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In Berkeley's 1943 Technicolor freak-out, the plot, soldier Andy is engaged to the gal next door but falls for the meloncholy showgirl
Edie, is a mere addendum to the increasingly extravagant and elaborate musical numbers. Gang is the epitome
of fruitiness: Miranda's singing and samba-ing to "The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat," a chorus of curvy beauties performing
a "near obscene" synchronized number with giant bananas, prissy perennial second banana Edward Everett Horton cutting loose
with Carmen. All the players in this overstuffed extravaganza, including a wailing Benny Goodman and an leggy Charlotte
Greenwood as a jiving Westchester matron, give jaw-dropping turns as, in the words of one character, "tenderized ham." But
it's Miranda's show, whether she's embellishing American slang ("You are here to kick up some more heels, huh?") or popping
out from a cornucopia of leafy produce for her first song and dance.
While Andy pursues lovely showgirl Eadie, his fiance's father, fussy Peyton, tangles with Andy's mother, the ultra-high
kickinghoofer, Charlotte Greenwood. Meanwhile her husband, Andy's father, hires Benny Goodman for a weekend
WW2 fundraiser! While Andy and Eadie sort out their love triangle, Carmen "Bananas is My Business"
Miranda rhumbas her way into the fray with songs that inspire women into geometric dances with large fruit. Children
wearing whitegloves and flower pot hats, sing in impossible hormone-induced voices and turn into large polkadots. Plot?
Who needs a plot!
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