COPACABANA (1947)

With solid mainstream musical performers such as Dennis Morgan or Betty Grable, this B-level showbiz musical might have come off. But instead the more outsized and untamed talents of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda are confined by the average material, weak direction, and relatively low budget and it all comes off as a rather sad and dismal affair. Marx and Miranda are a struggling showbiz couple, not married but engaged for years (like Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine in GUYS AND DOLLS) and therefore, this being made under the constraints of the Production Code, living in two separate hotel rooms, and about to get evicted from them. Marx decides to retire from performing and serve as Miranda's agent, and he promptly gets her a job as a Latin songbird at the Copacabana. However, there's a hitch: the boss (Steve Cochran) wants a French singer as well, so in order not to blow his cover, Marx has Miranda pose as the veil-wearing Mlle. Fifi. Carmen is a success, but Fifi is an even bigger hit, and they must continue the charade to stay employed. Romantic entanglements arise: 1) Cochran is apparently in love with Fifi while, 2) his loyal secretary (Gloria Jean) pines away for Cochran and, 3) singer Andy Russell, who seems incapable of much passion for anyone, is mistaken for an admirer of Jean's, which makes Cochran jealous. Of course, after some lame attempts at farce and some tepid production numbers, all is righted at the fade out. In the beginning, I was embarrassed for Marx, who seems to know just how far he's sunk, but by the middle, he redeems himself a bit with a brief dual role number; Marx, as the agent, introduces Marx, in his 30's greasepaint-mustache persona, as a comic singer doing the amusing "Go West, Young Man." Miranda is fine; Cochran isn't bad, really, but he was better at the tough guy roles he did later in his career. Russell and Jean are bland as can be and the specialty acts sprinkled through the film are forgettable. Famous gossip columnist Earl Wilson has a cameo. [DVD]