Those Redheads from Seattle ** (1953, Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead, Teresa Brewer) – Classic Movie Review 10,552

‘The Big 3D Musical Bonanza!’

In 1953 Rhonda Fleming shot the second of her three films in 3D, Those Redheads From Seattle, with Gene Barry, for Pine-Thomas Productions, following Inferno, with Robert Ryan at Fox.

Director Lewis R Foster’s 1953 Those Redheads from Seattle is a light-hearted, frothy, easy-going Fifties musical, with Fleming’s red head suitably to the fore, shot in lovely colour (Technicolor) and originally in 3D too. It was the first musical to be filmed in 3D and premiered in 3D but hardly seen like that as most cinemas could not use the 3D.

Agnes Moorehead gives the film’s best performance as Mrs Edmonds, a matriarch who ships her four beautiful daughters (Fleming, Teresa Brewer and The Bell Sisters) to Dawson City in the Yukon, where there are about as many tasty blokes as daffy songs.

It is all done, as it should be, with surprising conviction for something that has so little substance. The standout tune is Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael’s beautiful ballad ‘I Guess It Was You All the Time’, a near classic, sung as a duet by Teresa Brewer and Guy Mitchell. ‘Chick-a-Boom’, ‘Baby, Baby, Baby’, ‘Mr Banjo Man’ and ‘Take Back Your Gold’ are also quite fun.

Those Redheads from Seattle runs 90 minutes, is written for the screen by Lewis R Foster, George Worthing Yates and Daniel Mainwaring (as Geoffrey Homes). It is shot by Lionel Lindon, is produced by William H Pine and William C Thomas, is scored by Leo Shuken and Sidney Cutner, is designed by A Earl Hedrick and Hal Pereira, and is choreographed by Jack Baker

Fleming followed it with Jivaro in 1954 with Fernando Lamas.

Also in the cast are Bill Pullen, John Kellogg, Frank Wilcox, Jean Parker, Roscoe Ates, Walter Reed, William Pullen, Paul E Burns, Ewing Mitchell, Cynthia Strother, Kay Strother, Michael Ross, and Max Wagner. Guy Wilkerson plays Wandering Willie.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,552

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