This Betty Grable photo, with her famous, insured legs, was the biggest pin up during WW2 surpassing the seductive portrait done by Rita Hayworth in 1941. This 1943 photo, by Frank Polowny, was created when Betty was clowning around for the photographer and became a beacon for millions of GI’s. During WW2, musicals became huge box office because it made people forget the horrors of this war. Hollywood cashed in( of course!) with tons of musicals taking place in front of GI’s, on glittering ships with sparkly guns, and flags everywhere. Here are 3 films that invoked the patriotic fervour…
1. STRIKE UP THE BAND-1940
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were a perfect pairing when they were in t(sir late teens/early 20s and became lifelong friends. It’s the 2nd of the “Let’s put on a show” musicals that were huge hits with the American audience, the soldiers overseas and, well, worldwide. Mickey Rooney must have had severe ADHD because he always looks like he is ready to bounce off the walls and his conducting is something less than to be desired. The simple plot is that Mickey wants to put on a show, this time in Chicago in front of the famous band leader Paul Whitman. Things never go smoothly but all is well in the end and these kids never sounded so good.
2. SHIP AHOY-1942
The great Eleanor Powell is, sadly, not very well known today but she was big for a few short years in the early 40s dancing her way to the very top. She can tap dance like no one else and has a very unique style with a strength that just leaves me gobsmacked. In this film, she believes she is helping the allies when she is hired as a performer on board a cruise ship. Red Skelton plays a writer, with writer’s block, who is also on the cruise ship and comedic mayhem ensues. Soon Powell realizes she was duped by Nazi agents and finds a way to help the true allies by taping in Morse code. It’s a fun film highlighted by Eleanor's dancing. This gal danced as if she was on a battleship with huge guns in the background and, famously, with Fred Astaire in “Begin the Beguine”. Fred was extremely impressed with Eleanor but he felt she danced like a man and I can see that. She does not have that ladylike grace, at least to me.
3. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY-1942
Of course, I’m going to include this film that stars James Cagney as George M. Cohan, the theatrical giant at the turn of the century into WW1. Cagney played him perfectly including his dancing style and won an Oscar for this energetic role. You get the chance to hear many of his songs that were written with a patriotic flair. This scene hits perfectly with the feelings of the times. The States just entered WW2 6 months before and this film was to promote patriotism, give the soldiers something to live for, and have more people enlist. This is a good film even though the patriotic fervour hits you over the head.
I have to add this
This is from Strike Up The Band, a unique interlude, which was created by George Pal. Maybe he took a hit of acid before coming up with this…lol
How the pinups have changed since then...
ReplyDeleteI like all of these. Nothing is much more rousing than a good patriotic musical.
ReplyDeleteI'll add This Is The Army from 1943. Some good numbers in that one including a juggler who was a friend of my dad's. I remember him coming to visit us when we lived in San Diego in the early 60s. He was touring with the road show musical Carnival and he got us tickets to see the show.
Lee
Hi Birgit!
ReplyDeleteFun theme! For years I had a pressboard standee of Betty Grable in that pose from the display department in the old department store (Bamberger’s) where I had one of my earliest jobs. She stood in my apartment for the longest time until the material wore out.
I’ve seen all three of your picks. Strike Up the Band is textbook Mickey and Judy and as is always the case I much preferred her youthful exuberance to his wired unctuousness. He was a talent, no question, but a little of him goes a long way. Not hard to see why he struggled once he hit adulthood while Judy just glided over the gap. The picture itself is boisterous and very much of its time.
Ship Ahoy is one daffy concoction but with Eleanor and her jaw dropping dancing, Virginia O’Brien in a prominent role for once and Red Skelton and Bert Lahr hamming it up it all goes over easy. That climatic number is amazing.
James Cagney is wonderfully charismatic and the rest of the cast enjoyable in Yankee Doodle Dandy, but I must admit it isn’t one of his films I’m drawn to rewatch. Delighted Jimmy won an Oscar, I just wish it had been for one of his other pictures.
The three I thought of are:
“This is the Army” (1943) is pure propaganda with a score written by Irving Berlin, directed by Michael Curtiz and dotted with famous faces (all the male performers who were enlisted at the time are billed with their rank attached.) Loaded with patriotic songs, they even have Kate Smith singing “God Bless America”! It was a huge hit, the highest grossing musical for a decade until “White Christmas” displaced it in 1954.
“Star Spangled Rhythm” (1942) has seemingly every single Paramount star (Bing Crosby, Veronica Lake, Betty Hutton, Alan Ladd, Paulette Goddard among them) passing through and doing their bit to raise out boys’ morale. There’s a smattering of plot but it’s not really a book musical just a chance to show off the studio’s roster of stars.
Hers to Hold (1943) Deanna Durbin wraps up the “3 Smart Girls” trilogy (this was originally meant to be titled “Three Smart Girls Join Up!” but that was torpedoed when her sisters were written out of the screenplay) that first brought her to fame. She returns as Penny Craig all grown up and working in a munitions factory for the war effort and to stay connected to her dream man, pilot Bill Morley (Joseph Cotton). Of course, Deanna sings like an angel and one of the songs “Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There” was nominated for the Best Song Oscar that year.
A bit of trivia: The film shows an actual fighter plane “Tinkertoy” being built throughout the runtime. It came to be considered a “jinx ship” that no one wanted to fly in, due to its crews suffering an unusual number of frequent and gruesome deaths. The plane was lost in a mission over Germany on December 20, 1943.