Annie Get Your Gun (1950)



“You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun”

            The other night (and a few blogs before this) I had watched Insidious which scared the ever living hell outta me. To get my mind off of the creepiness and scariness (Go me, I am a twenty-three year old baby who hid behind my stuffed animal the whole time) I decided to watch a musical. To me there is nothing that makes me feel so much happier in life than watching a musical. I decided to watch Annie Get Your Gun which I had recorded off of TCM.  I had such a great time watching it and by the end I was like Insidious what now!

            Annie Oakley (Betty Hutton) is from the back woods of a western state. She comes into a crowed after she shoots a dead bird off of some lady’s hat. Annie has some of her brothers and sisters with her to get the dead birds for her and put them in their little cart. A man happens to see Annie and how great of a shot she is after she shoots another bird. He asks her to be in a shooting contest against the handsome Frank Butler (Howard Keel) who at the site of Annie goes to mush.

            Annie wins the shooting contest against Frank at a fair. Frank’s pride and ego are a bit crushed after getting beaten by a girl when he was supposed to be the best shooter around. Buffalo Bill (Louis Calhern) has Annie come travel with him and his act across the country. As she travels with the show Annie begins to clean herself up and wear dresses the other women are wearing and she also begins to learn how to read which is totally hysterical. Frank also begins to notice Annie now that she is looking more tame and womanly.

            Buffalo Bill has posters of Annie hung up at the shows. Frank goes into an egotistical panic mode over seeing a woman displayed instead of him. Annie is all excited to show Frank a new trick she has come up with for the show. When she does the trick Frank cannot take anymore and he leaves the show. Annie cannot stand why Frank left she does not know that his ego and pride as a man has made him jealous when all she wanted to do was please him.

            In the end, though, after some rough times love wins out for Annie and Frank.

            From the moment Betty Hutton comes on the screen as Annie Oakley I was in love with her. She was so hysterical and so adorable. I cracked up when at the beginning every time she would see Frank she would just stop and stare at him with her mouth open and her eyes all wide. Hutton’s energy was incredible she was just nonstop the whole entire time. My favorite music number she sang was “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” because she was so smooth with her dancing but yet she displayed so much energy. She looked like she had a great time making the film. Her voice was awesome she had a very nice singing voice. Howard Keel I could have done without I did not find him appealing in any way his voice was too much for me. I did like him singing “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” with Betty Hutton they were both so funny in the scene. Louis Calhern as Buffalo Bill was a riot. The guy could seriously play all sorts of roles and just be awesome
            I loved Annie Get Your Gun from beginning to end. Betty Hutton was amazing and the story was so cute and innocent. The costumes were colorful and fun and the acting was perfect. Even before the film was over I put it on my (very long) list of movies to buy and I cannot wait to get it.