There's No Business Like Show Business

1954
A
1h 57m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

6.9K

YOUR RATING

Marilyn Monroe, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor, Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, and Johnnie Ray in There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)

Trailer for this story about the people behind the footlights

Play trailer2:45

2 Videos

39 Photos

Comedy Drama Musical Romance

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

6.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 4 nominations total

Videos2

Trailer 2:45

There's No Business Like Show Business

Clip 1:41

There's No Business Like Show Business: Clip 2

Clip 1:41

There's No Business Like Show Business: Clip 2

Photos39

+ 31

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
One day, Marilyn Monroe's husband, Joe DiMaggio, visited the set. He refused to be photographed with Monroe, but insisted on being photographed with Ethel Merman, whom he called "my favorite star."

Goofs
Donald O'Connor wears a gold ring on his left ring finger in almost all of his scenes. The ring is missing when he performs "A Man Chases a Girl (Until She Catches Him)", in the scene with Marilyn Monroe just before that, and in the film's climactic scenes.

Rings are not permanent fixtures, he simply removed the ring at some point and chose to no longer wear it.

Quotes
Molly Donahue: "Don't worry." Hmm. That's a laugh. You start worrying about your kids the day they're born and you never stop. Even after they bury you, I bet you never stop.

Connections
Featured in Marilyn (1963)

Soundtracks
When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam'
(uncredited)
Written by Irving Berlin
Performed by Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey
Later performed by Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O'Connor

User reviews79

Review

Featured review

7/10

Marilyn was deliciously charming, seducing and very appealing

The film was, perhaps, the splashiest of the year's musicals It dealt with the joys, loves and heartaches experienced by a vaudeville family called the Donahues (spending their lives singing and dancing and touring) with Merman and Dailey as mother and father, and Ray, Gaynor and O'Connor as their talented offspring

All of them get to perform a large catalog of new and old songs by Irving Berlin in sumptuous arrangements, beautiful settings and on a big Hippodrome extravaganza

Daily and Merman hit the top; O'Connorwho had liked to build a barbed-wire fence around Marilyndid it Scottish and came with some fine dances; Gaynor's love was dancing and she was really cute; and while Ray got some thinking to do, he sells a very beautiful song ("If You Believe").

Marilyn (appearing after 29 minutes screening) was deliciously charming, seducing and very appealing She sang "After You Get What You Want" and "Lazy," and did that tropical version of 'Heat Wave.'