I'd better watch my lampshades and bell-cords!

Don't you wish you could pull off a hat like this? Well, Carmen Miranda sure can in the "Lady with the Tutti Frutti" hat number from Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here (1943). This movie has sadly never been released on video (although I imagine there are bootleg copies around). Lucky for me, the Paramount Theatre showed it as part of their Summer Film series this year. For some reason the only stills I could find were in black and white, but the movie itself is in fabulous Technicolor.

The best parts are the ridiculously large and beautifully photographed dance numbers that Berkeley is known for, particularly those featuring the above mentioned Miranda and her hats. Also noteworthy is character actor Eugene Pallette (whose deep froggy voice cracks me up even when he says something like "Why should I get the San Francisco paper?" and especially when he says "What are you, a square from Delaware?" or "What do you have to do to get a room in this shebang!" (that last one is actually from a different movie, but you get my point, the dude is awesome). And of course, any dance number involving gigantic bananas being waved around in the air must be seen to be believed.

And yet the best part of all is the last few minutes of the film which start out as a song sung in homage to the polka dot and somehow turn into a psychedelic film-fest that is at least twenty years ahead of its time. We get glowing hoops, kaleidoscopic lenses, swirling colors, and a finale of disembodied heads singing the theme song of the film in unison. Probably one of the best endings ever, with the possible exception of The Fury.