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Best Music Scoring of a Musical Picture | 1954
Best Actress Comedy or Musical | 1954 | Ethel
Top Male Musical Performance | 1954 | Donald
Best Costume Design Color | 1954
Best Written American Musical | 1954
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | 1954
This is the only full film musical that George Sanders made, despite his appealing singing voice.
While Donald O'Connor was hesitant to select a favorite film, he was quick to single out his favorite performance: "Call Me Madam (1953) - my favorite number is in there with Vera-Ellen. It's the number I do out in the garden with her to "It's a Lovely Day Today". It's a beautiful lyrical number. I think she was the best dancer outside of Peggy Ryan I ever danced with".
The pairing of Donald O'Connor and Vera-Ellen was very well received, due to their complementary dancing styles and personalities. However, attempts to re-team them were unsuccessful, most notably with White Christmas (1954), in which Danny Kaye replaced O'Connor at the last minute due to his sudden and severe illness. Coincidentally, Danny Kaye is mentioned in "Call Me Madam" as a joke.
Before pre-recording the song "You're Just in Love", Donald O'Connor felt that a better result would be achieved if he sang it with Ethel Merman in a recording studio accompanied by the orchestra. Musical Director Alfred Newman agreed and let them sing together. It turned out that Merman's legendary loud singing voice was too deafening for O'Connor. In the end, they had to record the song with O'Connor in an isolation booth. When filming the musical number accompanied by the pre-recorded playback, O'Connor had to wear ear plugs.
Due to the expiration of 20th Century Fox's music rights, the movie was completely withdrawn from public exhibition (both TV and theatrical) for nearly 20 years. During that time, its only public showing (with special permission from Irving Berlin) was at a 100 year tribute at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the 1990s. After the rights were renewed, the film was finally released on DVD in April 2004.
"Grand Duke: Tell me - How does this reception differ from your famous Washington parties? Sally Adams: Well we have a good time!"
"Sally Adams: Call Me Madam. Pemberton Maxwell: Madam... Sally Adams: When you call me madam, smile."
