rfgaines Turned on the TV and found a TCM movie from 1944 I have not seen before (which is rare). Two Girls and a Sailor World War II "soldier's canteen" type movie with a hell of a cast, and many of the young male character actors you see in many of the wartime movies. You recognize the faces but not the names. Great music, Harry James and Xazier Cugat and James plays a small part. June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven and that ever-present WWII actor, Van Johnson. AND Jimmy Durante! AND Gracie Allen! AND dozens of entertaining parts by famous singers and dancers and musicians of the time. It's a smorgasbord of the very best of the entertainment industry during the war (AND a far cry from the GARBAGE today). Every now and then I get lucky and find a real gem! Sad to realize that virtually ALL of the folks in this movie have joined Bob Hope and others, over the rainbow. The Greatest Generation is fading fast. Gloria DeHaven died just last summer at age 91. If you missed the TCM broadcast, it's free on the Internet!

calvinnme ...because...I dunno... there were just bad signs everywhere. An MGM musical in black and white? I was afraid of even more of "the Nazis are eeeeeevil" pronouncements that get overdone in WWII films. Believe me, I get that they were evil. And plus I have just never gotten the allure of June Allyson and that husky voice.But I was on Christmas break and it was part of a Turner Classic Movies tribute to those in the film industry who died in 2016 - in this case Gloria DeHaven - so I thought I'd give it a whirl. This one pleasantly surprised me.In a way the title does give the paper thin plot away - one sailor (Van Johnson as swabbie John Dyckman Brown III) in love with one of two girl performers (DeHaven and Allyson as the Deyo sisters, Jean and Patsy respectively). Complications ensue. But the fun is in the journey not the destination.There are some possible dark sides to this film. It starts out with Jean as an infant and Patsy a toddler watching over her backstage while mom and dad perform in vaudeville. A few years pass and now Jean is the toddler and dad is performing alone. It is said "mom made the big time" but you wonder - did mom run out on dad and her daughters? Is mom actually dead and dad just doesn't want to tell them? You're never told. The scene skips to present day - 1944 - and the girls are a sister act in a night club and then run a canteen for soldiers out of their apartment after that. But those childhood years of Patsy watching Jean have taken their toll, because now Patsy watches Jean like a hawk, making sure she doesn't take up with the wrong man while she doesn't seem to have time for a man at all. Is this a residue of what happened as children? Does Patsy not want Jean or herself to end up like mom? Again, nothing deep is ever said, but you have to wonder.And then somebody starts sending orchids to Jean. This alone has Patsy watching the nightclub audience wondering which one is the secret admirer. But when this (probably) same anonymous person gives them an old abandoned warehouse so they can enlarge their canteen - what they thought was a secret wish - and supplies all of the food and manpower to transform it, Patsy really goes into PI mode because now she is afraid some rich guy is out to make Jean a sadder but wiser girl. And the misunderstandings just go from there.In the meantime there is plenty of great music from Harry James,Jose Iturbi and orchestra, Lena Horne, Xavier Cugat and orchestra, and even Gracie Allen comes over from Paramount for a comical bit - minus George. Jimmy Durante performs here, but he also has a bit of drama and tragedy that figures into the plot - he's living like a hermit in the warehouse when the girls take possession - and he really surprised me with his dramatic range.Then there are those weird outfits Allyson and DeHaven wear. A couple of times one is wearing what appears to be the top to a dress with a particular pattern and the other is wearing the skirt. Is this some visual way of saying that one is pretty on the inside while the other is pretty on the outside? Jean is LOOKING for a rich guy and is pretty naïve yet mercenary, so Patsy has reason to worry. Meanwhile Patsy is not at all interested in the trappings of wealth. Or maybe I'm reading way too much into what was just meant to be some MGM musical fluff. I'd recommend this one. It was released right before D-Day, so things were looking optimistic on the homefront for the first time in a long time and the mood of this film rather goes along with that. It's almost an early "welcome back" film for all of the guys and gals in the service at the time.

jacobs-greenwood Though somewhat similar to Stage Door Canteen (1943), which preceded it, and Hollywood Canteen (1944), which followed it, this Musical Romance Comedy has a storyline with a canteen for soldiers inside, instead of being about a canteen with a romantic story inside. Hence, it earned Richard Connell and Gladys Lehman a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination.Directed by Richard Thorpe, the plot involves two sisters, played by June Allyson and the lovely Gloria DeHaven, whose parents had been stage actors, that start their own free nightclub for those in military service during World War II. Van Johnson plays the titled sailor, who becomes involved in a love triangle with these "girls"; Tom Drake plays another soldier who's in the Army. Johnson's character is also very rich, a fact he keeps secret from the sisters while, through his assistant Mr. Nizby (Donald Meek), he fulfills their wishes and bankrolls their charity enterprise. Henry Stephenson plays Johnson's grandfather, Henry O'Neill his father. Jimmy Durante plays a now washed up comic the girls knew when they were two years old (Gigi Perreau, uncredited, plays one of them).Every night, after their performance at an urban (New York?) nightclub, Patsy (Allyson) and Jean (DeHaven) Deyo invite military personnel from all three branches of service (the Army, the Navy, & the Marines) back to their humble flat where they make sandwiches and entertain them with song. It's their way of saying thanks and participating in the war effort by boosting morale. Jean is a bit too flirtatious for her sister Patsy's liking; Patsy has had to look after her younger sister since their actress mother left their actor father (Frank Jenks) years ago. When Jean spends a little too much time with any one admirer, Patsy pinches her to effectively end the courting. For the past few nights, Jean has received orchids from a person who signs the cards "Somebody".Of course, John Dyckman Brown III (Johnson), known to the girls as a sailor named Johnnie, is the secret admirer. One night, he is one of the lucky ones hanging around the nightclub who gets invited back to the Deyo's apartment, along with Army Sergeant Frank Miller (Drake), Marine Private Adams (Frank Sully, uncredited), and many others. While there, he learns from Patsy about a deserted warehouse, around the corner, and the girls' desire to open a canteen. The next thing you know, John's agent Mr. Nizby (Meek) is giving them the deed. Upon inspection, the sisters discover that the bum living in it is their old acquaintance Billy Kipp (Durante), who'd quit the business when his wife up and left him with their son.With generous assistance directed by Mr. Nizby, and funded anonymously by Johnnie, Kipp and the Deyo sisters get the warehouse fixed up, furnished, and catered such that they can open their dream canteen. Entertainment is provided by various well-known performers who donate their time such as Ben Blue, José Iturbi, Gracie Allen, Lena Horne, Virginia O'Brien, Lee & Lyn Wilde, trumpeter Harry James and His Music Makers, Helen Forrest, Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra, and more. Meanwhile, Frank and Johnnie are courting Jean but, simultaneously, Patsy is falling in love with Johnnie herself (there is a dream sequence which includes Ava Gardner). For his part, Johnnie begins to recognize that Patsy has more to offer and admires her selfless devotion to her sister and the canteen. There are some sweet, sentimental, even tear-jerking moments, and the scene during which Patsy discovers Johnnie's identity, through his grandfather (Stephenson) and father (O'Neill), and subsequent sequences are keepers.Predictably, all works out well in the end for both sisters, each get engaged. There is also a funny bit involving Durante's character as well.

raskimono This slight musical comedy from 1944 was a blockbuster of its year. Its one of those Stage door canteen where G.I.s are entertained by hit musicians of their including the popular band and orchestra leader Harry James and Xavier Cugat. The big hit "Young man with a horn" is featured prominently. The songs are lovely and generally feel orchestrated and operatic as this is a Joe Pasternak production. Like a Bruckheimer, a Selznick, a Freed or a Ross Hunter, you know a Pasternak when you see it. That is, slight plots with certain scenes that are written and play better than the whole movie and make you wish they were in another movie. There is usually a love plot involving dueling sisters, mother and daughter, or jealous daughters to their dads. The actresses are pretty and young. The songs, hits of their day but taken out of their time and the situations, they lack the oomph for classic appreciation unlike the movies of Arthur Freed. Take note, there is a dream sequence in this movie that is begging for one of those Freed musical numbers but instead we get Jimmy Durante shenanigans that lifts the weight from the scene. Thorpe, the journeyman director at MGM who made a lot of hits, directs in his usual flat and placid style that gets the job done and not much more. If only Pasternak aimed higher, varied the formula a little, he could have been a champion, not just a contender.