Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Copyright 14 June 1943 by Principal Artists Productions. Released through United Artists. Presented by Sol Lesser. A Frank Borzage production. Presented in association with the American Theatre Wing. New York opening at the Capitol: 24 June 1943. U.S. release: 12 May 1943. Australian release: 31 March 1944. 14 reels. 12,034 feet. 134 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Theatre (sic) stars run a canteen for servicemen in New York.NOTES: One of the top money-making films of 1943. (The artists donated their talents. 90% of the proceeds went to the American Theatre Wing.) Nominated for 2 Academy Awards: Best Song ("We Mustn't Say Goodbye" - lost to "You'll Never Know" by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon from Hello, Frisco, Hello); and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (lost to Ray Heindorf s This Is The Army).COMMENT: Like Thank Your Lucky Stars, Follow the Boys and the rival Hollywood Canteen this is a patriotic, star-studded compendium of various acts, tied together with a framing story. Unfortunately, despite the expertise of sob-master Frank Borzage, the story is an unintentionally ludicrous, not to say puerile thing which modern audiences will also find objectionable by reason of its dated racist-rousing, its fake religiosity and naive moralizing. Yet, despite this all but impossible handicap, the leads manage earnestly sincere performances which keep your eyes - and hearts - involved. It is the "acts" which let us down.Filmed in a flat, pedestrian style, the tone is set in the very opening number - a wearisomely inept monologue in which Edgar Bergen engages in corny repartee with a couple of dummies. Katharine Cornell (in her only film appearance) also turns out to be a tiresome bore (she exchanges Juliet with McCallister's eager Romeo), as - unexpectedly - does Gypsy Rose Lee whose coyly interminable striptease must be the most untantalizing ever presented in a cinema.George Jessel is also guaranteed to bore the wrappings off a mummy, and as for the patriotic platitudinizing by such as Merle Oberon and Katharine Hepburn . . .Harpo Marx's long-awaited appearance is both brief and insignificant, being easily upstaged by an amusing (if equally brief) sketch by Johnny Weissmuller and Franklin Pangborn. We'll also say no thanks to Ed Wynn.However, the musical numbers are somewhat more entertaining - especially if you're a Ray Bolger or big band fan - though some are disappointingly pedestrian. The background music though is melodiously scored and fully deserved its Academy Award nomination.All in all, as said above, Stage Door Canteen is a rather flat-footed blessing.

Another of the WW2 star rally movies where a bunch of movie stars get together in a single film to support the troops, each having minor parts and sometimes doing musical numbers or comedy skits. The main plot in these films usually features a romance involving one or two lesser known actors. Several of the studios did one of these during the war. The best, for my money, is Hollywood Canteen from Warner Bros. This one is one of the lesser efforts, but still enjoyable for classic film fans.Directed by Frank Borzage and released by United Artists, it tells the story of the title recreation center for servicemen in New York City and a romance between an aspiring actress (Cheryl Walker) and a soldier (William Terry). The bigger names giving support or doing cameos include Katharine Hepburn, Ethel Merman, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, Johnny Weissmuller, Tallulah Bankhead, Ralph Bellamy, George Raft, Ray Bolger, Gypsy Rose Lee, Judith Anderson, Ed Wynn, Sam Jaffe, Franklin Pangborn, Alan Mowbray, and Edgar Bergen, among others. The stars vary in screen time and what they do. Some do bits, others just play themselves saying a line or two (usually a corny joke). The musical numbers are so-so and mostly feature popular bandleaders like Count Basie, Xavier Cougat, Kay Kyser, Benny Goodman and their respective bands. It's definitely worth a look for movie buffs but it goes on way too long for such a thin story and the music is nothing to get worked up over.

It's a shame that many of the great stars here do not appear together, for it is a movie and theater addict's dream to see such fabulous personalities like Tallulah Bankhead, Judith Anderson, Katharine Hepburn, Katherine Cornell and Lynn Fontanne work together, in addition to socializing. Some are on and off so fast that you may forget that they were in this classic World War II musical overstuffed with talent. It's no different than the more well known "Hollywood Canteen" made by Warner Brothers the following year, featuring some dramatic stars doing musical numbers and tons and tons of specialties.The dramatic stars here don't sing or dance; They mainly walk around and socialize with the soldiers and sailors patronizing the famous nightclub where only military personnel were allowed to visit. Some film personalities not known for their stage work do appear here, most memorably Johnny Weismueller (showing the very macho Franklin Pangborn how to do his Tarzan yell), Merle Oberon, William Demarest, recording star Peggy Lee, and radio personalities Kay Kyser, Edgar Bergen and Jack Benny.Among the recent Broadway stars who get to perform musical numbers are Broadway's two Ethels (Waters and Merman) and Ray Bolger, with comic moments from Ed Wynn and Hugh Herbert and a particularly memorable anti-Nazi song (followed with a musical rendering of "The Lord's Prayer") by British comic favorite Gracie Fields. The rare film appearance by the legendary Katherine Cornell is memorable by her sudden recital of a scene from "Romeo and Juliet" with a stage struck soldier. Bankhead roams around the tables as only she can, offering unsolicited advice to the romantic goings on between the soldiers and the girls working at the factory. What little story there is involves canteen worker Cheryl Walker who marries a visiting soldier and is dismissed from her duties by president Selena Royle for breaking the rules. Walker is consoled by Katherine Hepburn who provides the moral of the story. Those watching this lengthy film simply for her presence in it will have to wait more than two hours for her appearance, but she makes the most out of her small cameo.The magnificent Judith Anderson gets to show her real personality by being rather flip with a soldier who didn't recognize her when she greeted him upon his arrival. The film makes more attention towards her role of Mrs. Danvers in "Rebecca" than it does her legendary stage work which was very active at this time with acclaimed revivals of "Hamlet" and "The Three Sisters" while making occasional supporting appearances in movies. Dame May Witty, very busy in movies at this time, is a surprise visitor to the canteen, treated very regally in her encounter with the beautiful Merle Oberon. The film does make its point with all of these cameos, being a very important historical record of how soldiers and sailors on leave were entertained while on the town.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of World War II-era movies out there that deal with the same theme as this one, but there was something special about this one. Having seen snippets of it on TCM, I found it at Wal-Mart in the $1 pile and picked it up. It's long, more than two hours, and a lot of the celebrity performances seem to get in the way of the story, but they're worth it both for their entertainment value and for their historical importance. In fact, one of the reasons I got the DVD was that I wanted to see Kay Kyser in action. The sheer volume of performers showing up washing dishes, dancing with "troops," and so on, is fascinating. And they're so young! I'd never seen some of them with dark hair before. Anyway, the story itself, at first, seems so simple, but for some reason it clicked with me. I think it was the fact that the film allowed these characters to develop around all the entertainment acts. You actually saw Eileen grow from being somewhat self-centered, to achieving a goal for herself, and then realizing that what she truly wanted was something else. And though it was formulaic, you saw Dakota go from the guy who's sworn off women "for the duration" to a romantic. The scene on the rooftop may have been hokey, but the actors pulled it off. They may have been "B" actors, but they got an "A" for this one. You can't live in the past, and the days portrayed in this movie are long gone. And let us remember that the world was at war. But still, maybe someday, after all of us are gone, the world will go back to the kind of entertainment, at least, that this movie represents. It might be considered a step back by some, but I think it just might represent a form of progress.