Calamity Jane (1953) Film Review B+

DIRECTOR: David Butler

BOTTOM LINE: Doris Day was much more delightful in her tomboy Warner Bros. roles than she was playing all those professional virgins at Universal. And playing the famous Calamity Jane, she is at the apex of her Queerness. She has her hair cropped, she’s wearing buckskins, and she’s willing to draw a gun on anyone who makes fun of her. Although in love with military man Howard Keel, she doesn’t want to give up her gender-transgressing ways. Her inner conflict is finally announced to the Universe in one of the best uses of song in the history of Cinema: Day’s spectacular delivery of the Sammy Fain-Paul Francis Webster masterpiece “Secret Love,” a cri de coeur that every gay person can relate to.

Original screenplay by James O’Hanlon.

STREAMING: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube

https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967

https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967-table-summary

https://thebrownees.net/fifty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976

https://thebrownees.net/fififty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976-table-summary

https://thebrownees.net/the-best-songwriters-from-the-golden-age-of-hollywood-part-one-the-great-composers

https://thebrownees.net/the-best-songwriters-from-the-golden-age-of-hollywood-part-two-the-great-lyricists