Calamity JaneThe local cinema is doing a couple sessions of old movies each fortnight. Last Monday was "Calamity Jane". I had heard of the movie in the past. In fact, I thought that I had seen part of the movie when I was a child. That was confirmed when I saw a scene where a white guy (Bill Hickok character) was dressed as a native American. Obviously, I had not been paying attention to the scene, and I had actually thought that this movie was doing a white-washing of Indians -- for a reason of a lack of actors of native American descent. It seemed humourous that an American movie would screw up the casting of some guy who was obviously so cowboy-ish with his mannerism and speech. But, I later found out that the character of Bill Hickok was actually making good his bet that Calamity Jane could not get a major city well-known stage singer/dancer to come out to such a remote location to perform at their local theatre. Found this out the hard way though a plot reveal in a review online. I recalled that 30 years earlier, I had the same idea, even with my mother telling me that the plot called for this minor scene.
On the topic of the movie, this was a good musical. Though, the musical is a bit too dated for modern tastes, it was likely good nostalgia for the elder members of my community. Doris Day seemed very goofy for her musical numbers. But, the songs were pleasant enough to watch and hear without being too repetitive. The song The Deadwood Stage set Calamity Jane as the tom-boyish personality that was to shape Jane's character early in the movie. However, her later songs such as Secret Love did show Jane mature as a character and redeem herself from earlier indiscretions.
If you don't like the goofy nature of these musicals, this movie is not for you. Any cinephile that enjoys a good musical, this movie should be high on your list of the must watch section.