Two marketing whizzes named Mike Frye (Fred MacMurray) and Deborah Patterson (Dorothy McGuire) put some old Smoky Callaway films on TV and an odd thing happens. Suddenly, Smoky Callaway is a hero to millions of kids across the nation.
There are just three problems — Frye and Patterson have no new material, Smoky Callaway disappeared 10 years earlier, and the TV producers are pressuring them to make more films. The wise-cracking twosome hire a private eye to track down Smoky, now a notorious drunk and lady’s man.
Then they stumble upon a remarkable lookalike in cowpoke Stretch Barnes (Howard Keel) of Duck Falls, Colorado. They decide to have him portray Smoky.
Stretch is reluctant, until he learns about the $2,000 per week salary. And about how he’d be letting down kids all over the country if he doesn’t take the job. And about how Frye and Patterson just can’t stand to news to those kids that the real Smoky has died.
That latter is a lie of course, but Stretch somehow manages to pass himself off as the real Smoky and starts falling for Deborah during a nationwide tour to increase the character’s fame. Then, just when everything is going great, the private eye returns with the real Smoky, as drunk as ever, but eager to cash in on his newfound fame.
Review:
A truly neat little comedy with frequent song-and-dance man Keel taking on two roles and proving equally convincing in both.
As Stretch, he’s determined to be a positive role model and uphold the good name of Smoky, unaware of what a brute and womanizer the real Smoky was. As Smoky, he heads off to a rehab to get in shape for his return to film, but finds every way possible to continue quenching his thirst for liquor.
Dorothy McGuire also turns in a fine performance as a p.r. woman who knows she can hit pay dirt with the Smoky Callaway character, joins partner Mike Frye in convincing Stretch to take the part, but then grows fond of his Western charm and feels increasingly guilty of manipulating Stretch to serve her own means.
The film includes cameos by the likes of Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor and Esther Williams in one of its better scenes. Stretch is invited to dinner at a posh Hollywood by a producer. He’s supposed to know his fellow stars of film. In truth, he’s been trying to memorize their names and faces from publicity photos and winds up patting Gable on the back and calling him “Sam.”
Directed by:
Melvin Frank
Paul Norman
Cast:
Fred MacMurray … Mike Frye
Dorothy McGuire … Deborah Patterson
Howard Keel … Stretch Barnes
Howard Keel … Smoky Callaway
Jesse White … George Markham
Fav Roope … Tom Lorrison
Natalie Schafer … Martha Lorrison
Douglas Kennedy … Drunk
Elisabeth Fraser … Marie
John Indriscano … Johnny Terrento
Stan Freberg … Marvin
Don Haggerty … Director Don
Runtime: 81 min.
Memorable lines:
Mike Frye, to a man whittling: “Howdy, pardner. Know a cowpoke ’round these parts known as Stretch Barnes?”
Whittling man: “Corral.”
Frye: “Mind if we mosey over there, pardner, and kind of callaber a spell.”
Whittling man: “Why don’t you just walk over and talk to him?”
Stretch Barnes: “Tell me, how did he (Smoky Callaway) pass on?”
Mike Frye: “He died with his regiment.”
Deborah Patterson, simultaneously: “He went down with his ship.”
Cue confused look from Stretch.
Mike Frye: “It was a troop ship.”
Stretch Barnes, about his grandma: “If she could see me today, she’d be as proud as a pig with two tails.”
Stretch Barnes: “Who’s that?”
Mike Frye: “Esther Williams.”
Stretch: “Right pretty girl. What does she do?”
Deborah Patterson: “That’s Esther Williams, the movie star.”
Stretch: “Oh, don’t reckon I’ve seen her. Has she been in many Westerns.”
Mike Frye: “No. She tends toward Easterns.”
Mike Frye, about an upcoming appearance for Smoky Callaway: “It’s a big thing. Start a National Boys Week. The mayor called last night. Ninety thousand kids. Three networks. Four governors. And Smoky Callaway as guest of honor. What am I gonna do? Let that drunk (the real Smoky) stagger in there and breathe on four governors? In five minutes, he’d bring back prohibition.”
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