Despite some formidable competition, this is Ms. Waters' film from start to finish. She had played Petunia on Broadway, opposite Dooley Wilson, and while the material was reworked (clumsily) for the screen, her freshness, seeming spontaneity, and miraculous way with a song dominate. She even gets to jitterbug a little. By all accounts, Ethel was not a nice woman -- insecure, demanding, downright mean to her co-stars -- but she radiates warmth and quiet religious fervor as Petunia. Some good stage songs are missing, but the new ones, by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, are their equal. ("Life's Full O' Consequences" has a particularly choice Harburg couplet: "We could be messin' 'round/ But you keeps digressin' 'round!") There's loads of talent in every frame, from a young and delectable Lena Horne to Duke Ellington's orchestra to Louis Armstrong (given practically nothing to do) to John W. Bubbles, dazzling on the dance floor. The mechanics of the self-conscious "folk tale" plot are unwieldy, and Joseph Schrank's screenplay takes a good half-hour to get going, but it's for the most part tastefully directed by Minnelli (notice how subtle the staging and camera-work are on the title number, for instance), and good to look at. But for all the first-rate singing, dancing, and acting from everyone, all Ethel has to do is wave a hankie and hum a few bars of "Taking a Chance on Love" to walk off with the picture.
Review of Cabin in the Sky
