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And the Angels Sing | |
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Directed by | George Marshall |
Written by | Claude Binyon Melvin Frank Norman Panama |
Starring | Dorothy Lamour Betty Hutton Fred MacMurray Diana Lynn Mimi Chandler |
Cinematography | Karl Struss |
Edited by | Eda Warren |
Music by | Victor Young James Van Heusen Johnny Burke |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
And the Angels Sing is a 1944 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurray, and Betty Hutton. Released by Paramount Pictures, it is a classic example of a film written to capitalize on the title of a previously popular song, in this case Benny Goodman's 1939 number one hit, "And the Angels Sing" by Ziggy Elman and Johnny Mercer, sung by Martha Tilton, though the song is not actually in the film. The standout original songs in the musical were "It Could Happen To You", sung by Dorothy Lamour, which quickly became a pop standard, and "His Rocking Horse Ran Away", which became one of Betty Hutton's most popular numbers.
The story is about a singing sister group, their exploitation by a bandleader, and their subsequent rise to fame. One of the sisters is portrayed by Mimi Chandler, daughter of former Kentucky governor and baseball commissioner Happy Chandler. "Happy" is also the name of Fred MacMurray's character in the story.
Time magazine wrote about the film at the time, "From [the start of] Happy's two-timing, [it] gets more & more complicated and less & less funny. Too much of this dizzy story shows signs of hard labor; about half is rather enjoyable. Betty Hutton (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek) gets funnier with every picture. She is the most startling expression of natural force since the Johnstown Flood.[1]