Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

MGM’s top-grossing musical of 1950 remains an audience favorite because of its boisterous energy and the exuberant performances of Betty Hutton as sharp-shooter Annie Oakley and Howard Keel as rival gunman Frank Butler. The high spirits on screen belied some behind-the-scenes turmoil. The adaptation of Irving Berlin’s hit musical is often remembered more for the firing of Judy Garland. The film also went through three directors (Busby Berkeley, Charles Walters and, finally, George Sidney), and production dragged on so long the young actors cast as the Oakley siblings grew up and had to be replaced. Despite that, it offers a rousing good time along with great songs like “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun.” 

d. George Sidney, 108m, 35mm nitrate print

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Classics, from the collections of the Library of Congress