In the late 1860s, a baby girl is adopted by an Irish immigrant and sixteen years later marries a miner in Colorado; they strike gold, and try to adapt to high society in Denver. This musical about the life of one feisty, ambitious and lucky woman (she survived the Titanic disaster) is very colorful and Debbie Reynolds gives an exuberant performance. But there’s obviously no place for depth or something that resembles real life (in spite of the Colorado location) in this film. Not many memorable songs, but some of the numbers follow Reynolds’s enthusiasm in an admirable way.Ā
1964-U.S. 128 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed byĀ Charles Walters. Play: Richard Morris. Cinematography: Daniel L. Fapp. Songs: “I Ain’t Down Yet”, “Belly Up to the Bar, Boys” (Meredith Willson). Cast: Debbie Reynolds (Molly Brown), Harve Presnell (Johnny Brown), Ed Begley (Shamus Tobin), Jack Kruschen, Hermione Baddeley, Audrey Christie.
Trivia: Also available in a 135-min. version. Shirley MacLaine was allegedly considered for the part of Molly. Some of the Titanic sequences were borrowed from Titanic (1953) and A Night to Remember (1958).
