There's No Business Like Show Business

The Donahues are a family of stage performers led by parents Molly and Terence, whose three children have grown up in the act. Their professional harmony is disrupted as the children pursue lives of their own: one son trains for the priesthood, a daughter has marriage on her mind, and the youngest son, Tim, falls for Vicky, a singer working in a nightclub. When Vicky is brought into the family's new production, the group's unity is tested before the Donahues find their way back together on stage.

Walter Lang directed this 1954 musical comedy for 20th Century Fox, working from a screenplay by Phoebe and Henry Ephron. It followed several of his earlier pictures, among them Sitting Pretty and Cheaper by the Dozen, and came before The King and I and Desk Set. Sol C. Siegel produced, with Ethel Merman and Dan Dailey as the parents, Mitzi Gaynor, Donald O'Connor and Johnnie Ray as their children, and Marilyn Monroe as Vicky. Twenty-one performers are credited, and the film cost about four million dollars, returning roughly seven million worldwide.

Audience response has been modest. On IMDb it holds 6.4 out of 10 from around 7,300 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from 114 votes, while a small group of 12 critics' reviews averages 6.1 out of 10, placing professional and audience assessments close together.