.In this film, Betty Grable and Carole Landis play sisters, who with their aunt, work at a Texas diner when they learn they've inherited money.
Her sister Barbara (Landis) poses as her secretary.Before long, pretty Kay has a couple of men on her dance card - Phil McNeil (Don Ameche) and Jeffrey Boulton II (Robert Cummings).As others have mentioned, the costumes are exceptionally beautiful, and the movie was shot all over Florida, accounting for some beautiful scenery.
The songs are tuneful, and the film is highly entertaining.It's such a talented cast - Fox gets a bad rap for its lightweight film stars, but they were some of the most popular stars in films, particularly Betty Grable, who was probably THE most popular for a time.
Landis is beautiful and delightful, and Charlotte Greenwood is very funny.This was a good film for Cummings, who was always excellent in comedy, and the smooth Ameche, whose light tenor is put to good use here.One thing about Fox musicals, they were always fun, feel-good movies.
The music in this film is light and fun.
This movie is not heavy;however if you you want a charming entertaining film this is it!
Moon Over Miami was enjoyable fluff for audiences wanting escapism.
Having just been to Miami for the first time in my life, I finally decided to check out this Betty Grable musical from 20th Century-Fox that took place and was partly filmed there after having taped it from AMC 10 years ago.
The flimsy plot about gold diggers is a bit longish but many entertaining musical numbers and some humor does put it over on me quite smoothly.
Certainly the cast, which includes Robert Cummings, Don Ameche, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Haley, and especially Ms. Grable are very charming here with wonderful Technicolor photography and melodically tuneful songs by Ralph Ranger and Leo Robin.
In short, Moon Over Miami was just an entertaining piece of fluff that went over well for audiences that survived the Depression and was just about to enter World War II....
Landis & Grable were Great.
This story starts out with Betty Grable,(Kathryn Latimer), Carole Landis, (Barbara Latimer),"I Wake Up Screaming" working in a Texas curb service hamburger joint with their aunt Sue Latimer,(Charlottle Greenwood) as the cook in the kitchen.
dollars and decide they had enough of their jobs in Texas and Kathryn wants to go to Miami, Florida and find some very rich men.
When they all arrive in Miami, they meet up with Jeffrey Boulton,(Robert Cummings) who is a very wealthy man and takes a great liking for Kathryn.
However, Kathryn also becomes very interested in Phil O'Neil, (Don Ameche) There is plenty of musical singing and great dancing and the photography in Silver Springs, Florida and other places in Florida are outstanding.
Carole Landis looked very young and very charming in her role and Betty Grable proved she was the Pin UP Girl of the 1940's and the wife of Harry James, the trumpet player..
Remake of 1938's "Three Blind Mice", its hoary plot reworked several times since, has two waitressing sisters and their wiseacre aunt taking a $4000 inheritance all the way to Miami where they plan to land rich husbands.
Jovial, breezy, tuneful film is a bit short-changed on male charisma (the original had Joel McCrea and David Niven--here we get Bob Cummings and Don Ameche, hardly a fair trade-off!).
Still, Betty Grable is perky, Carole Landis is subdued and lovely, and Charlotte Greenwood is a stitch as Aunt Susan (she's like Ray Bolger in drag--and her pairing with bellhop Jack Haley is certainly the oddest in the film).
The songs are good (as long as Ameche isn't singing them) and the photography and intermittent location shooting are colorful.
That's one reason why movie "escapism" was once so popular, with the films of Betty Grable, Alice Faye, and Esther Williams often set in scenic or exotic locales.
A picture like this was like a mini-vacation, with humor, music, and colorful locations, not to mention lovely fashions for the ladies in the audience to enjoy.The costumes here are by the great Travis Banton, late of Paramount Pictures and the man who clothed Dietrich, Lombard, Mae West, Sylvia Sidney and Claudette Colbert in many of those shimmery flicks of the 30's.
It seems to go with the millionaires-yachts-nightclubs atmosphere.The songs are good and all the cast performs them, including Bob Cummings, who didn't usually sing in pictures.
The dance number set to this tune, performed by Grable and a brother dance team is a highlight.Many of the Fox musicals were so light on plot that I find myself bored despite the musical numbers that interrupt the story often.
Achingly Bad  But There's Always The Costumes, Scenery, Technicolor and Betty Grable.
While Columbia, Paramount, Warner Bros and (especially)  RKO regularly made wonderful musicals, until 1944, only 20th Century-Fox almost always made them in Technicolor.
`Moon Over Miami' is one of these, and its pluses and minuses pretty much parallel those of the other Fox musicals.Let's start with the minuses, since there are far more of them.
The plot, even for a musical, is pretty shopworn and threadbare (of course, this didn't stop Fox from using it again several times).
Two sisters (Betty Grable, Carole Landis) and their aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) head to Miami with the goal of using their small inheritance to trap a millionaire husband for Grable.
Landis poses as Grable's secretary and Greenwood as Grable's maid.
Once settled into luxury resort, Grable maneuvers herself into courtships with not one, but two, millionaires (Robert Cummings and Don Ameche).
Cummings is silly, as usual; Ameche struggles the best he can with a unbelievable role.
A nanosecond later, Ameche, wide awake and clear head, is dancing with Grable, singing a laughingly terrible love song.
In fact, all the songs in `Moon Over Miami' are terrible.
Even some musicals with no good songs at least had good dancing.
The dancing on display in `Moon Over Miami' is stagey.
While beautiful, Landis lacks the charm and animation to carry her pivotal role as Grable's sister.Now the pluses.
While lacking the singing or dancing talents of  Betty Hutton, Judy Garland or Ginger Rogers, Grable also lacked Hutton's bombast, Garland's neurosis and Rogers' cynicism.
"Moon Over Miami" is a reworking of "Three Blind Mice" and years later the plot was reworked significantly as "How To Marry a Millionaire" (also starring Betty Grable).
The significant difference between "Three Blind Mice" and "Moon Over Miami" is that the latter film has singing and is shot in Technicolor (and is quite lovely because of this).A family is expecting a large inheritance.
When it turns out to be not so large, one of them (Betty Grable) convinces her aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) and sister (Carole Landis) to invest their small windfall in a trip to Miami to hook a rich husband.
She likes them both and both appear to be loaded.Despite being very familiar, this film is still enjoyable--perhaps a bit more than the original.
But be forewarned--it's pure escapist fun and you can't think too much about the plot or else you'll really dislike Grable and her family (after all, they are liars and fortune-hunters).
If the plot of Moon Over Miami sounds very familiar, it was a remake of Loretta Young's 1938 film Three Blind Mice, which was also remade as Three Little Girls in Blue in 1947.
Then, in 1953, elements of Three Blind Mice and the Joan Blondell 1932 comedy The Greeks Had a Word for Them were combined for the Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe film How to Marry a Millionaire.
If you are content to be dazzled by Betty Grable's and Carole Landis' beauty, then you might find the film a pleasant way to spend an evening.
Moon Over Miami is a rather weak movie musical, and, in most instances, the songs are not particularly memorable or plot relevant.
This upbeat early Betty Grable musical romance built on the success of her two previous recent Fox musicals 'Down Argentine Way' and 'That Night in Rio', all shot in glorious Technicolor, very unusual for the times.
Although Carol Landis was her supporting actress, she wasn't allowed to provide the singing or dancing diversion that Carmen Miranda or Alice Faye did in most other Grable musicals of this era.
Charlotte Greenburg also returns as her elastic-jointed aunt.Jack Haley, of recent fame as The Tin Man in 'The Wizard of Oz', is included to provide a romantic interest for Charlotte and to add a bit of his singing, dancing and comedic talent to the brew.Clearly much younger than Charlotte, his sudden romantic interest in her is one of the more implausible features of the plot.
Sadly, Jack was never again in a first rate musical, despite his Robert Taylor-like good looks and talents.
The Condos Brothers take the place of the Nicholas Brothers dancing team, which was featured in several Fox musicals, including 'Down Argentine Way' Although not as acrobatic as the Nicholas Brothers, they demonstrate their fancy footwork in two numbers, one with Betty.
Bob Cummings serves as Ameche's chief competition for Betty's affection.
Betty's interest in Ameche, who appears to be a foppish ne'er -do-well hanger on to Cummings' wealthy family is another irritatingly implausible feature of the plot.
Cummings sings 'You Started Something' in a '30s style, followed by Betty's and Ameche's renditions.
Otherwise, Betty and Ameche did nearly all the singing.
It isn't until the finale encore than Carol gets to sing s wee bit, taking Betty's place in singing with Cummings 'You Started Something'.
In fact, the ordering of the encores suggests that Carol and Cummings, rather than the stars, are the biggest winners in this gold digging scheme.Like Jack Haley, peroxide blond Carol Landis would return to mostly B movies, after a long stint traveling around entertaining troops.
Light fanfare with Bette Grable, Don Ameche, Bob Cummings, and Carol Landis in a fun-filled film.The Technicolor by the always reliable Natalie Kalmus in really great here.We never get tired of plots dealing with 3 ladies trying to get rich guys for themselves.
This picture isn't How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) but it's enjoyable along with the marvelous dancing and singing.As the aunt, Charlotte Greenwood joins in the fun.