The Dolly Sisters (film)

The Dolly Sisters

Theatrical poster
Directed by Irving Cummings
Produced by George Jessel
Written by John Francis Larkin
Marian Spitzer
Starring Betty Grable
June Haver
John Payne
Music by Alfred Newman
Cyril J. Mockridge
Charles E. Henderson
David Buttolph
Cinematography Ernest Palmer
Edited by Barbara McLean
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Release dates
 November 14, 1945
Running time
 114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $4 million (US/ Canada rentals) [1][2][3]

The Dolly Sisters is a 1945 American Technicolor biographical film about the Dolly Sisters, identical twins who became famous as entertainers on Broadway and in Europe in the early years of the twentieth century Jennie and Rosie Dolly, Hungarian-born entertainers. It starred Betty Grable as Jenny, June Haver as Rosie and John Payne as Harry Fox.

Plot

In 1904, Uncle Latsie (S. Z. Sakall) comes to New York from Hungary with two little nieces, who immediately take to cafe dancing. In 1912, they're still at it, but to pay Uncle's card debts they decide to go into vaudeville. On the way to a show they meet another up-and-coming act, a singer by the name of Harry Fox (John Payne). They get to know him and eventually Jenny falls in love with him. He later schemes to get them an audition with the great Hammerstein. Harry then struggles to obtain his own success while, the sisters fame rises. Sister Rosie is distrustful of Harry but Jenny dates him anyway. Finally one evening, he sings to Jenny the latest song he has composed. A producer hears it and gives him the break he's been waiting for. Jenny and Harry get married but just as success comes to Harry and they settle down to domestic bliss, war in Europe breaks out and he enlists much to the sadness of Jenny. At the same time her sister persuades her to take an engagement with the Folies Bergere in Paris. As they tour part of Europe and achieve more success and admirers, the war comes to an end. Harry comes back to Jenny and asks her to come home but her sister asks her to stay with the show. Jenny can't decide. She then goes to the train depot to convince Harry to stay while her show ends but he gets mad and insinuates there should be a divorce. The Dolly sisters continue their tour of Europe and Jenny takes to gambling and steadily dates one of her wealthy suitors. Sister Rosie by now is secretly engaged to her American boyfriend who owns some department stores in the U.S. Now she plans to leave the act but Jenny overhears this and decides to accept a marriage proposal. As they drive away from a party to get married, Jenny is overwhelmed by memories of Harry and ends up crashing the car. Harry, who just got engaged to Leonora Baldwin, hears of this accident and shows his concern. After several months of recovering in a French hospital Jenny returns to New York. During a benefit show, she and Rosie unite again as Dolly Sisters. Harry, who also performs, meets them and introduces Leonora to Jenny. Realizing that Harry still loves Jenny, Leonora leaves the theater during Harry's act. On the stage Jenny and later Rosie join Harry to finish his number.

Cast

Reception

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References

  1. ↑ "All-Time Top Grossers", Variety, 8 January 1964 p 69
  2. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/variety163-1946-09#page/n180/mode/1up/search/%22top+grossers%22
  3. ↑ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 221
  4. ↑ "AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-13.
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