Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play based on real-life female sharp-shooter Annie Oakley comes agreeably to the screen, with Irving Berlin's tuneful songs intact and Betty Hutton filling in nicely for Ethel Merman (who played it on the stage). Annie is a whoopin' & hollerin', unrefined and uneducated hillbilly who is asked to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, where she falls head over heels in love with her male-counterpart, Frank Butler. The plot is something of a pre-feminist nightmare; it all comes down to Annie winning the guy by hiding her light under a bushel (and Butler, being an egotistical lunkhead, falling for it--or pretending to). However, the songs are colorfully presented and the art direction has surprising dollops of awe and beauty. George Sidney stepped in to direct after two others had been let go; he keeps the spirit of the piece rambunctious and happy. Hutton (a replacement for Judy Garland, who was fired by MGM after roughly four weeks of work) plays to the rafters, as she is supposed to, and keeps the familiar plot chugging along in full-throttle. **1/2 from ****
Review of Annie Get Your Gun
