Main Cast: Betty Grable, Sheree North, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Tommy Noonan
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
Betty Grable's final film was a remake of the 1934 Bing Crosby-Miriam Hopkins musicomedy She Loves Me Not, which in turn was based on a play by Howard Lindsay. Betty and Sheree North star as a couple of striptease "artistes" who have the bad luck to witness a murder. Hoping to evade the killer, the girls hide out in a small college town, where they immediately win the hearts of the male frat brothers. One of these is overaged undergrad Robert Cummings, who falls for Betty, while Sheree settles for not-terribly-bright Orson Bean. A subplot concerns the unending get-rich-quick schemes of college president Charles Coburn. Before the story can be resolved, both Betty and Sheree are placed under hypnosis, with hilarious results. It could not have rested well with Betty Grable that Sheree North stole the show in How to Be Very, Very Popular--especially with her energetic rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"--but Betty was on the verge of retiring anyway, so what the heck? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
How to Be Very, Very Popular is a mildly amusing by-the-numbers comedy that needed more imaginative treatment than it received to be the entertaining piece of fluff it wants to be; Billy Wilder would demonstrate how to do the artists-on-the-run-from-gangsters concept the right way a few years later in Some Like It Hot. Extremely dated, many modern viewers will find much of the humor sexist and unfunny, and the lack of convincing characters helps to point up the episodic nature of the plot. Fortunately, Popular does have Betty Grable, in her last film role, still giving her all and then some. Full of warmth but with a healthy dose of sass, Grable provides a lot of the glue that holds the picture together. Co-star Sheree North does not come off as well; most of the time she is fine but bland, although this may be due to the fact that she was clearly instructed to model her performance after Marilyn Monroe (who forcefully rejected the role) rather than to let her own talent shine through. North, however, is responsible for the film's undeniable highlight, an incredible "Shake, Rattle and Roll" that really raises the rafters. Charles Coburn also has provides some comic relief, as does Orson Bean, although his style of humor may be an acquired taste for some. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, John De Cuir - Art Director, Paul Godkin - Choreography, Sonia Shaw - Choreography, William Travilla - Costume Designer, Ad Schaumer - First Assistant Director, Nunnally Johnson - Director, Louis Loeffler - Editor, Cyril Mockridge - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Milton Krasner - Cinematographer, Nunnally Johnson - Producer, Chester L. Bayhi - Set Designer, Walter Scott - Set Designer, John de Duir - Set Designer, Ray Kellogg - Special Effects, Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer, E. Clayton Ward - Sound/Sound Designer, Nunnally Johnson - Screenwriter, Edward Hope - Book Author, Howard Lindsay - Play Author, Harlan Thompson - Play Author, Lyford Moore - Play Author
