1h 24min | Comedy, Musical, War | 31 January 1941
Director: Arthur Lubin
Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lee Bowman, The Andrews Sisters, Nat Pendleton.
Nick Castle ... dance director
In Tap! Appendix for the Andrews Sisters. I think that's for only 1 number, and I'm not going to track down where it is. It's not that great; they're singers, not dancers. We get 2 of their most familiar hits in this film: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and (I'll Be with You) In Apple Blossom Time (from 1935), plus 2 more.
We get some ensemble and specialty dancing, but it's all just social dancing by expert jitterbuggers (or whatever the next phase was called.) We don't get any pretty poses, pleasing formations, or the sort of dance studied from childhood (ballet, tap, etc.).
Because the dvd Production Notes include it, here are the stock A&C routines included in this film: Dice Game (where LC supposedly knows nothing, but uses all the proper slang for things), You're Forty, She's Ten (where math is the target: now she's 1/4 your age...in 20 years she's half your age; when will she catch up to you; answer: infinity), and the Drill Routine, where BA commands a quartet of soldiers to turn, march, etc, but LC gets in a wrong position and botches it all up.
Jane Frazee is a name that headlines many B movie musicals (that are largely not released to DVD as of 2018). She plays the USO-style hostess here, and sings a song that I missed.
Also included on the DVD is a commentary track, skippable. But then, so is the whole movie. I got this set for the musicals (11 of the 28 titles). I knew it would be iffy. But the next one has Condos Brothers, so I'm hopeful on that one.
Universal, dir. Lubin; 6
