Excellent, smart action film.

A Disappointing Continuation

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Back in the dark ages of three networks (four if you count ETV with Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers) and before tivo, dvr and vcrs, a late movie was what you stayed up to watch, if you remained awake.Such was the case with Thank Your Lucky Stars. I remember other movies airing late at night on the local ABC network, such as James Cagney with that grapefruit, believe it or not, among others, but Thank Your Lucky Stars had the distinction of airing late Sunday night on the first day of summer vacation. I was about 11, making this '77 or so.I knew Dinah Shore from her daytime talk show and recognized Alan Hale Sr from his son's stint on Gilligan's Island, and I knew Errol Flynn from Robin Hood airing Sunday afternoons. Didn't realize that was Abner Kravitz from Bewitched at all tho.I would not see this movie again for over 30 years, with the intention of watching it on New Year's Eve, then a tornado took out the power, so I had to wait.Cantor absolutely amused me to no end. I thought he was brilliant in the dual role of a look-alike as well as himself who no one could stand. Maybe the Cantor resentment doesn't carry over today as well as disdain for Margaret Hamilton or Lionel Barrymore, but Cantor really got it in that mental hospital.For some reason, I remember Ann Sheridan's number. She's very lovely and I understand she was popular for her time, but she's hardly striking and that hairnet deal isn't appealing. Maybe that is why I remembered her; for that odd hairnet.Most astonishing for me, upon purchasing the movie on DVD, was seeing Hattie McDaniel's Ice Cold Katie number.Where I live, in the south, this number was cut, out of some odd feeling of being considerate now? Her reprisal with Cantor was kept in. I think it was removed because of MS native Willie Best's portrayal, now regarded as offensive.I'll always enjoy this movie (being a lot longer than I recalled) simply because it means no school the next morning, if nothing else.

This is a Cavalcade of Stars ( the storyline production of which is the pretext for the show) an inside look at showbiz. which is all great. With Bogart and Garfield doing extemporaneous drama, it is every bit like a TV variety show. The effect is very modern and the talent all top notch. Edie Cantor, even after familiarity during the Fifties seems bizarre as ever. Cantor dances like a magician and/or juggler. When he starts clapping and dancing like a seal, it is really all him. Quite a display. And it could be said to be pretty much the Edie Cantor Show. The songs in this particular flick hold up really well. It is still entertaining and it is history as well.This film is a great little entertainer and carries you along all the way to The End in first class spirits. The War plays almost no part in the story.

I am the world's biggest sucker for All Star Films and the genre was never better than during the World War II era, when all the major studios made at least one of them as a morale booster. They all involve getting the stars at the various studios to put on a show for the troops which they do, but with a few problems.Producers of this show Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall would like to get Dinah Shore for their show. But she's under contract to Eddie Cantor. Today's moviegoers would not be aware of the fact that at the time Thank Your Lucky Stars was filmed, Dinah Shore was a regular on Eddie Cantor's radio show. And in fact he did have her under contract.Cantor was also a man known to have a big ego and known for interfering with every aspect of production in film, stage, and radio. His character though in film was the meek little schnook who somehow triumphs over adversity. Cantor may have had the ego, but he was also a big enough man to allow this public lampooning of his image. He plays two roles in this, as himself and as tour bus driver Joe Simpson who can't get a break because he looks like Eddie Cantor. In between all the musical numbers the plot is simply to have Cantor kidnapped and Joe Simpson to take his place so that Dennis Morgan can get some exposure. Of course there's a young love subplot involving hopefuls Morgan and Joan Leslie, but it doesn't interfere with a plot that's taken from The Man In the Iron Mask.Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser wrote a nice score for this film and the big hit was a number talk/sung by Bette Davis, They're Either Too Young Or Too Old. This number was later done in the Jane Froman bio-film With A Song in My Heart with Susan Hayward lipsynching Jane Froman's record. I also liked another number where a major Warner Brothers Star lampooned his image and had a jolly good time, singing That's What You Jolly Well Get. Errol Flynn was reported to have enjoyed himself immensely doing that very funny song.Thank Your Lucky Stars is one of the most pleasant nostalgia trips to a bygone era of the studio system. You couldn't afford to pay all the stars in this film today if they were all free lance independent contractors today. It's why films like this can't be made again.

World War Two was a time when the studios and it's stars, all bought war bond's, all 'backed the attack' and urged everyone else in the free world to do the same.Paramount seemed to be the headliner in this sort of all-star musical fayre, with films such as Star Spangled Rhythm etc, but that is not to say the other studios didn't play their part either.Thank Your Lucky Stars is Warner Bros' effort. A chance for Lieutenant Colonel Jack L.Warner, Head of the Studio and commander of the U.S.A.A.F 'S First Motion Picture Unit, to lift the roof from his studio and let the wealth of talent flood out.Eddie Cantor shows off what a great sport he was, by playing two parts. He plays an overly 'hammed' up and unpopular version of himself, a role with so much substance and screen time that it seems to fill the entire picture. Indeed he gives so much to this role that I find it amazing that he had the time or the energy to portray his second role as Joe the one-time dramatic actor who's career was cut short by his likeness to Cantor, who, now long forgotten, eeks out a living as a tour bus driver in Hollywood.Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie are the two showbiz wannabes trying to break into the big time using Joes likeness to Cantor to land a radio spot for his voice and her song.All of this rather uninspired action takes place however around a Cavalcade of Stars benefit for the war effort where several notable movie stars of the day, have pledged to appear.So from here on in you can forget the rather scratchy, boring and predictable plot and just enjoy the cameos and musical numbers, by some of the Warner Brother's Elite.The famous 'scene-stealer' Alan Hale and funny man Jack Carson do a wonderful vaudeville sketch. John Garfield thoroughly lampoons his gangster/tough guy image as he struggles his way delightfully though 'Blues in the Night.' And George Tobias, Ida Lupino and Olivia De Havilland (Yum Yum) play for laughs doing a Beebop number.Dinar Shaw is given plenty of screen time to give us three lovely numbers, and even has time to grace us with a comic turn as she sparks off beautifully with Cantor.However, the real high points of this movie are Bette Davies and Errol Flynn. Davies, in true Deitrich style, talks and groans through 'They're either too Young or too Old,' a song which became a huge hit thanks to her rendition in this picture. Her obvious lack of singing talent seemed not to matter as her true screen radiance seems to overshadow everything else. A classic number, wonderfully delivered.Flynn in my opinion, is the best 'cameo' performance of the film. Sporting a large almost handle bar moustache he sings and dances through a comic number as a cockney man who's tales of daring do and bravado are only out sized by his apparent love of ale and is inability to pay for it. Each verse is a story of heroics which is obviously untrue, as he dances between the locals who are trying to kick him out....great! He seemed to perform his musical turn extremely well..a bit too well if you ask me. Maybe he should have made more musical appearances.However some of the star turns fail quite badly..Ann Sheriden is pants but pretty, Humphrey Bogart is given so little chance that he might have well stayed at home in bed, and Hattie MacDaniel gives us a Harlem number which isn't too good to say the least. Hattie sings brilliantly but the material she has to deal with is awful.Another interesting point is the politically correct nod to South America, who were still neutral but could have sided with the axis at the drop of a hat. 'Goodnight, Good Neighbour' sung by Dennis Morgan and danced superbly by the wonderful Alexis Smith, was political ass licking in musical form, an attempt to strengthen the bond between North and South and an attempt to influence their decision on who's side they should eventually fall if and when.Still, if its Hollywood wartime nostalgia you want then watch Thank Your Lucky Stars. Hollywood Wartime nostalgia you'll get.