an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

"Moon Over Miami" is a reworking of "Three Blind Mice" and years later the plot was reworked significantly as "How To Marry a Millionaire" (also starring Betty Grable). The significant difference between "Three Blind Mice" and "Moon Over Miami" is that the latter film has singing and is shot in Technicolor (and is quite lovely because of this).A family is expecting a large inheritance. When it turns out to be not so large, one of them (Betty Grable) convinces her aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) and sister (Carole Landis) to invest their small windfall in a trip to Miami to hook a rich husband. The plan is to check into a swank resort and have her sister and aunt pose as her secretary and maid respectively. Soon, two guys (Bob Cummings and Don Ameche) are VERY interested in her...VERY. But which to pick? She likes them both and both appear to be loaded.Despite being very familiar, this film is still enjoyable--perhaps a bit more than the original. But be forewarned--it's pure escapist fun and you can't think too much about the plot or else you'll really dislike Grable and her family (after all, they are liars and fortune-hunters). Well acted and slickly made.By the way, the Florida locations are a bit of Hollywood escapism. While the film is supposed to be in Miami (and a few exterior shots are of Miami), a lot of the film was filmed at Cypress Gardens (now Legoland--and 3 1/2 hours away) and around Ocala (4 hours away). Back in the day, such trips would have taken MUCH longer in the age before superhighways.

Having just been to Miami for the first time in my life, I finally decided to check out this Betty Grable musical from 20th Century-Fox that took place and was partly filmed there after having taped it from AMC 10 years ago. The flimsy plot about gold diggers is a bit longish but many entertaining musical numbers and some humor does put it over on me quite smoothly. Certainly the cast, which includes Robert Cummings, Don Ameche, Carole Landis, Charlotte Greenwood, Jack Haley, and especially Ms. Grable are very charming here with wonderful Technicolor photography and melodically tuneful songs by Ralph Ranger and Leo Robin. In short, Moon Over Miami was just an entertaining piece of fluff that went over well for audiences that survived the Depression and was just about to enter World War II...

Of course these Fox musicals of the 40's were flimsy. They were meant to be. They were what they were and MOON OVER Miami is one of the better Betty Grable flicks. Great color, location work, acting and especially the singing and dancing. Grable has been criticized for her singing and dancing. WHY? She was brilliant. Nice acting style for movies of this sort, wonderful voice and her dancing is up there with the best of them, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, and the rest of them. Have the Grable collection and they are all enjoyable but Fox needs to put the rest of her movies on DVD, especially MOTHER WORE TIGHTS, WABASH AVENUE; CONEY ISLAND and SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES as well as BILLY ROSE'S HORSESHOE REVIEW. The plot of MOON is similar to THREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE and the wonderful HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. Yes, they CERTAINLY don't make em' like this anymore.

While MGM is remembered as the `studio for musicals,' it should be remembered that most MGM musicals prior to `The Wizard of OZ' were pretty horrible. Even after `OZ' (a flop in its first release), MGM cranked out its musicals on the cheap, usually in Black and White, until about 1944, when upstart Samuel Goldwyn studios started cranking out the Technicolor Danny Kaye's that MGM relented and began producing good, sometimes great color musicals. While Columbia, Paramount, Warner Bros and (especially) RKO regularly made wonderful musicals, until 1944, only 20th Century-Fox almost always made them in Technicolor. `Moon Over Miami' is one of these, and its pluses and minuses pretty much parallel those of the other Fox musicals.Let's start with the minuses, since there are far more of them. The plot, even for a musical, is pretty shopworn and threadbare (of course, this didn't stop Fox from using it again several times). Two sisters (Betty Grable, Carole Landis) and their aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) head to Miami with the goal of using their small inheritance to trap a millionaire husband for Grable. Landis poses as Grable's secretary and Greenwood as Grable's maid. Once settled into luxury resort, Grable maneuvers herself into courtships with not one, but two, millionaires (Robert Cummings and Don Ameche). Cummings is silly, as usual; Ameche struggles the best he can with a unbelievable role. For example, upon first meeting Grable, Ameche (apparently suffering from a hangover and lack of sleep), shows no interest in Grable, and is surly and insulting to boot. A nanosecond later, Ameche, wide awake and clear head, is dancing with Grable, singing a laughingly terrible love song. In fact, all the songs in `Moon Over Miami' are terrible. That this film is over 60 years old is no excuse. Even some musicals with no good songs at least had good dancing. The dancing on display in `Moon Over Miami' is stagey. While beautiful, Landis lacks the charm and animation to carry her pivotal role as Grable's sister.Now the pluses. Even playing her stock character, Charlotte Greenwood is always fun. As a dancer, she had one trick: kicking her legs nearly to her shoulder, SIDEWAYS. That never ceases to amaze me. The costumes and location scenery are gorgeous as is the Technicolor. Nevertheless, the best thing about a Betty Grable musical has ALWAYS been Betty Grable. Grable was for the `big' boys what Shirley Temple was for the `little boys'. More than any other actress of her generation, Grable could be pretty, spunky, charming, sensuous, wholesome, sexy AND accessible (i.e., the `girl next door'). While lacking the singing or dancing talents of Betty Hutton, Judy Garland or Ginger Rogers, Grable also lacked Hutton's bombast, Garland's neurosis and Rogers' cynicism. I endured this movie, successfully fighting every urge to `fast forward' just to watch Betty Grable.I recommend this movie to the following types of people, only:o Older couples who stubbornly believe `They don't make ‘em like THAT anymore.' o Younger people who've never seen Technicolor except in "The Wizard of OZ." o Present or potential fans of Betty Grable; I hope there will be a growing number of the latter.