Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
... View MoreIt's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
... View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
... View MoreStrong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
... View MoreJeez this is hard to watch and this era would be my favourite. Joan Davis doesn't know whether she wants to be Martha Raye, Betty Hutton or Eve Arden and fails in any comparison to them. Jack Haley is my (and I stress) personal least favourite "leading man" or song and dance man of this era despite the legendary Wizard of Oz being in his resume. Some of the routines are cringe-worthy. Check out Haley's impression of a fly landing on a cube of sugar and a chunk of limberger. Then if you can stomach it, Davis' rendition of an outboard motor trying to start. The sound effects of both were so obviously dubbed over and the paltry effort to be funny so bad, that I couldn't help imagining the embarrassment Davis and Haley must have felt actually standing on set in front of a camera and doing that stuff. Margaret Hamilton saved this horror from a 1 rating. Her cynical spinster shtick is endearing as always. I'm glad I saw it though and I'm consigning the memory to experience rather than pleasure.
... View MoreI gave this film "5" out of "10", but there's a caveat.The movie itself might be described anywhere along the continuim, from "Awful" to "Excellent", depending on what the viewer is looking for. My rating is purely arbitrary.It's total escapist fare, one of hundreds of films ground out during WWII to divert the American people from the horrors of war for an hour or two, and it must have done its job. It's certainly diverting.But what it is, more than anything else, is a time capsule of the fashions, manners and mores of a particular time and place. It is the year 1945 preserved in amber, and it was completely dated by 1947.From the showgirls in the musical numbers - pompadoured, lacquered and outrageously costumed in what looks like whatever the wardrobe department had left over, to the irrepressible Joan Davis dressed to the nines and beyond in shoulder pads, sequins and hair, hair, hair - this picture is a never-ending parade of "What Not to Wear", '40's style, and it's a hoot.Add a couple of silly romantic sub-plots and the slinky Jane Greer as the backstage back-stabber, and you have the whole package. There's even leading man Phillip Terry - briefly married to Joan Crawford in real life, and the scene-stealing Margaret Hamilton thrown in for good measure. And believe me, anyone who can steal a scene from Joan Davis and Jack Haley in their prime is guilty of grand theft thespeus.So there you have it. This one is not likely to show up on AFI's list of anything. If you're looking for a Golden Age musical, this isn't it. But if you're in the mood to spend a little time watching how your grandparents did it, this one's for you.
... View Moreits an average corny musical,from the mid 40s, that has many flaws, but can still be kinda fun to watch, if you're in to older movies....it has an OK cast including Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Philip Terry, Martha Holiday, Ethel smith, Margaret Hamilton, Glenn Tryon, Jane Greer,Audrey Young.......the musicals parts of the movie are OK but very corny and kinda stupid, like most musicals back then i guess, so i cant totally say i recommend this, but it wasn't totally bad i guess, if you do want to see it, good luck finding it.....
... View MoreThis typical mid-40s RKO musical is enlivened a bit by Joan Davis' goofy mugging. The plot, of course, only serves to gives people time to take a break between the comedy bits and the musical numbers. We also have a view of Roach silent comedy star, Glen Tryon as George White.The musical numbers are pretty good, particularly the first one with Gene Krupa, a triumph of choreography and camera-work. Krupa seems a little.... weird in the number, however, like he's on strong drugs and flipping out. Although this is not unheard of in drummers who are not on drugs, it may be significant that Krupa had spent time in jail on a marijuana rap in 1943, and this might have been an attempt to capitalize on his 'bad boy' image.
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