Annie Get Your Gun (film)
Encyclopedia
Annie Get Your Gun is a 1950 American musical
comedy film
loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley
. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon
based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name
, was directed by George Sidney
. Despite some production and casting problems (Judy Garland
had to withdraw from the film because of ill health), the film won the Academy Award for best score and received three other nominations. Star Betty Hutton
was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
The film adaptation cut the following numbers from the original score: "I'm a Bad, Bad Man", "Moonshine Lullaby", "I Got Lost in His Arms", ("An Old Fashioned Wedding" was written for the 1966 revival). The 2000 compact disc
release of the soundtrack includes all of the film's numbers and, "Let's Go West Again" (a Hutton number deleted before the film's release), an alternate take of Wynn's "Colonel Buffalo Bill", and Garland's renditions of Annie's pieces.
played Annie with Howard Keel
(making his film debut) as Frank Butler and Benay Venuta
as Dolly Tate. Frank Morgan
was originally cast as Buffalo Bill Cody but after shooting the film's opening production number, "Colonel Buffalo Bill", he unexpectedly died. Morgan was replaced by Louis Calhern
. Originally, Judy Garland
had been cast in the title role, and recorded all of her songs and worked for two months under Busby Berkeley
's direction. She was forced to leave the production because of poor health and other personal problems that would soon end her career with MGM. Garland's dismissal from this film (from which some footage and recordings have survived) figures pivotally in the show-biz legend of Judy Garland's fall from grace, her alleged unreliability, and the view of her as a victim of the studio. Betty Garrett
was considered but the role of Annie eventually went to Betty Hutton
. Shooting resumed after five months, with George Sidney
replacing Charles Walters
(who in turn replaced Berkeley) as director.
According to Betty Hutton, she was treated coldly by most of the cast and crew because she replaced Garland. During an interview with Robert Osborne
(first telecast on Turner Classic Movies
"Private Screenings" on July 18, 2000), she recalled the other cast members as hostile and the MGM management as so unappreciative it didn't even invite her to the New York premiere. Betty also stated one day Judy Garland was visiting the set and Betty greeted her with a bouncy "Hiya', Judy!" only to be answered by a string of profanities. Only two production numbers were completed with Garland: "Doin' What Comes Naturally" and "I'm an Indian Too" and these were released to the public for the first time in the 1990s in That's Entertainment III
. Additional studio recordings of Garland also exist and have been released by Rhino Records.
Despite the production problems, the film became popular in its own right. In its initial release, it grossed more than $8 million, easily earning back its $3.7 million production costs. In 1973 it was withdrawn from distribution, owing to a dispute between Irving Berlin and MGM over music rights, which prevented the public of viewing this film for almost 30 years. It was not until the film's 50th Anniversary in 2000 that it was finally seen again in its entirety.
One of Hutton's costumes, the very first "Wild West Show" costume seen in the film for the reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" is on permanent display at the Costume World Broadway Collection Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley , born Phoebe Ann Mosey, was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's amazing talent and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar.Oakley's most famous trick is perhaps...
. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name
Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...
, was directed by George Sidney
George Sidney
George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:...
. Despite some production and casting problems (Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
had to withdraw from the film because of ill health), the film won the Academy Award for best score and received three other nominations. Star Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg, daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum . While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for...
was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Cast
- Betty HuttonBetty HuttonBetty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg, daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum . While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for...
as Annie OakleyAnnie OakleyAnnie Oakley , born Phoebe Ann Mosey, was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's amazing talent and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar.Oakley's most famous trick is perhaps... - Howard KeelHoward KeelHarold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...
as Frank ButlerFrank E. ButlerFrank E. Butler was a marksman in Wild West variety shows. He was married to sharpshooter Annie Oakley. While his birth date is listed on his and Annie's U.S. Passport application as February 25, 1852, it is possible he was born in 1847.-Biography:Butler was born in county Longford, Ireland and... - Benay VenutaBenay VenutaBenay Venuta was an American actress, singer and dancer.Born Benvenuta Rose Crooke in San Francisco, Venuta attended finishing school in Geneva and lived in London where she worked as a dancer before returning to the States. She made her first screen appearance in the silent Trail of '98 in 1928...
as Dolly Tate - Louis CalhernLouis CalhernLouis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
as Col. William F. Cody (Buffalo BillBuffalo BillWilliam Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
) - J. Carrol NaishJ. Carrol NaishJoseph Patrick Carrol Naish was an American character actor born in New York City. Naish was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi , which was also on CBS Television .Naish appeared on stage for several years...
as Chief Sitting BullSitting BullSitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies... - Edward ArnoldEdward Arnold (actor)Edward Arnold was an American actor. He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, the son of German immigrants Carl Schneider and Elizabeth Ohse.-Acting career:...
as Pawnee Bill - Keenan WynnKeenan WynnKeenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
as Charlie Davenport - Clinton SundbergClinton SundbergClinton Sundberg was a stage and film character actor.Sundberg was born in Appleton, Minnesota on December 7, with sources differing on his year of birth...
as Foster Wilson
Musical numbers
- "Colonel Buffalo Bill" — Charlie, Dolly, Ensemble
- "Doin' What Comes Natur'llyDoin' What Comes Natur'lly"Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, written by Irving Berlin. The song was introduced by Ethel Merman in the original production of the musical...
" — Annie, Siblings - "The Girl That I Marry" — Frank
- "You Can't Get a Man with a GunYou Can't Get a Man with a Gun"You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" is a song from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun, by Irving Berlin. It was originally performed by Ethel Merman.Other singers to have recorded the song include Betty Hutton, Bernadette Peters and Judy Garland....
" — Annie - "There's No Business Like Show BusinessThere's No Business Like Show Business"There's No Business Like Show Business" is an Irving Berlin song, written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun and orchestrated by Ted Royal. The song, a slightly tongue-in-cheek salute to the glamor and excitement of a life in show business, is sung in the musical by members of Buffalo Bill's Wild...
" — Frank, Buffalo Bill, Charlie Davenport, Annie with ensemble - "They Say It's WonderfulThey Say It's Wonderful"They Say It's Wonderful" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the musical Annie Get Your Gun , where it was introduced by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton.It was sung by Kirsten Dunst in Spider-Man 3 .-Notable recordings:...
" — Annie, Frank - "Moonshine Lullaby" — Annie, Porters, Siblings
- "There's No Business Like Show Business (Reprise)" — Annie
- "My Defenses Are Down" — Frank, Ensemble
- "I'm an Indian, Too" — Annie
- "I Got Lost in His Arms" — Annie
- "I Got the Sun in the Morning" — Annie
- "An Old Fashioned Wedding" — Annie, Frank
- "Anything You Can Do" - Annie, Frank
The film adaptation cut the following numbers from the original score: "I'm a Bad, Bad Man", "Moonshine Lullaby", "I Got Lost in His Arms", ("An Old Fashioned Wedding" was written for the 1966 revival). The 2000 compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
release of the soundtrack includes all of the film's numbers and, "Let's Go West Again" (a Hutton number deleted before the film's release), an alternate take of Wynn's "Colonel Buffalo Bill", and Garland's renditions of Annie's pieces.
Production history
Betty HuttonBetty Hutton
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg, daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum . While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for...
played Annie with Howard Keel
Howard Keel
Harold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...
(making his film debut) as Frank Butler and Benay Venuta
Benay Venuta
Benay Venuta was an American actress, singer and dancer.Born Benvenuta Rose Crooke in San Francisco, Venuta attended finishing school in Geneva and lived in London where she worked as a dancer before returning to the States. She made her first screen appearance in the silent Trail of '98 in 1928...
as Dolly Tate. Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
was originally cast as Buffalo Bill Cody but after shooting the film's opening production number, "Colonel Buffalo Bill", he unexpectedly died. Morgan was replaced by Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
. Originally, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
had been cast in the title role, and recorded all of her songs and worked for two months under Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley
Busby Berkeley was a highly influential Hollywood movie director and musical choreographer. Berkeley was famous for his elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns...
's direction. She was forced to leave the production because of poor health and other personal problems that would soon end her career with MGM. Garland's dismissal from this film (from which some footage and recordings have survived) figures pivotally in the show-biz legend of Judy Garland's fall from grace, her alleged unreliability, and the view of her as a victim of the studio. Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett
Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedienne, singer and dancer who originally performed on Broadway before being signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
was considered but the role of Annie eventually went to Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton
Betty Hutton was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedienne and singer.-Early life:Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg, daughter of a railroad foreman, Percy E. Thornburg and his wife, the former Mabel Lum . While she was very young, her father abandoned the family for...
. Shooting resumed after five months, with George Sidney
George Sidney
George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:...
replacing Charles Walters
Charles Walters
Charles Walters was a Hollywood director and choreographer most noted for his work in MGM musicals and comedies in from the 1940s to the 1960s....
(who in turn replaced Berkeley) as director.
According to Betty Hutton, she was treated coldly by most of the cast and crew because she replaced Garland. During an interview with Robert Osborne
Robert Osborne
Robert Jolin Osborne is an American actor and film historian best known as the primary host for Turner Classic Movies, and previously a host of The Movie Channel.-Life and career:...
(first telecast on Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
"Private Screenings" on July 18, 2000), she recalled the other cast members as hostile and the MGM management as so unappreciative it didn't even invite her to the New York premiere. Betty also stated one day Judy Garland was visiting the set and Betty greeted her with a bouncy "Hiya', Judy!" only to be answered by a string of profanities. Only two production numbers were completed with Garland: "Doin' What Comes Naturally" and "I'm an Indian Too" and these were released to the public for the first time in the 1990s in That's Entertainment III
That's Entertainment III
That's Entertainment! III is a documentary film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 70th anniversary. It was the third in a series of retrospectives that began with the first That's Entertainment! and That's Entertainment, Part II...
. Additional studio recordings of Garland also exist and have been released by Rhino Records.
Despite the production problems, the film became popular in its own right. In its initial release, it grossed more than $8 million, easily earning back its $3.7 million production costs. In 1973 it was withdrawn from distribution, owing to a dispute between Irving Berlin and MGM over music rights, which prevented the public of viewing this film for almost 30 years. It was not until the film's 50th Anniversary in 2000 that it was finally seen again in its entirety.
One of Hutton's costumes, the very first "Wild West Show" costume seen in the film for the reprise of "There's No Business Like Show Business" is on permanent display at the Costume World Broadway Collection Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Awards and nominations
- Academy Award for Best Music Scoring of a Musical PictureAcademy Award for Best Original ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(winner) - Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, ColorAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
(Cedric GibbonsCedric GibbonsAustin Cedric Gibbons was an Irish American art director who was one of the most important and influential in the field in the history of American film. He also made a great impact on motion picture theater architecture through the 1930s to 1950s, the period considered the golden-era of theater...
, Paul GroessePaul GroessePaul Groesse was a Hungarian-born American art director. He won three Academy Awards and was nominated for another eight in the category Best Art Direction.-Academy Awards:...
, Edwin B. Willis, Richard A. Pefferle) (nominee) - Academy Award for Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Color (nominee) - Academy Award for Best Film Editing (nominee)
- Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy (Hutton, nominee)
- PhotoplayPhotoplayPhotoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
Award for Most Popular Female Star (Hutton, winner) - Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
Award for Best Written American Musical (Sidney SheldonSidney SheldonSidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
, winner)