Made at the height of popularity of Betty Grable as the most famous Pin-Up Girl, the period musical Mother Wore Tights is one of her most enjoyable star vehicles.
Grable plays Myrtle McKinle, a woman looks back at her childhood in show business. At the turn of the century, Myrtle is working her way through business school and gets a job dancing at a San Francisco vaudeville house.
She meets fellow hoofer Frank Burt (Dan Dailey), they soon fall in love and then get married. Myrtle and Frank begin performing a song and dance act on the road. Myrtle leaves the act when she becomes pregnant with the first of two children, but when the kids are old enough to go out on tour, she and Frank work them into the act, and they learn to live out of a suitcase like their parents.
Years later, Iris (Mona Freeman) and Mikie (Connie Marshall) are attending college when they learn that Mom and Dad have pulled their act out of mothballs, and are booked to perform at a theatre near their campus.
Shot in Technicolor and directed skillfully by Walter Wang, “Mother Wore Tights” was one of the top grossing films of 1947, enabling Grable to show her talents in song and dance, and more importantly, to display those shapely legs, which had made her legendary.
Oscar Context:
“Mother Wore Tights” won an Oscar Award for Best Musical Score, and it was also nominated for Best Song (“You Do”) and Best Color Cinematography.
Running time: 107 Minutes.
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