Irma and the Waves

I've know I've mentioned it before, but I'm a big fan of old-time radio. One of my favorites is My Friend Irma, so I knew I'd eventually have to watch the movies: My Friend Irma / My Friend Irma Goes West.

In both the radio show and the movies, Marie Wilson is Irma, an airhead blonde who gets herself, her roommate Jane and everyone else around into all kinds of trouble. Her boyfriend a cheapskate chiseler called Al (just "Al"), causes trouble the rest of the time.

In this movie, Jane is played by Diana Lynne, who played a lot of kid sister roles not long before this 1949-1950 role. I loved her in these roles, like Miracle of Morgan's Creek and The Major and the Minor, and she is lovely here as a young woman. In fact, she overshadows Wilson, 10 years her senior. I would expect this role - the sensible adult member of the team to be more of a plain Eve Arden type.

Honestly, Wilson looks a little drawn in these films - thin in the face and tired. Her voice is still the perfect dumb blonde's, but she's either showing her age or has been hitting the pep pills. Her character has a tendency to whine and cry when people get mad at her, which is all the time. I was surprised at how cruel her friends were - although I suppose it's realistic. She's funny to watch, but would have been pretty annoying to live with.

The whole cast is completely true to the radio version - John Lund's Al had me convinced he was played by thesame guy as on the radio, but not so. But Hans Conried did get to reprise his role of Professor Kropotkin, whose tag line was "It's only me, Professor Kropotkin".

There's something I haven't mentioned, because I didn't want to scare anyone. For some reason, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are in these movies. Dino plays a romantic interest for Jane, and Lewis plays a wacky sidekick. It isn't that Dino's songs are boring, and Jerry's comedy is grating (both true), but they just don't belong in this loving tribute to a great radio show.

Meanwhile, in Here Come the Waves, Betty Hutton plays both the sensible adult and the kooky airhead. As Rosemary, she is sensible, serious, and wants to join the WAVES to support the war effort. As Rosemary's twin Susan, she wants to keep up their nightclub act and meet, mash and marry singing movie star Bing Crosby. She is a bobbysoxer with a broad Iowa twang, while her sister speaks in the twang with more refinement. Even in their singing act, Rosemary swings, but sister Susan goes nuts - totally jazz.

So the sisters join the WAVES and Crosby and buddy Sonny Tufts join the Navy, but Susan plots to keep him stateside out of danger by getting him transferred to the WAVES, and so on. The romantic plot has him fall in love with the refined sister (who thinks he's a playboy and a coward), while dodging his fan Susan. Oh, yeah, Tufts is in love with Rosemary too.

Both of these movies had a smart girl and a dingbat, and I was surprised by how mean they were to the dingbat. I thought the pretty airhead was supposed to be loved by everyone. I guess I'd pick Diana Lynn over Marie Wilson, too, but I prefer the no-holds barred version of Betty Hutton to the high-hat version. Which would you choose?