How to take something from a tragedy and make it entertaining

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)

Starring: Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Ed Begley (Sr.), Jack Kruschen, Hermione Baddeley, Vassili Lambrinos, and Fred Essler

Writer: Helen Deutsch

Director: Charles Walters

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A biography of Margaret Brown (Reynolds), later dubbed The Unsinkable Molly Brown because of her survival of the Titanic wreck.

When I mentioned to my mother that I decided on this picture for this occasion, she questioned that it might in itself be morbid.  In fact, The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a wonderfully entertaining life story about one of the best-remembered actual passengers of the shipwreck.  It's based on a stage musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson (of The Music Man fame).  And who better to produce it than MGM, the folks who brought you many bright, cheery musicals.  Only two, Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz, are today considered masterpieces, but there are plenty of entertaining ones besides those.

This film begins with Molly as a toddler, emerging unscathed from rapids flowing downstream.  Though probably fictitious and meant to emphasize her reputation, it is one of the greatest riveting scenes for such a small scale.  Up to a certain point in the film, the action is entirely in Colorado, which has much of the best scenery (and color photography for that matter) I've ever seen in a movie.  The next scene takes place with her in her early teens, where she's living with her father (Begley) and brothers in a log cabin.

Then she meets Johnny Brown (Presnell) and, longing for the good life, declines to get involved with him.  So he builds her a log cabin, trying to meet all her desires as she tells them to him at once.  After they get married, Johnny strikes it rich.  Molly tries to hide the money somewhere for safe keeping (after a great sequence where she ends up hiding it in a heater), but it turns out to be anything but as Johnny burns the money by mistake.  When he sets off again, gold falls from a hill.  The rest, as they say, is history. (And because I'm a lower-class man, they get so rich it makes me jealous.)

Debbie Reynolds considers this to be her favorite film she made; and the soundtrack and dancing, I might add, are as good as that of any musical ever made.  But if I were Helen Deutsch, these things would have to be corrected before I could agree:

• The neglicence in providing us with dates leaves something to be desired.
• There are cheesy parts.  For example, when Johnny sets off for the mine the second time, Molly cries like a baby—no exaggeration.
• The part where Molly becomes literate is too quick to really have the proper effect.
• The final part of the movie, which takes place on the Titanic, could also use a little bit more time.  Ms. Brown underestimates the seriousness of the sinking, and how she came across as smug to other passengers goes completely undiscussed.

Yet much like Life Is Beautiful (the "feel-good Holocaust comedy") and The Death Book, an acclaimed picture book from 1999 by Pernilla Stadfelt that I've expressed interest in getting, The Unsinkable Molly Brown nearly triumphs in what it sets out to do.

NOTE: I looked Margaret Brown up on Wikipedia.  She was not known as Molly during her lifetime (1867-1932), but as Maggie by her friends.  She had a space capsule named after her.

NOTE 2: Debbie Reynolds, who turned eighty ten [back then] days ago, first did her own singing after Singin' in the Rain.  My hope is that she will play Mr. Crocker's mother Nanette in my adaptation of The Fairly OddParents.  There is a mix-up here, however; on the show, she was the mother of newscaster Chet Ubetcha.  This I forgot, but all adaptations must be slightly different so what the heck.