Calamity Jane (1953 film)

Calamity Jane is a 1953 American Technicolor Western musical film starring Doris Day and Howard Keel, and directed by David Butler. The musical numbers were staged and directed by Jack Donohue, who a year later would direct the Day musical Lucky Me (1954). The film is loosely based on the life of Wild West heroine Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and explores an alleged romance between her and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel).

Calamity Jane
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David Butler
Written by	James O'Hanlon
Produced by	William Jacobs
Starring	Doris Day Howard Keel Allyn Ann McLerie
Cinematography	Wilfrid M. Cline
Edited by	Irene Morra
Music by	Ray Heindorf
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	November 4, 1953 (1953-11-04)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Calamity Jane was devised by Warner Bros. in response to the success of the 1950 film Annie Get Your Gun, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love" (Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster), and was also Oscar-nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Ray Heindorf) and Best Sound, Recording (William A. Mueller).

The songs and screenplay would form the basis of a 1961 stage musical of the same name that has had a number of productions.

Plot

1953 musicale Western film with Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) at the mining boom-town Deadwood's saloon in the old Dakota Territory in the 1870s

In the American frontier Old West of the Dakota Territory in the Black Hills during the 1870s, tough-talking, hard-riding, straight-shooting Calamity Jane (Doris Day) rides into the gold mining boom-town on top of the Deadwood stagecoach, wielding a rifle, and boasts, not always honestly, of her Indian-fighting exploits at a saloon where she has a "sassparilly". She has a crush on U.S. Army Lieutenant Daniel Gilmartin (Philip Carey), and when survivors of an Indian attack stumble into the saloon and say he was wounded, she risks life and limb to single-handedly save him from an Indian war party.

Meanwhile, Deadwood's saloon owner, who sends for beautiful women entertainers from back East or other notable music halls to sing on his stage, mistakenly hires a male professional actor, Francis (not "Frances") Fryer (Dick Wesson) to sing. Fearing a riot, the owner persuades the reluctant actor to perform in drag. Though Fryer is initially convincing, his wig accidentally falls off, and the angry audience of rough-and-tough miners / cowboys threatens to tear the saloon down. Calamity calms the situation, vowing to bring the renowned singer Adelaid Adams of Chicago back to Deadwood to give a concert. However, her friend "Wild Bill" Hickok (Howard Keel) expresses doubt, scoffing at the idea just as he scoffs at "Calam"'s relatively masculine appearance and frontier dressings / outfits.

After a long stagecoach and train journey, Calamity arrives in Chicago, where Miss Adams is giving her farewell performance before launching an overseas European tour. After the show ends, Adelaid gives her old costumes to her maid and understudy, Katie Brown (Allyn Ann McLerie), who dreams of becoming a singer herself. When Calamity walks into Adams's backstage dressing room, she mistakes Katie for Adelaid. Katie, without disagreeing with Calamity, poses as the famous singer. She agrees to go to Dakota Territory, seeing it as a chance to perform.

After their arrival in Deadwood, however, stage fright and a shaky singing voice get the best of Katie during her premiere performance. She bursts into tears, admitting in embarrassment that she is not really Adelaid Adams. With the stunned crowd on the verge of rioting, Calamity fires a gunshot in the air and defends Katie. Calamity's encouragement gives Katie a boost of confidence. She is allowed to carry on, and ultimately wins the hostile crowd over with a good comeback performance. Meanwhile, Wild Bill is in the audience, dressed as a "squaw" with a papoose, having lost a side bet if Calamity couldn't bring Adelaid to Deadwood. When Katie reveals she is not Adelaid, Bill gets his revenge by roping Calamity and hanging her by the waist from the saloon ceiling.

After some initial hesitation, Katie moves into Calamity's ramshackle cabin outside of town. She and Calam use "A Woman's Touch" to transform the shack into a home. To attract Lt. Gilmartin, Calamity, with Katie's help, dresses and behaves more "ladylike" with proper manners. But Gilmartin and Hickok both admire Katie. At one point, they draw straws to see who will take her to the upcoming ball. Gilmartin wins, and Bill gallantly agrees to complement the double date by escorting Calamity - though he's not sure what to expect.

Calamity arrives at the dance with Bill, elegantly dressed and coiffed. Everyone is awed by Calamity's transformation. She's beautiful. But she becomes increasingly jealous watching Katie and Gilmartin together, especially when Danny escorts Katie into the adjoining garden, declares his love and kisses her. The ball ends when Calamity angrily confronts Katie, shooting a punch glass from her hand. She threatens Katie and tells her to leave town.

A day later, Katie returns the favor at the saloon with apparent dead-on aim and is cheered by the crowd. Unbeknownst to all, however, it was Bill who shot Calamity's glass (Katie missed by a mile). Calamity, humiliated, begins to leave but Bill catches up with her and they drive off in his wagon. Once they arrive at a quiet place to talk, a heartbroken Calamity reveals her crush on Danny, while Wild Bill admits his love for Katie (which Calamity was not aware of). Unexpectedly, as they gaze into each other's eyes, Bill and Calamity act on their feelings for each other as they passionately embrace and kiss. Calamity realizes she loved Bill all along ("My Secret Love").

The next day, a newly happy and more neatly dressed Calamity rides into town only to be snubbed for her actions towards Katie. Francis tells her that Katie, feeling guilty over betraying her best friend, took the stagecoach to Chicago per Calamity's threat. After the stage leaves, a furious Lt. Gilmartin confronts Calamity with a note from Katie, rightfully blaming her for Katie's sudden departure. A distressed Calam responds by mounting her horse and riding out to overtake the stagecoach. She tells Katie she really loves Bill and not Danny, and the two friends are reunited as Katie exclaims she wants to go back home to Deadwood.

The story ends with a double wedding; as the stagecoach is about to leave town with Danny, Katie, Bill and Calamity, Bill spots a gun under Calam's wedding dress and asks why she has it. Jokingly, Calam says it's "just in case any more actresses come in from Chicagy!" All laugh, and Bill hands the gun to Fryer before the foursome ride off, a "JUST HITCHED" sign on the back of the stagecoach.

Cast

• Doris Day as Calamity Jane
• Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickok
• Allyn Ann McLerie as Katie Brown
• Philip Carey as Daniel Gilmartin
• Dick Wesson as Francis Fryer
• Paul Harvey as Henry Miller
• Chubby Johnson as Rattlesnake
• Gale Robbins as Adelaid Adams
• Tom London as Prospector (uncredited)

Music

The score, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, includes:

• "The Deadwood Stage"
• "Hive Full of Honey"
• "I Can Do Without You"
• "It's Harry I'm Planning to Marry"
• "The Windy City"
• "Keep It Under Your Hat"
• "Higher Than a Hawk"
• "A Woman's Touch"
• "The Black Hills of Dakota"
• "Secret Love"

The music was included in the album of the same name, though some of the songs from the album were re-recorded rather than taken from the soundtrack.

Reception

In its opening week in November 1953, it finished ninth at the U.S. movie theatres box office receipts with grosses of $55,000 at the Paramount Theatre in Manhattan, New York City, $18,000 in Philadelphia, $12,000 in Cleveland and $7,500 in Minneapolis.

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated
• 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  • Calamity Jane – Nominated Hero
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Secret Love" – Nominated
• 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated

Subtext

The film has been popular with some lesbian audiences for its depiction of a character which can be read as lesbian, and was screened at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2006, 53 years after its original production and release. Film critic Jamie Stuart points to the film's lesbian overtones in Jane being played as a strong, independent woman who shares a house with a woman, the two of them painting "Calam and Katie" on its door. Armond White sees the film as approaching sexuality in a way that Hollywood was not openly able to do, describing the empathy and envy (despite this resulting from conflict over a man) between Jane and Katie's characters as "a landmark display of girl-on-girl attraction." Out magazine described the film's award-winning song, "Secret Love," as "the first gay anthem." When asked about her award winning song being embraced by the gay community during a 2011 interview with The Advocate (magazine), 58 years after the movie's release, star actress Doris Day (1922-2019), in long retirement when told about the unique significance that the film enjoyed in its subsequent decades of showings and popularity, (at her age 89, and eight years before her own passing), replied, "I was not aware of that, but that's wonderful."

Accuracy

Though the musicale Western film portrays the famous Calamity Jane (born Martha Jane Canary, 1852-1903), and "Wild Bill" Hickok (born James Butler Hickok, 1837-1876), as lovers, historians have found no proof that they were more than acquaintances. There was a 15-year age difference between them. Jane claimed years after Hickok's 1876 shooting death that she had not only been his lover but also his wife and the mother of his child, but she offered no substantiation of her claims. Many of her contemporaries considered her a teller of tall tales (as portrayed in the film to humorous effect) who exaggerated her links to more famous frontier figures, and some insisted Hickok did not even particularly like her. But when she died 27 years later at the relatively young age of 51 in 1903, decades after Hickok, who was shot at age 39 in 1876, friends buried her beside him at her request; four of the men on the self-appointed committee who planned Calamity's funeral in 1903 (Albert Malter, Frank Ankeney, Jim Carson, and Anson Higby) later stated that, since Hickok had "absolutely no use" for Jane in this life, they decided to play a posthumous joke on him by laying her, as she requested, to rest by his side.

References

Sources

• Rowan, Terry (1982). Western films: A complete guide (1st ed.). New York City: Rawson Associates. p. 76. ISBN 978-0892562183.
• Rowan, Terry (2016). Character-Based Film Series Part 3 (1st ed.). Raleigh, North Carolina: Lulu. p. 50. ISBN 978-1365021312.
• Rowan, Terry (2016). Character-Based Film Series Part 1 (1st ed.). Raleigh, North Carolina: Lulu. p. 235. ISBN 978-1365021282.
• Rowan, Terry (2016). Motion Pictures From the Fabulous 1950s (1st ed.). Raleigh, North Carolina: Lulu. p. 36. ISBN 978-1329760776.

External links

• Calamity Jane at IMDb
• Calamity Jane at the TCM Movie Database
• Calamity Jane at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Calamity Jane at Rotten Tomatoes