In 1941 Carole starred in the Technicolor musical Moon Over Miami. Carole is Barbara Latimer, a carhop who helps her sister find a wealthy husband in Miami. This was the first film she made after signing with 20th Century Fox. Betty Grable plays Barbara's sister Kay who pretends to be rich so she can marry a millionaire. They were cast as sisters again in the 1941 drama I Wake Up Screaming. Betty and Carole hated each other and their feud was written about in gossip columns. Carole demanded that the studio give her a dressing room that was as big as Betty's. Moon Over Miami was filmed at Fox studios from March 3 until April 25, 1941. Several of the outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Florida. The cast included Robert Cummings, Don Ameche, and Charlotte Greenwood. Moon Over Miami was directed by Walter Lang. The original title for the movie was "Miami". Carole sings several songs including "Miami (Oh Me, Oh Mi-Ami)" and "What Can I Do For You?". The costumes were designed by Travis Banton. Moon Over Miami was a remake of the 1938 film Three Blind Mice. Fox made another version in 1946 with the title Three Little Girls In Blue. Moon Over Miami premiered in Miami, Florida on June 18, 1941 and it was released across the country on July 4. It became one of the most popular musicals of 1941. Carole only had a supporting role but she got wonderful reviews for her performance.
New York Times Review (Published July 5, 1941)
Gaily packaged and pretty as a Fourth of July skyrocket display, "Moon Over Miami," now at the Roxy, once again shows what Technicolor can do for an otherwise very average musical comedy. For, as sometimes happens, the contents are not as surprising as all the bright ribbons would lead one to expect. The script, to which no less than five able-bodied authors have contributed their labors, is older than memory and nearly as long. But if you are content�and we were very content�to be dazzled by Betty Grable and Carole Landis in color, to listen to some saucy tunes warbled with a lilt and to beat time in a couple of swirling production numbers, well, one can think of less pleasant ways of spending a hot Summer's eve. When a pair of likely looking lassies in a Texas open-air hamburger stand suddenly blossom forth with a small legacy and the announced intention of going to Miami to take their pick of millionaires, the audience can call the shots with boring accuracy. But partly through Walter Lang's direction, "Moon Over Miami" rarely lets you remember it's old hat. It keeps dazzling you with little speedboats scooting across blue lagoons, romantic under-water t�te-�-t�tes (and what kind of a fish was it, Mr. Ameche?), sumptuous parties under the palms and, of course, Miss Grable in a range of pretty and petulant moods. How her moods photograph! If the book isn't very sprightly, the music by Ralph Ranger and Leo Robins is�including "Kindergarten Conga," "Miami" and "Is That Good?" Of the cast, Miss Landis makes a fair vision when she removes her spurious secretarial spectacles, Don Ameche makes a suitably sluggish lounge-lizard, Robert Cummings a slightly more spirited one, and Jack Haley and Charlotte Greenwood, as a waiter and a maid, frolic through some comedy grotesqueries which are never quite funny enough. Like its two little heroines, "Moon Over Miami" isn't very bright in conversation, but it looks wonderful.
