Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Movie Review

Bullets over Broadway.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 26, 2021

George Sidney's Annie Get Your Gun is a big-screen adaptation of Irving Berlin's popular 1946 stage musical, a rowdy account of the life and times of famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley. Its early months of production were fraught with problems: original star Judy Garland was fired due to personal issues and friction with original director Busby Berkeley, actor Howard Keel suffered a broken foot in a riding accident, and actor Frank Morgan -- who was set to portray Colonel William "Buffalo Bill" Cody -- tragically died of a heart attack. Despite these setbacks, production eventually resumed: George Sidney took over directing duties, Howard Keel's foot healed, and actor Betty Hutton was brought in to lead. Unfortunately, she was ostracized by most of her co-stars and described the filming experience as as "one of the unhappiest of her career" in her own autobiography. But you wouldn't know it by watching: source material aside, Hutton's the best thing about Annie Get Your Gun and delivers a terrific, truly memorable performance.

Peppered with lively and now well-known showtunes including "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" , "There's No Business Like Show Business", and "Anything You Can Do", Annie Get Your Gun is a well-balanced and perfectly entertaining musical adaptation that's held together by colorful production design and solid characters. Of course, Annie herself is the biggest standout: from her scruffy introduction to her rise to fame and on-again, off-again relationship with pompous but ruggedly handsome fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler (Howard Keel), the film's backbone holds up as a solid character path that's only side-tracked by a a few goofy diversions and an awful lot of screen time for dated Indian gags... even though Chief Sitting Bull (J. Carrol Naish), a lower-ranking co-star of the Wild West show operated by Buffalo Bill himself (Louis Calhern), gets a handful of pretty great lean- in one-liners. Annie's relationship wins and losses are more or less mirrored by the success of Bill's show, which quickly falls into financial difficulty despite non-stop touring across America and Europe. Something about the Indians eating too much, I think.

All told, it's a fine film that eclipses most expectations, especially considering those early production setbacks. Annie Get Your Gun could have been a disaster for the studio... but upon inspection of Garland's early footage (first seen by the public as part of MGM's 1994 documentary That's Entertainment III, and included on most home video releases including this one), it's easy to see that Hutton was the right choice for the title role. She brings an immensely likable spark to the title character and, even with less polished singing chops than Garland, can obviously carry a tune and does so with much more charming enthusiasm. While all of Annie Get Your Gun isn't quite as great as Annie herself, it has more than enough meat to earn a spot in the upper tier of that era's big-screen musical outings.

Continuing their near-perfect string of catalog cuts (which in the last year or so have included plenty of musicals), Warner Archive does right by Annie Get Your Gun with a well-rounded release that combines another stunning A/V restoration with a nice little collection of DVD-era bonus features. It's this kind of no- nonsense work that has made the boutique label a reliable source of quality discs that, pound for pound, are some of the best on the market.

Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Not surprisingly, the beautifully-rendered Technicolor hues of Annie Get Your Gun prove to be a perfect match for Warner Archive's careful restoration process which, if history is any indication, comes from a very recent scan of either the original negative or an interpositive treated with manual cleanup. No matter the source material, these results are stunning and very film-like with outstanding fine detail and texture, from the colorful costume designs to close-ups and neat little background items. Skin tones -- including face paint, of course -- appear accurate and suitably vivid, and this largely bright and well-lit production also showcases excellent contrast and shadow details. (Black levels, obviously limited as they are, also run nice and deep with no obvious signs of crush.) But as usual, one constant highlight is the picture's organic-looking film grain structure, which holds steady from start to finish and helps contribute to its overall pleasing appearance. It's just a very healthy-looking picture, all things considered, and every bit as good as Warner Archive's other recent musical releases including Show Boat, The Pajama Game, and Good News.

Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The original one-channel audio is replicated perfectly on this DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix, which features very crisp dialogue and vocals that sound suitably bright. The music is a mixture of original songs by Irving Berlin with additional cues by Roger Edens and direction by Adolph Deutsch, whose collective credits include work on Oklahoma!, Show Boat, The Maltese Falcon, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers , and White Christmas. The dynamic range sounds quite good with very little strain on the high end and no obvious source defects including hiss, pops, or drop-outs, although some of the lip sync is a little dodgy at times. Overall, it's just more great work that will probably go unnoticed.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature, but sadly none of the extras. It's especially annoying since Warner Bros.' original DVD release, which the bonus features were sourced from, had them.

Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with fun one-sheet poster artwork and no inserts. The on-board bonus features are limited to DVD-era carryovers but are still worth watching (again).

• Introduction by Susan Lucci (4:40) - This short but valuable introduction includes comments about the film's troubled early production, culminating with Judy Garland's depature and Frank Morgan's death.

• Outtake Musical Numbers - The first two of these three video clips feature Judy Garland and were first released as part of MGM's 1994 documentary That's Entertainment III (sadly out-of-print on Blu-ray). The third and fourth highlight alternate and deleted songs performed Betty Hutton.

• "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly" (5:42) - Judy Garland
• "I'm an Indian Too" (3:50) - Judy Garland
• "Colonel Buffalo Bill" (2:56) - Betty Hutton
• "Let's Go West Again" (4:03) - Betty Hutton

• Audio-Only Outtakes in Stereo - Three brief song recordings, one of which again features vocals by original lead Judy Garland as well as Frank Morgan (and a few flubs, too!).

• "Colonel Buffalo Bill" (2:33) - Alternate version
• "Let's Go West Again" (3:12) - Betty Hutton
• "There's No Business Like Show Business" (3:29) - Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Howard Keel, and Keenan Wynn

• Theatrical Trailer (2:41) - This short promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to any of the film's main 15 song breaks including "Colonel Buffalo Bill", "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly", "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Anything You Can Do", and more.

Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

MGM's rough and rowdy musical Annie Get Your Gun was practically doomed to failure with early production troubles that almost sank the ship, but it climbed back to success on a modest budget and ended up being a box office success. Betty Hutton (replacing Judy Garland) pretty much steals the show and, in this reviewer's opinion, made for a much more memorable and perfectly-matched lead. The show runs a bit long even at just 107 minutes, but there's enough great material here to make it worth (re)watching for even the most casual fans of classic musicals. As usual, Warner Archive's Blu-ray presentation is outstanding: the top-tier A/V presentation pairs perfectly with several great carryover DVD bonus features, some of which dip lightly into those behind-the-scenes woes. Highly Recommended.