Calamity Jane (film)

Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) at the Deadwood saloon

In the Dakota Territory during the 1870s tough-talking, hard-riding, straight-shooting Calamity Jane (Doris Day) has a crush on Lieutenant Gilmartin (Philip Carey). She even risks life and limb to single-handedly save him from an Indian war party. Meanwhile, Deadwood's saloon owner, who sends for beautiful women entertainers to sing on stage, mistakenly hires a male. Fearing a riot, the owner persuades the reluctant actor to perform in drag. Initially convincing, his wig falls off, and the angry audience threatens to tear the saloon down. But Calamity calms the situation, vowing to go to Chicago and bring the renowned singer Adelaid Adams (Gale Robbins) back to Deadwood. However, her friend Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) expresses doubt, even scoffing at the idea. Calamity arrives in Chicago, where Adams is giving her farewell performance before launching a European tour. After the show ends, Adelaid gives her old costumes to her maid, Katie Brown (Allyn McLerie), who dreams of becoming a singer. Later, when Calamity walks in, she mistakes Katie for Adelaid. Katie, posing as Adelaid Adams, agrees to return west with Calamity, seeing it as a chance to perform on stage. But back in Deadwood, during Katie's premiere performance, stage fright gets the best of her. She bursts into tears, admitting she is not Adelaid Adams. With the stunned crowd on the verge of rioting, Calamity fires a shot in the air and defends Katie. She is allowed to carry on, and ultimately wins the crowd over.

Katie moves into Calamity's ramshackle cabin which they fix up together. To attract Lt. Gilmartin, Calamity, with Katie's help, dresses and behaves "ladylike". But Gilmartin and Hickok both admire Katie. At one point, they draw straws to see who will take her to the upcoming ball. Lt. Gilmartin wins, and Wild Bill agrees to complement the double date by escorting Calamity. At the ball, everyone is awed by Calamity's transformation. She's beautiful. But she becomes increasingly jealous watching Katie and Gilmartin together. The ball ends when Calamity angrily confronts Katie, shooting a punch glass from her hand. A day later, though, Katie returns the favor at the saloon. Calamity, feeling humiliated, exits with Wild Bill and they drive off in his wagon. A heartbroken Calamity reveals her crush on Gilmartin, while Bill admits his love for Katie. In spite of this, they passionately embrace and kiss. Calamity then realizes she loved Wild Bill all along. The next day, Katie takes the stagecoach to Chicago, feeling guilty over betraying her best friend. After the stage leaves, a furious Lt. Gilmartin confronts Calamity, blaming her for Katie's sudden departure. She responds by mounting her horse and riding out to overtake the stagecoach. There, she tells Katie she loves Wild Bill, and the two women are reunited. The story ends with a double wedding.[3]

• Doris Day as Calamity Jane
• Howard Keel as Bill Hickok
• Allyn Ann McLerie as Katie Brown
• Philip Carey as Daniel Gilmartin
• Dick Wesson as Francis Fryer
• Paul Harvey as Henry Miller
• Chubby Johnson as Rattlesnake
• Gale Robbins as Adelaid Adams
• Tom London as Prospector (uncredited)

The score, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, includes:

• "The Deadwood Stage"
• "Hive Full of Honey"
• "I Can Do Without You"
• "It's Harry I'm Planning to Marry"
• "The Windy City"
• "Keep It Under Your Hat"
• "Higher Than a Hawk"
• "A Woman's Touch"
• "The Black Hills of Dakota"
• "Secret Love"

The music was included in the album of the same name, though some of the songs from the album were re-recorded rather than taken from the soundtrack.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – Nominated[4]
• 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  • Calamity Jane – Nominated Hero[5]
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Secret Love" – Nominated[6]
• 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated[7]

The film has been popular with some lesbian audiences for its depiction of a character which can be read as lesbian, and was screened at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 2006.[8] Film critic Jamie Stuart points to the film's lesbian overtones in Jane being played as a strong, independent woman who shares a house with a woman, the two of them painting "Calam and Katie" on its door.[8] Armond White sees the film as approaching sexuality in a way that Hollywood was not openly able to do, describing the empathy and envy (despite this resulting from conflict over a man) between Jane and Katie's characters as "a landmark display of girl-on-girl attraction."[9] Out magazine described the film's award-winning song, "Secret Love," as "the first gay anthem."[9] When asked about her award winning song being embraced by the gay community during a 2011 interview with The Advocate (magazine), Doris Day replied, "I was not aware of that, but that's wonderful."[10]

Though the film portrays Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok as lovers, historians have found no proof that they were more than acquaintances. Jane claimed after Hickok's death that she had not only been his lover but also his wife and the mother of his child, but she offered no substantiation of her claims. Many of her contemporaries considered her a teller of tall tales (as portrayed in the film to humorous effect) who exaggerated her links to more famous frontier figures, and some insisted Hickok did not even particularly like her. But when she died decades after Hickok, friends buried her beside him at her request; four of the men on the self-appointed committee who planned Calamity's funeral (Albert Malter, Frank Ankeney, Jim Carson, and Anson Higby) later stated that, since Hickok had "absolutely no use" for Jane in this life, they decided to play a posthumous joke on him by laying her to rest by his side.[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Calamity Jane (film).

• Calamity Jane at IMDb
• Calamity Jane at the TCM Movie Database
• Calamity Jane at AllMovie
• Calamity Jane at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Calamity Jane at Rotten Tomatoes