The sheer energy of Betty Hutton’s performance as the famous silent serial queen, Pearl White, makes up for some of the dramatic shortcomings of this colorful musical comedy. She does some great musical numbers and is thoroughly believeable as the rough and tumble personality who catches the attention of silent film director Chuck McGuire, played to perfection by William Demarest. This is a gorgeously mounted Technicolor production, directed by George Marshall, who has created, in addition to a good musical, a look at early Hollywood moviemaking in the silent era when innovation and improvisation were the order of the day. Young Pearl’s rambunctious behavior gets her into the movies, where she becomes a hit in the serial “The Perils of Pauline,” but the man she loves, Michael Farrington (John Lund) doesn’t appreciate her Serial talents. Like Fredric March in A Star is Born, his faltering career as a dramatic actor is eclipsed by her success on the screen. Realizing he is in love with her, he follows her to Paris, where he discovers she has suffered a serious injury the night he has come to take her back to America as his wife. Academy Award Nomination 1947: Frank Loesser for Best Song. (1947)