Calamity Jane (1953) Film Review B

DIRECTOR: David Butler

BOTTOM LINE: . Calamity Jane is a Technicolor Western musical starring Doris Day as the legendary frontierswoman and Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickok. Set in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, the film blends comedy, romance, and song as Jane’s brash, tomboyish persona collides with her softer side, culminating in her discovery of love and self-acceptance.

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 Howard Keel’s Wild Bill, 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.

Cinematography by Ted McCord

Warner Bros.

STREAMING: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube

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