Such a frustrating disappointment

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Yes, the subject may be vaudeville, but indeed, this is a film somewhat ahead of its time as it details how the absence of parents on their children has an effect on them. It is also the tale of a marriage, a successful career, and an era we will certainly never see again. It is also a lesson about how not to judge someone just because they are old; They may indeed have a past much hotter than yours! "Mother, how could you?" narrator Anne Baxter inquiries as she tells us about the life of the sweet old lady crocheting who at one time could kick up her legs to the delight of the tired businessmen in the audience. Mother is Betty Grable, the pin-up girl, and the young musical comedy star who had the highest insured legs in the business. Having left Oakland for Business College in San Francisco, she got sidetracked by a light opera house (i.e. vaudeville or burlesque hall) and ended up co-starring with the hammy headliner Dan Dailey whom she eventually married. Mother decides to put show business aside when she has children, but when father's partner backs out for a new invention called moving pictures, dad asks that mother return, and her feisty grandmother (Sara Allgood) tells her that she should have been with him all along.As Myrt and McKinnley, they travel the provinces, and are prepared to spend Christmas away from the family when grandma steps in and sends them the best Christmas of all. Realizing that their children are growing up into young ladies and need proper education, they send them to boarding school, and as the oldest, Iris (Mona Freman), begins to grow into a beautiful young woman with social ambitions, she is slightly embarrassed over her parent's occupation. Myrtle and Bert step in to help their daughter adjust to accepting them and show her that not all entertainers are loud hams who jump in to take over a song when a group of youngsters are singing on a train to entertain themselves.The first and best of the Dailey/Grable pairings (although Dailey was nominated for an Oscar for playing an alcoholic vaudevillian opposite Grable in the following year's "When My Baby Smiles at Me"), this is more than just another "Alexander's Ragtime Band" or "Tin Pan Alley". It really goes beyond just being an entertainment, exploring the dynamics of family and how they deal with being separated and getting past identity crisis of the teenage years. It is also filled with a glorious song score including "Berlington Bertie From Bow" (repeated by Julie Andrews in "Star!") and songs written directly for the film like "This is My Favorite City", "Bowling Green", "Tra La La La La" and "Kokomo, Indiana". The main theme, "You Do", is heard several times, first as a chorus number, later as a beautiful solo by Grable and finally by Freeman at her high school graduation, and was deservedly nominated for an Oscar.While Dailey and Grable never became as beloved as Astaire and Rogers, it is apparent that they came too late in the musical game to hold court for longer than a few joint appearances. However, they are glorious together, and unlike Astaire and Rogers are not placed together against type; You really feel they belong together. Allgood gives her good old Welsh charm as Grandmother, while Freeman and Connie Marshall are delightful as the two sisters who as Baxter narrates both loved and hated each other, yet were never not devoted. Veda Ann Borg is very funny as the cynical but wise chorus line pal of Grable's. In smaller roles, William Frawley, Lee Patrick, Maude Eburne and Ruth Nelson also deserve credit in character parts.This is a highlight for the episodic family get-togethers, particularly the funny and touching Christmas sequence (featuring some very entertaining guests including Senor Wences) and the Berkshire Highlands summer resort scenes. Lotte Stein and Sig Ruman are adorable as the elderly European couple who encounter young Marshall while the family is on that holiday. The ending is touching as it reminds us that as our parents get older, the memory of their youth to them is as fresh as ours is to us.

"Mother Wore Tights" is an easy going, easy-to-take musical comedy/drama of the kind Hollywood no longer makes. It is quintessential family fare with something for everyone, with two attractive and talented stars playing off one another and exhibiting the necessary chemistry required for most successful movie match-ups. Especially good are the song-and-dance numbers with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, who play a married vaudeville team who separate when she finds she is expecting. They are surrounded by a good supporting cast, including William Frawley, Sara Allgood and with Mona Freeman and Connie Marshall as the daughters of the vaudeville duo... and when was the last time you saw Senor Wences? (I think I'm talking to older reviewers now).This one has all the usual trappings of a Fox musical except that it lacks good songs. The big production number, "You Do", got an Oscar nomination but is just passable, and is delivered heavy on the syrup. The better song is "Kokomo, Indiana", which I thought was the best song and dance number in the picture and is Grable and Dailey at their best.This picture is still a good example of 'G' rated movie entertainment and should appeal to moviegoers of all ages. It just needed 1 blockbuster number to make it a great movie - as is, it is good enough for a rating of seven.

In what turned out to be his first film since his discharge from the Navy after World War II, Dan Dailey gets to co-star with Betty Grable in the first of four films they did together. Lucky break for Dailey as Grable was at the top of her pinup girl popularity. Mother Wore Tights is based on a book my Miriam Young whose character is the youngest of the two sisters of this vaudeville family and played at her oldest in the film by Connie Marshall. The story is her family memoir and takes us back to Grable and Dailey as young high school graduate and young vaudevillian song and dance man.It takes a while, but Grable manages to make the act a double on stage and in life. Grable's not terribly convincing as a teenager, she was a little long in the tooth, but really I don't think the audience cared.Dan Dailey is always been a marvel to me, a fine dramatic actor as well as a great song and dance man. I did love those spiffy and goofy costumes he wore when in stage character. Mother Wore Tights earned three Academy Award nominations, color cinematography, musical scoring, and for Best Song, You Do one of the original songs written by Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon. You can get bootleg recordings off the soundtrack of Mother Wore Tights and most of Grable's films as she never made too many trips to the recording studios as per Darryl Zanuck's edict to his musical stars.Mother Wore Tights is a fine piece of nostalgic cinema, so typical of the color musicals 20th Century Fox did with their players. Very charming and exhibits the talents of its leads very well.

This beautiful treatment of a show business family has become for me THE movie musical memory of my formative years. All cast members provide excellent performances, especially Dan Dailey and Betty Grable, with an unforgettable score that still resonates in my memory. Would love to purchase a copy of this classic for my home film library.