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Goodbye, Annie: Betty Hutton, 1921-2007
The Web site Movie City news got it absolutely right when a headline called the late Betty Hutton, “one of the greats, forgotten by far too many.”
You won’t find her in very many lists of the greatest stars, but pound for pound, no actress had more energy, or more spunk than Hutton, who passed away on Monday.
If people do remember her, it’s most likely for her performance in the title role of the MGM film Annie Get Your Gun, playing a certain Darke County native. That her performance was so winning was impressive, considering the circumstances.
She told Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne that her co-stars ostracized her for not being Judy Garland, who had been cast in the role before her demons got the better of her and she was fired. The experience soured Hutton on the movies, which is a real shame. TCM will rerun that interview, along with a selection of her films, on Thursday.
Still, the movie for which I will remember Hutton based is Preston Sturges’ The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, which, like its star, doesn’t get enough credit. Hutton plays Trudy Kockenlocker, (GREAT name), who has a hankering for soldiers and becomes pregnant, much to the chagrin of her beau, Norval Jones, played by Eddie Bracken.
Hutton is wonderful, and so is the movie, which for my money, is one of the funniest ever made and was quite daring for its time. Rent it and raise a glass to Betty. You’ll be glad you did.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Celebrities
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By Greg
March 15, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
Thanks, Eric, for that interesting blog about Betty Hutton. I saw that Robert Osbourne ‘Private Screenings’ interview on TCM when it first aired back in 2000 and found her to be one of the more fascinating former stars out of Hollywood yesteryear. Her endearing vulnerability in that interview told you a lot about her personality and relationships with people in her life. She apparently finally found someone she could trust in a Catholic priest whom she met at a rectory she worked for (as a cook and housekeeper) after disappearing from Hollywood altogether. He encouraged her to get her college degree, too, which she did eventually. Betty Hutton did what some stars on the edge of burnout wish they could do: Go get lost and find true meaning in life. But she wasn’t entirely forgotten, because she said in that TCM interview that she still got a lot of fan mail. That, obviously thanks to showings of ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’ Yes, I think she was better in that role than Judy Garland would have been. Here’s an interesting quote I’ve seen online from BH that sort of gave insight into her wild comedic style. It also shows her typical self-deprecation to her talents: “I worked out of desperation. I used to hit fast and run in hopes that people wouldn’t realize that I really couldn’t do anything.” Some more good Betty Hutton films to catch on TCM: ‘Happy Go Lucky’ (where she sings her famous “Murder, He Says”); ‘The Perils of Pauline’; ‘The Greatest Show on Earth.’