Calamity Jane

Warner’s Calamity Jane was an attempt to duplicate the success of Annie Get Your Gun, which had been filmed by MGM in 1950. Despite being derivative it is a real hayseed hoot thanks to the vibrantly energetic performance of Doris Day as ‘Calam’, the tomboy-to-end-all-tomboys. Although the portrayal of the “injun-nigger heathens" (now known as Native Americans) makes one shudder, a lot of fun is had with gender stereotyping.

The 11 songs, by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, are clearly blow-by-blow responses to those by Irving Berlin for AGTG (with a touch of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma thrown in), but they are still a lot better than average, including the witty "Windy City" and "I Could Do Without You", an amusing duet between Day and Howard Keel, and the wonderful, Oscar-winning "Secret Love" in which a transformed Day completely loses her character's countrified twang. Reversing the usual trend, the film was later turned into a stage music.

 

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