Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun is a 1950 American musical comedy film loosely based on the life of sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer release, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay by Sidney Sheldon based on the 1946 stage musical of the same name, was directed by George Sidney. Despite some production and casting problems (Judy Garland had to withdraw from the film because of ill health), the film won the Academy Award for best score and received three other nominations. Star Betty Hutton was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Judy Garland was originally slated to star in MGM's film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, but she was forced to pull out of the production due to illness (recently discovered out-takes reveal a gaunt, dazed Garland, obviously incapable of completing her duties). She was replaced by Betty Hutton who, once she overcame the resentment of her co-workers, turned in an excellent performance–perhaps the best of her career. Hutton is of course cast as legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who ascends from dirty-faced backwoods gamin to the uppermost rungs of international stardom. Her mentor is Buffalo Bill, played by Louis Calhern (like Hutton, Calhern was a last-minute replacement: the original Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan, died before production began). Annie's great rival is arrogant marksman Frank Butler (Howard Keel) with whom she eventually falls in love. She goes so far as to lose an important shooting match to prove her affection–a scene that hardly strikes a blow for feminism, but this is, after all, a 1950 film. Of the stellar supporting cast, J. Carroll Naish stands out as Sitting Bull, whose shrewd business acumen is good for several laughs. Virtually all the Irving Berlin tunes were retained from the Broadway version, including "Doin' What Comes Naturally", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun", "Anything You Can Do", "The Girl That I Marry", "My Defenses are Down", "They Say It's Wonderful" and the rousing "There's No Business Like Show Business", which was later tantalizingly excerpted in MGM's pastiche feature That's Entertainment II. Alas, due to a complicated legal tangle involving the estates of Irving Berlin and librettists Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, Annie Get Your Gun hasn't been shown on television in years.

Synopsis by Hal Erickson, Allmovie.com

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Annie Get Your Gun (1950) [Re-Up]

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Special Features:

- Special introduction by Annie Get Your Gun broadway actress Susan Luci
- Cast and crew biographies
- 4 Outtake Musical Numbers
- Theres No Business Like Showbusiness audio recording
- Awards Listing
- Theatrical Trailer