Everything about Calamity Jane 1953 Film totally explained
Calamity Jane is a
"Wild West"-themed film released in
1953. It is (very) loosely based on the life of
Wild West heroine
Calamity Jane and explores an alleged romance between Calamity Jane and
Wild Bill Hickok in the
American Old West. The film starred
Doris Day as the title character and
Howard Keel as Hickok. It was devised by
Warner Brothers in response to the success of
Annie Get Your Gun.
It won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Secret Love",
Sammy Fain and
Paul Francis Webster) and was also nominated for Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound, Recording.
The songs and
screenplay form the basis of a
stage musical of the same name that has had a number of productions. The film was also adapted for television in
1963, with
Carol Burnett in the title role.
Plot
Calamity Jane (Doris Day) rides into
Deadwood, South Dakota on the
stagecoach. The local saloon bar, the Golden Garter, sends for beautiful women to appear on the stage and entertain the residents of a town with few females. Unfortunately, the men are anything but pleased when the latest "woman" turns out to be a man named Francis Fryer, who does a stage act in drag and goes under the name Frances Fryer. Calamity vows to get them the one woman they're all drooling over: singer Adelaide Adams, who is in Chicago. Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) tells Calamity that the night Adams steps on the stage, he'll come to the opening dressed as a Sioux squaw lugging a papoose.
Calamity goes to Chicago, where Adams is giving a farewell performance. Adelaide gives her costumes to her maid, Katie Brown (
Allyn McLerie), who tries on one of the dresses and starts to sing. When Calamity walks in, Katie tricks her into thinking she's Adams so she can fulfill her dream of being on stage.
The ride back to Deadwood is rocky, as they're chased by Indians. Later, when Katie gives her first performance, Calamity says she didn't sound that way in Chicago. When Calamity tells Katie to sing out, she bursts into tears and admits that she isn't Adelaide Adams. The Golden Garter falls silent. Everyone present is on the verge of rioting, but Calamity fires a shot into the air and defends Katie. They allow Katie to carry on, and her performance wins them over. On the balcony above, Bill Hickok, dressed as an Indian woman, ropes Calamity and hangs her high and dry.
Calamity and Katie become friends, and Katie moves into Calamity's cabin with her. One night, Bill and Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin (
Philip Carey), who Calamity is in love with, take the women to a party at Fort Scully. Calamity becomes jealous after she catches Danny kissing Katie and storms home where she throws all of Katie's stuff into cases.
Calamity later confronts Katie while she's performing, and warns her to get out of town. But Katie isn't intimidated. She takes a gun, and tells Calamity to hold up her glass. A gunshot finally rings out, and the glass falls from Calamity's hand, but it wasn't Katie who fired; it was Bill, who lets Katie take all the credit. Humiliated, Calamity storms out. But before she can mount her horse, Bill grabs her, throws her onto his horse-drawn cart and rides off.
In the woods, Bill tries to talk some sense into Calamity, and reveals that he shot the glass out of her hand to teach her a lesson. Calamity is heartbroken, and reveals she was crazy about Danny, while Bill admits that he was in love with Katie. Bill and Calamity embrace and when Bill asks her what happened to that lieutenant she was telling him about, she answers "I've never even heard of him."
The next day, Calamity sings "
Secret Love" before she rides into town. She finds that Katie has left for Chicago. Calamity mounts another horse and catches up with the stagecoach. She tells Katie that she's marrying Bill; the two women embrace.
A double wedding follows. When Bill finds Calamity's gun under her wedding dress, she says it's just in case any more actresses roll in from Chicago. The movie ends with the two happy couples riding out of town on the stage.
The score, with music by
Sammy Fain and lyrics by
Paul Francis Webster, includes such classic songs as:
The music was included in
an album of the same name, though some of the songs from the album were re-recorded rather than taken from the soundtrack.
Accuracy
Though the film portrays Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok as lovers, it's unclear whether that was the case in real life. The pair were friends, but many historians have disputed Calamity Jane's claims that she and Hickok were romantically involved.
Further Information
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