This Is the Life (1944), 5

18-year-old Angela, reared in a New England town by her Aunt Betsy, receives an inheritance which she uses to go to New York, ostensibly for voice training, but she is pursuing Major Hilary... 
1h 27min | Comedy, Drama, Music | 2 June 1944
Director: Felix E. Feist
Stars: Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, Peggy Ryan

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037368/
Watched online, poor print.

In the Tap! Appendix for Donald O'Connor, Peggy Ryan. Their first routine is EXACTLY what they did onstage before a huge GI audience in Follow the Boys, but there we got to see it from behind. We get at least 2 other numbers pairing DO & PR, and it often involves some gymnastics and some violence (shoving, hitting). They're friends who've been contentious for a long time, like battling siblings. They're good dancers, but they don't dance for the duration of the numbers.

SF sings a few songs, hitting those high notes (although I don't think she got to G above high C ad noted in a prior film.)

The plot here is SF falling for and seriously pursuing an older man for marriage. He still loves his ex-wife, and maybe DO loves SF? I got bored. The top 3 billed are teens. I thought the 50s were when teens took over the movie-going, but maybe it started back here, in the war.

The battling teens, the pre-maturity crushes interpreted as true love, the adult who is stupid enough to agree to be "engaged" to the teen, the dance routines that haven't enough dancing, the singing that pierces the brain. But not totally annoying enough for a 4?

Maybe I should be glad Universal hasn't released the DO filmography.

Universal, dir. Feist; 5

Pin Up Girl (1944), 6+ Color

Glamorous Lorry Jones, the toast of a Missouri military canteen, has become "engaged" to almost every serviceman she's signed her pin-up photo for. Now she's leaving home to go into ... 
1h 24min | Comedy, Musical, Romance, War | 25 April 1944 | Color
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone (as Bruce Humberstone)
Stars: Betty Grable, John Harvey, Martha Raye.
Gae Foster ... choreographer: roller skating
Hermes Pan ... choreographer
Alice Sullivan ... choreographer: military number
Angela Blue ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037175/

In the Tap! Appendix for Condos Brothers. Really should include BG & Hermes Pan for their tapping apache dance.

Production dates: 8 July 1943 - 23 October 1943

Martha Raye marries Nick Condos: (22 February 1944 - 17 June 1953) (divorced) (1 child) (her 4th of 7 marriages; prior divorce 2 Feb '44) (not onscreen together, but performing to the same song)

Melodye Raye Condos, born 26th July 1944

Only 2 more films have multiple Condos Bros: in '44 and '46. After that it's only Steve.

7 performance numbers listed in Soundtracks; custom menu of 24 chapters; favorites bolded:

• ch2. BG sings You're My Little Pin Up Girl
• ch3. You're My Little Pin Up Girl, danced by Condos Brothers (looks like Steve & Nick to me) in dull pull-over sweaters for office clerks after work.
• ch6. Time Alone Will Tell sung by June Hutton and male trio with Charlie Spivak and His Orchestra. (June is related to Ina Ray Hutton, not Betty)
• ch8. Red Robins, Bobwhites, and Bluebirds: sung by MR, ensemble roller-skated dance with patriotically red, white and blue-dyed ostrich feathers. Gloria Nord ... roller skating headliner (uncredited)
• ch10. Don't Carry Tales Out of School sung by BG and 4 male singers, dancing a bit. (These 4 men are used on a webpage about the Condos Bros, but no Condos appear in this number.)
• ch15. Yankee Doodle Hayride sung by Martha Raye
• ch16. Yankee Doodle Hayride danced by Condos Brothers (return to Nick left, Steve right)
• ch18. Once Too Often sung by BG, danced by BG & Hermes Pan in apache garb, not very apache-y dance though (not very mock-violent)
• ch22. Don't Carry Tales Out of School reprise sung by BG
• ch23. The Story of the Very Merry Widow sung by BG, waltzed by ensemble, leads immediately to...
• ch24. Cadence: a lengthy precision drill voice-controlled by BG (who also marches). Very well done.

Please skip the Richard Schickel commentary track. He makes sweeping under- (or non-) researched inaccurate statements that aggravate (especially about B.Berkeley-like numbers), and doesn't mention the name Condos either time they're onscreen. He describes Martha Raye in Monsieur Verdoux ('47) as aggressive and negative as she is here; I remember her more as aggressive and amorous, and remarkably immune to Verdoux's attempts to murder her; maybe I'm mistaken about amorous vs. negative. I tend to assume that his statements where I'm not expert might also be inaccurate. Separate rating for the commentary: 4.

For the film: it's far better than at least 5 of the 6 musicals I watched since Cover Girl (I gave Hey Rookie a 7- because it had so few votes.)

• Visually, it's far better than HR (a public domain print): it's a studio release in color, with colors designed to dazzle. 
• The roller-skating number is interesting in contrast with Fox ice-skating: these skates look much heavier, the floor is much smaller, and the routine is designed to be much slower (with those enormous feathers), but it's comparable at some level. 
• The apache with BG & HP is strange, because by adopting that setting and costumes, we assume we'll get X, but we get X minus a lot; this pair has danced much prettier stuff, and the low-life milieu doesn't bring them to different/better dancing. 
• Even the Condos Brothers are delivering their standard stuff, including the 5-tap wing executed by Nick in the Hayride number; but many Hayride shots are either closeups on their feet (apt for the high-speed footwork) or far away (to show off the spinning windmill?), and their hats shade their faces. 
• The Merry Widow number was dull dancing and monochrome costumes, and any reference to widows being merry during wartime seems really tasteless. 
• The whole movie has little to do with its title. Yes, the BG character has a pinup photo adored by many GIs; but other than having one of her 500 fiances return to complicate the plot, the film has little to do with the photo. 
• Instead, it's about the BG character who lies to make her life more interesting, and she profits from it. (In prior commentaries, Dr. Drew Casper has mentioned that the censors (Production Code Office) was a lot less vigilant with musicals.) Then again, maybe she's merely lying as much as show people do to get their first jobs. 

Previously rated 6. I'll add a + for the visual delights.

Fox, dir. Humberstone; 6+

Follow the Boys (1944), 6-

During World War II, all the studios put out "all-star" vehicles which featured virtually every star on the lot--often playing themselves--in musical numbers and comedy skits, and were ... 
2h 2min | Comedy, Drama, Musical, War | 5 May 1944
Directors: A. Edward Sutherland (as Eddie Sutherland), John Rawlins (uncredited)
Stars: George Raft, Vera Zorina, Grace McDonald.
George Hale ... musical numbers devised and staged by
George Balanchine ... dance director (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036832/

own a copy on AmazonVideo; mediocre print

The plot is: ex-vaudeville hoofer GR comes to H'wood in search of work. While dancing in the chorus, he connects himself to the star VZ, and romance - and his stardom - bloom in montage. They marry. Then the war intervenes, and he's rejected from service, so he leads the stars to perform for servicemen at home and overseas. But wife VZ is pregnant, and it's a difficult case. Just when she's about to tell him about the blessed event, he's blustering around in a hurry about the camp shows and command performances. So they separate, and she goes to a sanitarium for bedrest. Spoiler: he gets blown up on a transport ship, the only non-survivor, because he was at the exact location of the torpedo strike, looking for a friend. After she has the baby, she heads out to entertain the troops overseas too. (No idea who's tending the kid.) The End

But all of that is about 1/10th of the screen time. This is mostly a compendium of performances, with an emphasis on quaNtity of stars shown, making each act very short. And I don't remember any good dancing. Zorina does just a little. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan do a bickering teen sort of dance onstage before a large gathering of servicemen. (Maybe I'm really not missing much with DO's work being out of circulation.) George Raft's dancing is dull, but he's almost 50 in '44, and hadn't earned his keep as a dancer in a long time.

Marlene Dietrich is centered on the poster, but she's only briefly onscreen: at the H'wood meeting, and as the woman Orson Welles saws in half.

We get a couple of black acts, and one of them might have entertained a white unit, the other definitely entertained a black unit. But even when they show the H'wood "celebrities" (most of whom I didn't recognize, so possibly extras) meeting to discuss this idea, the black actors (Louise Beavers I know) were sitting segregated from the rest, and I think the camera (possibly also the filming schedule) segregated them from whites.

Universal, dir. Sutherland & Rawlins; 6-

And the Angels Sing (1944), 6-

The singing/dancing Angel sisters, Nancy (Dorothy Lamour), Bobby (Betty Hutton), Josie (Diana Lynn) and Patti (Mimi Chandler), aren't interested in performing together, and this plays havoc... 
1h 36min | Comedy, Music, Romance | 25 April 1944
Director: George Marshall
Stars: Dorothy Lamour, Fred MacMurray, Betty Hutton, Eddie Foy Jr.
Daniel Dare ... choreographer (as Danny Dare)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036600/

watched online; decent print for small screen.

Biggest war reference: victory gardens.

Pleasant fluff, definitely softened by my affection for FM, and not overwhelmed by BH. Somehow FM sustains 'cute' when he goes through the motions of a song&dance with EF.

BH and Frank Faylen do some silly over-energetic stuff on the dance floor among lots of extras. That and the FM/EF dance mentioned above are about all the dance there is. Maybe also the 'choreographing' of the quartet (below) while singing fell to DD?

The best part of this is how well the 4 women's voices sound together. Mimi Chandler only made 1 other film, so I would imagine she did her own singing. Diana Lynn has a dubber listed in the Soundtracks. We get at least 2 songs by this quartet.

Paramount, dir. Marshall; 6-

Trocadero (1944), 5

A newspaper columnist and host of his own national network radio program, interviewing more film personalities on his show than any other commentator, is searching for a story for a Sunday ... 
1h 14min | Comedy, Music | 24 April 1944
Director: William Nigh
Stars: Rosemary Lane, Johnny Downs, Ralph Morgan, Sheldon Leonard, Dave Fleischer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037399/
watched on AmazonPrime, poor print; also on a megapack

Trocadero is a region in Spain, the site of a palace in France, and the concatenation of the initial T for Tony with his last name Rocadero? The last is this movie's explanation for the name of the nightclub, not either of the first 2. The real nightclub was a black tie French-inspired supper club; you decide.

You'd expect Sheldon Leonard + nightclub to mean he plays a gangster, but if he did, it escaped me. He's knowledgeable about nightspots and wants to invest some cash if they take his advice for updating their failing club. They do, and stumble on the new name to honor their deceased father, and away we go.

We get a fair number of songs performed, some with a little dancing, not all at the nightclub. The finale has 5 bands playing (10-20 members each, arranged in tiers onstage) and some of the singers who performed earlier. All of that is ok.

Nothing terrific here, much of the acting is flat, and the spaces/camera work leave me claustrophobic, although I've seen much worse. And it seems they used the fame of the supper club, but probably not its real history. 

I have the 21 min short film Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937) on the disc for A Night at the Opera (1935). Don't remember how the club looked in that.

Indie, distr. Republic; 5

Broadway Rhythm (1944), 6+ Color

A reluctantly retired vaudevillian clashes with his producer son who thinks his father's entertainment is passe and audiences need something more sophisticated. Meanwhile the producer's father and sister secretly produce their own show.
1h 55min | Family, Music | 13 April 1944 | Color
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Stars: George Murphy, Ginny Simms, Charles Winninger, Gloria DeHaven, Nancy Walker, Ben Blue, Lena Horne, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Hazel Scott, Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra.
Robert Alton ... choreographer
Jack Donohue ... choreographer (as Jack Donahue)
Don Loper ... choreographer
Charles Walters ... choreographer
Bobby Connolly ... dance director (uncredited)
Jane Hale ... assistant dance director (uncredited)
(How many choreographers to screw in a light bulb? Is there a 1-to-1 relationship between dd's and dance numbers?)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036673/

Amazingly good color, with NO 3-strip drifting that I saw. And the color design is of the eye-popping Technicolor variety.

In the Tap! Appendix for George Murphy. (I didn't see him go vertical as much as I'd like. See ch1 below.)

Warner Archive release: No chapter menu, 12 chapters at 10 min intervals. The movie is based on a play by Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II. But the songs have lots of writers.

Dances or Song performances (not all of them):

• ch1: Near the opening, GM dances with a woman partner, and they leap side-by-side a few times, and he goes twice as high as she. And he makes it look effortless. So awesome.
• ch2 (late): some can-can dancers perform briefly in a nightclub 
• ch3: GDH & Kenny Baker sing/dance a little
• ch4: While GS sings, male chorus dances ala toreadors with capes.
• ch5: LH sings/dances with black male/female chorus Brazilian Boogie. Love her.
• ch6: The Ross Sisters (3) sing Solid Potato Salad and contortion-dance-gymnasticize on farm equipment in the barn where... hey gang let's put on a show. (They're the farmer's daughters.)
• ch8: LH sings Somebody Loves Me, auditioning in the barn. LH + Gershwin = S'wonderful.
• ch8: HS performs w/band, supposedly in Harlem nightclub (we never see patrons), jazzing up some classical pieces. Love her too.
• ch10: GDH & Kenny Baker rehearse Pretty Baby in the barn. CW fantasizes how he and GDH (as her own mother) used to do it in the olden days with a biggish chorus and soft shoe dancing.
• ch10: Walter B. Long dances his only film dance. Fast tapping, Gene Nelson style arm/leg extension. Too bad we didn't get more of him.
• ch11: NW does a woman welder at home number with milk men BB, TD & orch. This is as close as they get to a war reference (that I caught).
• ch11: brief finale w/ various songs. Chorus girls are in Cyan/Magenta costumes, as was R.Hayworth's dress in Cover Girl ('44). GM dances, everyone sings.

Rochester doesn't get a lot to do. He's the servant to the CW/GM/GDH family. And he helps procure LH for the show and takes us to the Harlem nightclub for HS. But he doesn't sing/dance himself.

I wouldn't classify this as Family, since there are no under-age children in the film.

The story isn't fabulous, summed up by the synopsis atop this post. But we get lots of musical numbers (I left out some GS songs), so it's almost a 7.

MGM, dir. Del Ruth; 6+

Destination Tokyo (1943), 7 {nm}

In order to provide information for the first air raid over Tokyo, a U.S. submarine sneaks into Tokyo Bay and places a spy team ashore.
2h 15min | Adventure, History, War | 31 December 1943
Director: Delmer Daves
Stars: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale, Dane Clark

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035799/

This is out of sequence in the quest because the disc in my collection was damaged, and the replacement just arrived a day ago, along with 4 other titles from a different purchase. So my enthusiasm for watching it was damaged by the bad disc. The suspense had built nicely up to the damage; perhaps I should have just jumped in there.

I have no idea why JG is made to look like he's singing in the poster.

John Forsythe is featured, long before Bachelor Father ('57) and Dynasty ('81).

It's a great cast from the top down. And although it deals with the tragedies of battle, it's not so gritty and grimy as a land war film usually is. And the footage of underwater floating mines anchored in the bay fascinated me, even though it's surely miniatures in a tank.

Definitely a worthwhile watch.

Warner, dir. Daves; 7

Hey, Rookie (1944), 7-

Musical comedy star Jimmy Leighter wants to get away from show biz and his leading lady Winnie Clark, so he joins the Army. There he gets the order to put on a show, Winnie Clark appears in... 
1h 17min | Musical | 6 April 1944
Director: Charles Barton
Stars: Ann Miller, Joe Besser, Larry Parks
Val Raset ... dance director
Stanley Donen ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036915/

bootleg; mediocre print

In the Tap! Appendix for Judy Clark, Condos Brothers, Roland Dupree, Joyce Horne, Ann Miller. But Roland Dupree and Joyce Horne are not in the IMDb credits, nor the onscreen credits.

On IMDb, this lists 3 individual Condos bros: Harry, Frank and Steve "as The Condos Brothers" where the onscreen credits list only "Condos Brothers". As noted in ch3 below, Harry/Frank looks like Nick to me.

The Soundtracks page is spare, listing 8 songs (5 by one writer, 3 by a team), and listing the performers for only 3 of them. I have no way to enhance that.

The disc has 16 chapters, length 5 min each. Songs/dances:

2 Condos Bros in flight, '44, Hey, Rookie.
Pretty sure it's Nick on the left, Steve on the right.
The movie camera cropped their heads.

• ch1. Joe Sawyer as Sergeant and male chorus (inductees) sing the title song.
• ch2. (In the base canteen), song w/ lyrics "a wave in his hair and a wac on his hand" probably sung by Hi-Lo Jack and the Dame, followed immediately by
• ch3 (~10:40). Condos Brothers (2 of them, looks like Nick and Steve to me) tap their toes off. First we hear the sound and see the feet of a seated dancer. The speed of those taps made me sure it would be CB. Then pan over to feet of a standing dancer, and I KNOW it's them from the style of movement. The pan widens to full body, and before we see the face, the arm movements lock it in as Steve. Soon the seated dancer joins in, and, among other moves, we get the manic 5-tap wing. They travel through the room, mostly dancing in unison. It's a glorious 2 minutes, well worth the $ spent. They look like they're having fun, and when the dance is done, they raise their arms, smile and say together "That's all." I wonder how long I could watch that on a loop. Here's a fuzzy blurry version of just their number.
• ch4. (Onstage in civilian-land, maybe B'way) production number There Goes Taps about a soldier writing his sweetheart AM, sung first, then Danced by Ann Miller (in a sheer dress backlit to show her legs in silhouette) and Bill Shawn. Very elegant, no tapping. The singer is smooth enough to be Bob Haymes, maybe. Can't tell if the singer also dances with AM.
• ch5. GI quartet audition on the street, play & sing lyrics "my so what serenade"
• ch7. GI baritone sings & plays accordion. The voice could be Bob Haymes, joined by Hi-Lo Jack and the Dame. Lyrics name the British and Americans.
• ch9. Hal McIntyre's Orchestra play some good swing music.
• ch9. Bob Evans and Jerry, a ventriloquist act, eventually sing When Irish Eyes are Smiling. Pretty good, as such things go. Audience is revealed: huge number of GI's and guests.
• ch10. Streamlined Sheik sung & danced onstage by AM as a tapping belly dancer, although she doesn't tap much. Seems cut short, and this print is 4 mins shorter than IMDb time.
• ch12. AM & LP sing You're Good for My Morale on request after serving food at a base outdoor event. Then a boy & girl (blonde) sing/dance this song, joined by yet another boy/girl (brunette). The first boy could be an older version of this, where he's credited with Judy Clark and Joyce Horne in some other production.  The credits list Judy Clark and the Solid Senders; I'd bet that's the blonde (Judy), the brunette and the 2 boys. IMDb has this as the only credit for "The Six Solid Senders." <sigh>
• ch14. The show of the soldier, by the soldier, for the soldier begins. When the Yard Birds Come to Town sung by 12-man chorus.
• ch15. LP & AM sing You're Good for My Morale
• ch15. LP, AM & large male chorus sings It's a Swelluva Life in the Army onstage
• ch16. drill footage with Hey Rookie reprise by large male chorus.

Between the musical numbers we have novice soldiers being trained, and getting ready to put on the show (building the stage, etc.) Joe Besser demonstrates why he would be a good fit for the 3 Stooges ('57-'59 per Wikipedia). Joe Sawyer does his usual Sergeant-y thing.

This is short on AM tapping, which might be the effect of some lost footage (see ch10 above.) And I would have preferred more Condos Bros. 

This is a pretty good musical (plenty of performance within 77 mins.) It's not so great that I'd really recommend it. But my rating is influenced by the fact that this title has only 19 votes right now, averaging 7.3. So I'm bumping up from 6+ to 7-, hoping that a clean print would do that anyway. And I've been thinking that all my 6+'s should turn into 7's.

Columbia, dir. Barton; 7-

Lady, Let's Dance (1944), 6-

Belita is a refugee during WWII, working in a hotel. She stumbles into the room of a dancer seeking a new partner. She just happens to be a pro, and she skates too.
1h 28min | Musical, Romance, War | 11 April 1944
Director: Frank Woodruff
Stars: Belita, James Ellison, Walter Catlett
Dave Gould ... choreographer
Michael Panaieff ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037002/

Warner Archive release of a Monogram film? Not restored, but far better quality than the usual YouTube Monogram film.

JE played Andy Mason in The Gang's All Here ('44). Something about his voice sounds unnatural: it's overtrained or something. The war is eventually mentioned, and JE enlists. We get a montage of combat footage interspersed with Belita skating and ads for her increasing success.

28 custom chapters (average length 3 min), but no menu.
There is dancing (adagio/ballroom, ballet, including bluesy ballet) or skating (sometimes tapping on skates) in these chapters (some of it ensemble or comedy): 8, 11, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28.

I was disappointed not to find Belita's earlier film Silver Skates ('43), so I'm glad to have this one. She didn't make many performance films; only 11 films total, 5 music/als. At least 1 more performance is in this quest: Invitation to the Dance ('56), and she plays Vera in Silk Stockings ('57). She's not a good actress here, so I'm surprised to see so many dramatic parts for her.

Production values are higher than my impression of Monogram (but again, Monogram prints are usually horrible, so it's hard to tell). But the ice rinks they use here are much smaller than most of Sonja Henie's at Fox. I would bet B is at least 3-4" taller than SH, and would love to see what she could do with more space. SH was good at building up some speed in the big rinks, and having lots of ensemble skaters.

Interesting from her IMDb bio: Belita placed 16th at the 1936 winter Olympics at age 12, and went pro 2 years later. 1936 was also Sonja Henie's last Olympics, but she won the gold. Some of the leaps and a spin that B does in her finale look more modern than Sonja Henie's skating; she does at least 5 axels (I think) in a row.

Monogram, dir. Woodruff; 6-

Cover Girl (1944), 8 Color

Rusty Parker wins a contest and becomes a celebrated cover girl; this endangers her romance with dancing mentor Danny.
1h 47min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 6 April 1944 | Color
Director: Charles Vidor
Stars: Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lee Bowman, Phil Silvers, Eve Arden, Otto Kruger.
Seymour Felix ... dance numbers staged by
Val Raset ... dance numbers staged by
Stanley Donen ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)
Seymour Felix ... choreographer (uncredited)
Fred Kelly ... additional choreographer (uncredited)
Gene Kelly ... choreographer (uncredited)
Val Raset ... choreographer (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036723/

This has plenty of drama too. Not sure why that genre isn't included. I almost submitted a credit deletion for Val Raset's 2nd listing, but maybe "dance numbers staged by" is different than "choreographer"? (I don't think so.

In the Tap! Appendix for Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers. PS really does keep up when the 3 dance together.

All songs (except Poor John) are written by Jerome Kern (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics, plus E.Y. Harburg on Make Way for Tomorrow); I bolded the impressive dances; 12 custom chapters:

ch1. THE SHOW MUST GO ON, Sung and Danced by RH (dubbed by Martha Mears), Leslie Brooks, and chorus
ch2. WHO'S COMPLAINING?, Sung by PS and danced with RH, Leslie Brooks and two chorus girls
ch3. SURE THING, Performed by RH (dubbed by MM)
ch4. MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, Sung and Danced by GK, RH (dubbed by MM); PS
ch6. PUT ME TO THE TEST, Sung by GK, Danced by GK with chorus and RH
ch6. LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY, Performed by GK and RH (dubbed by MM)
ch8. POOR JOHN!, Performed by RH (dubbed by MM) and danced with male chorus (uncredited)
ch9. MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, danced by RH briefly
ch9. ALTER-EGO DANCE, Danced by GK
ch10. COVER GIRL (THAT GIRL ON THE COVER), Sung by chorus; danced by RH with chorus
ch11. PUT ME TO THE TEST, Comedy reprise by GK and PS and male chorus on troop transport truck

ch12. MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW reprise sung & danced by GK, RH and PS.

The Alter-ego Dance is an impressive technical accomplishment, and a great dance number even if there were only one GK onscreen. I don't know where I have a detailed explanation of how they did it, but I remember Stanley Donen talking about it.

RH was a great dancer. I wish more had been incorporated in her films.

I wish they had cast someone more compelling than Lee Bowman as the romantic rival, to improve his scenes and make the rivalry more of a contest, like maybe Joel McCrea.

I'll save my 3rd wish for something more substantial.

Columbia, dir. Vidor; 8

Call of the South Seas (1944),

Add a Plot »
59min | Action, Comedy, Crime, Music, Romance | 7 April 1944
Director: John English
Stars: Janet Martin, Allan Lane, William Henry

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036690/
watched online; very blurry, jumpy print.

Someone took the time to attach 5 genres to this, but not a plot summary? I would normally add one, but I can't follow the story AT ALL. Part of the problem is the bad print, and part is that I can't follow who's who because they're all unfamiliar to me. I'm not even going to try to describe what's going on.

Another weirdness: a lot of the interior settings are lit like they're filming a TV soap opera (I was going to specify a decade, but they haven't changed much.)

We get some nice Hawaiian style music and dancing (although no large groups), so that lifts it from a 4.

Republic, dir. English; 5-

Uncertain Glory (1944), 7- {nm}

After a career criminal is recaptured and knows he faces the guillotine, he offers to exchange his life for 100 hostages slated for execution by the Nazis.
1h 42min | Crime, Drama, Romance | 22 April 1944
Director: Raoul Walsh
Stars: Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037414/

One of 2 films covered in the Warner at War (2008) documentary that I didn't yet own and wanted to see.

The concept is covered in the synopsis, and is sufficiently interesting to be a topic of discussion without watching the movie. But the film provides extra twists that might not come up in every such discussion.

Spoiler: I must say that I don't really understand why EF, playing Jean Picard (not Jean Luc, for ST:TNG fans), decides to complete the confession. He's not an "honorable" criminal. We see him "fall in love" with a girl, and apparently lie to her about coming back the next day, only to turn himself in as planned. Maybe I missed a vital bit of info the film provided.

The script weaknesses that bothered me most are that EF & PL happen to be in the right place/time to overhear crucial information spoken inappropriately in public more than once. So the time/place was right AND the inappropriate discussion was in public? Oy. And then the Nazis trot out the real saboteur as some sort of confrontation with EF &PL, thinking he will expose them as his co-actors, only to believe PL when he says the saboteur is an undercover cop working on the case too. So the Nazis are doubly stupid in this scene. (I'm starting to talk myself out of a 7 rating.)

I've never appreciated EF in anything other than Robin Hood ('39). His light/breezy personality matches his swashbuckling prowess, and the supporting cast could have carried a corpse through the role (but didn't have to). Here he confirms my impression of him as an actor who lacks depth onscreen. PL acts tornadoes around him just by frowning.

But, as I said, it's an interesting idea, and a terrific quandary for PL, as the police official, to decide whether to allow EF to save the 100 hostages, and then to provide him sufficient support to succeed. So I do recommend it.

Warner, dir. Walsh; 7-

Men on Her Mind (1944), 4

A famous singer reflects on her life, including her journey from being an orphan to her fame as a singer, as she tries to decide which of her three suitors she will choose.
1h 7min | Drama, Musical | 12 February 1944
Director: Wallace Fox (as Wallace W. Fox)
Stars: Mary Beth Hughes, Edward Norris, Ted North

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037067/
watched online, blurry blurry print.

After watching the film, looked up the production company. They made about 2 dozen films, '42-'45, titles sound mostly like westerns and he-man stuff.

The synopsis above is about right. I don't remember that she was famous, but she definitely had a Tom, Dick and Harry to choose from. And that's actually a film antecedent to this; Ginger Rogers starred, released '41. That synopsis says: 

Working girl Janie is proposed to by a conservative car salesman, a bohemian auto mechanic, and a millionaire playboy and must make a choice.

So here it's an older rich guy who sponsors her music education, a younger rich guy (or jewel thief?) who wants to help her career too, and a bohemian music teacher/composer who she wants to be more ambitious in his pursuits, but he gives her his best song.

And this being a PRC film, I know no one onscreen except Luis Alberni who's around a tiny bit as her voice coach (that's him in the poster). Although I should, because MBH was one of the Orchestra Wives ('42).

She can sing ok (or her voice double can, there is no Soundtracks page for this), but I don't care. No one has any charisma; or maybe it's just too fuzzy to see them. At a few points I thought "this is like watching a race film from 5+ years ago" (without the good musical performances): poor acting/directing/writing/sets/costumes/sound. To be honest, I didn't look closely enough to decide if the sets/costumes were bad. I'm giving it a 4 to wave myself off: nose up, don't land here. (Hmm. One positive: I don't remember them mentioning the war.)

Indie, distr. PRC, dir. Fox; 4

Knickerbocker Holiday (1944), 6+

It's 1650 in New Amsterdam, and Brom Broeck, a young outspoken newspaper publisher is arrested for printing advanced opinions on the undemocratic rule of Governor "Peg-Leg" Stuyvesant. While... 
1h 25min | Comedy, History, Musical | 17 March 1944
Director: Harry Joe Brown
Stars: Nelson Eddy, Charles Coburn, Constance Dowling, Shelley Winters, Johnnie Davis, Percy Kilbride, Otto Kruger

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036988/
Public domain, but decent print.

Very strange that Shelley Winters is shown in the poster in '44-style cheesecake pose when she's dressed as a 1650 maiden for the whole film; this is her 4th of 116 films; I don't know the prior 3 films, but she must have made an impression in that sort of outfit. She chases Johnnie Davis, he resists. He sings, but doesn't use his bluesy voice (disappointing).

NE has comic chops! He has good facial expressions: restrained but definite. He makes only 2 more films after this: 1 Disney animation, 1 unavailable musical.

The Indians are named Tammany and Big Muscle (took me a while to catch Tammany). The young black boy who polishes Stuyvesant's silver-covered peg leg is named Sam, and is not listed in the credits.

This is adapted from the Weill/Anderson musical play, with Walter Huston originating Peter Stuyvesant. I have heard WH singing September Song many times in the past, and you can find it online. It sung as a lament about time slipping away. It's not used that way here; instead it's Stuyvesant's attempt to hasten marriage to the young maid; rather lecherous.

Songs performed (9 chapters at 10 min intervals). Everything is sung by NE unless noted otherwise.
Notes on the writers of songs, if only to show how many were not from the play:
(1) Music by Kurt Weill, Lyrics by Maxwell Anderson (also get credit for the book of the play)

(2) Lyrics by Sammy Cahn, Music by Jule Styne 

(3) Music by various, Lyrics by Forman Brown 

• ch1. ?the new governor of Amsterdam arrives today?: opening number, passes among citizens
• ch1. There's Nowhere to Go But Up (1)
• ch2. Holiday (music var, lyrics by NE), sung by townspeople & Johnnie Davis
• ch2. Let's Make Tomorrow Today (3)
• ch3. Love Has Made This Such a Lovely Day (2)
• ch4. very good gypsy (flamenco-ish) dance; Carmen Amaya can do a semi-aeroplane (arms aren't fully extended) very fast. Interesting camera choices.
• ch5. Zuyder Zee (2)
• ch5. September Song (1), Sung by Charles Coburn 
• ch6. Jail Song (Oh Woe!) (3; music KW, lyrics by NE & FB)
• ch6. One More Smile (2)
• ch7. The One Indispensable Man (1)
• ch7. Be Not Hasty, Maiden Fair (3)
• ch8. Carmen Amaya dances again.
• ch8. Sing Out (3)
• ch9. Let's Make Tomorrow Today (3) reprise
• ?didn't find this: It Never Was You (1)

This is fun in a mild way. I probably appreciate it more from the Dutch connection, and I'm a fan of NE, CC and PK. Glad I bought it.

Indie, distr. UA, dir. Brown; 6+

Four Jills in a Jeep (1944), 6

Reenactments of actual USO experiences of its female stars entertaining troops overseas.
1h 29min | Music, Romance, War | 17 March 1944
Director: William A. Seiter
Stars: Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair.
Don Loper ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036836/

In the Tap! Appendix for Mitzi Mayfair. She has an amazing ability to kick herself while dancing. The number starts with ch11, the beginning of the dance is ~33:30, but it gets really interesting at the 36 minute mark. She dances again in ch22, but doesn't kick that way again. According to the featurette, that kind of dancing is/was called legomania.

Apparently the 4 stars really did a USO tour together, and were in London and North Africa, and actually did ersatz nursing duty while at a hospital abroad, and Carole Landis married a serviceman while there.

OK movie. Previously rated 5 on 31 Jan 2010, but it's got Betty Grable, Alice Fay and Carmen Miranda singing one each of their signature songs, plus some tunes by the Jimmy Dorsey orch, so that's too low. Dick Haymes plays "himself," a romantic interest for MM. I don't think the featurette said anything about a real-life DH/MM romance.

Fox, dir. Seiter; 6

Up in Arms (1944), 6

Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted into the army and makes life miserable for his fellow GIs. He's also lovesick when it comes to pretty Mary Morgan, unaware that she's in love with his... 
1h 45min | Comedy, Musical | 17 February 1944
Director: Elliott Nugent
Stars: Danny Kaye, Dana Andrews, Dinah Shore.
Daniel Dare ... dances directed by (as Danny Dare) / dances staged by (as Danny Dare)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037420/

bootleg, pristine copy

I have a tough time understanding why this is called a remake of Whoopee! ('30). Both are made by the Goldwyn studio, and both have writer credit Owen Davis ... (based upon the play "The Nervous Wreck" by). But aside from being about a hypochondriac, I don't see much similarity. 

In '30, we have a female character betrothed to one man and in love with another, forbidden because he's part-Indian, and she uses the hypochondriac (Eddie Cantor) to get out of the situation. In '44, we have the hypochondriac (DK) in love with one girl, who falls for his friend (DA), and poor DS has a yen for DK, but he doesn't reciprocate. In '30 we're on a dude ranch, in '44 we're on a troop transport ship.

We get 3 songs written by DK's wife (since '40) Sylvia Fine, all of the complicated sometimes nonsense lyrics you'd expect of him. DS joins him for one of those songs, echoing some of his "improvised" vocalizations, and has 2 songs of her own. The song shared by DK & DS (ch22) also provides a dance ensemble in very colorful costumes (much of the film is army drab; this is a dream sequence) and some bizarre imagery (women on pedestal/lattice things). (To close out the film, they literally repeat the actual footage of the last few seconds of this production number.)

I spotted Virginia Mayo a couple of times. She's credited as a nurse, but she was just a Goldwyn Girl to me; her 3rd film credit. Also spotted twice: Margaret Dumont, who does have lines at one point, and just a giggle in the dream sequence.

Shruggable comedy, poor use of Technicolor (except the dream sequence).

Goldwyn, distr. RKO, dir. Nugent; 6

Lady in the Dark (1944), 6- Color

Ginger Rogers, "Allure" magazine's editor-in-chief, suffers from headaches and continuous daydreams and undergoes psychoanalysis to determine why.
1h 40min | Drama, Musical, Romance | 10 February 1944 | Color
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Stars: Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Warner Baxter, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan, Mischa Auer.
Billy Daniel ... dance stager: "The Circus" and Miss Parker's dance (as Billy Daniels)

Don Loper ... dance: Miss Rogers (danceR or dance stager? He has 4 choreography credits after this.)

Sam Ledner ... dance supervisor (uncredited)

Al Mann ... assistant dance director (uncredited)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037000/

bootleg copy, very fuzzy/blurry, and seems like some chunks are missing (very abrupt cuts, like repairs to a damaged film/tape).

Here's my history with this piece: I watched the Julie Andrews movie Star! ('68, dir. Robert Wise, who directed her in The Sound of Music ('65)), a biopic of Gertrude Lawrence, the originator of Liza in the B'way production of the musical. In Star!, JA sings My Ship, and performs a terrific circus act for the song Jenny, choreographed by Michael Kidd.

Then I discovered the book Lady in the Dark: Biography of a Musical Paperback by Bruce D. Mcclung, and the cast album of the show. The book is terrific; here's the most relevant part of my review:

But I re-emphasize: this is a great book for those who are interested in this musical or the history of musical theatre in general. I loved the description of opening night and the set and costume changes. I loved the chapter on the cultural context for the run of the play, especially since 1941-43 straddled American isolationism through our complete immersion in the war, and therefore enormous changes in attitudes toward women in the workforce. And I loved the chapter on the theatrical context of this musical, comparing it with contemporary milestone musicals "Pal Joey" and "Oklahoma!"

Eventually I found a copy of this '44 film, and the '54 TV production starring Ann Sothern. Sothern's version is closer to the original, which isn't difficult. This '44 film only retains Jenny in full, and a sad snippet of My Ship. Other songs here are not by Weill and Gershwin.

The other thing that bugs me about this film is that I know that Ginger Rogers was a Christian Scientist, and did not believe in psychiatry/psychology or any form of medical science. I never heard anything about how she felt playing a psych patient in various films, including this one.

But the real irritant: this film makes a very blatant anti-feminist statement while we're still in the midst of the War, and women are home alone and working in defense plants. Was that a deliberate request from the government propaganda people to start preparing women to go back home once the men returned? V-E day is more than a year away. Grr.

I would like to see a good print of this some day. The costumes and the color must be terrific. And the dancing and the dream sequences are probably good to view as well.

Paramount, dir. Leisen; 6-

Edge of Darkness (1943), 7 {nm}

After two years under German rule, a small Norwegian fishing village rises up and revolts against the occupying Nazis.
1h 59min | Drama, War | 24 April 1943
Director: Lewis Milestone
Stars: Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034694/

Watched out of sequence because I just received the disc. Inspired to order it by the documentary Warner at War (2008) on the This is the Army ('43) disc.

A strong and effective look at being occupied by the Nazis and resisting.

Interesting contrast with modern film: in the final third (or later; I watched this on the portable which has no position display), something happens to AS. Here's how they portray it. When the property of the retired schoolmaster is being taken to the square to be burned, with him walking in tow, many villagers are walking with him. AS makes defiant eye contact with the soldier who is most vocal, ripping pages out of books and throwing them at the prisoner. The soldier stops what he's doing (but doesn't stop the others who followed his lead) and stares at her; she looks away.

A while later, AS is alone in a secluded place, and we see a shadow, maybe a hand, and pan down to her feet to see her being dragged away.

Later still, she arrives late at a meeting of the resistance leaders, and she's dirty (perhaps bruised), with ripped clothing. She is calm, stoic. When asked what happened to her, we cut away to a gathering of Nazi soldiers who are laughing loudly. Cut back to the resistance meeting, and we see EF particularly inflamed, and AS saying this happens to thousands of women all over the war, this is no time to alter their plans.

As the meeting continues, WH, the town doctor and father to AS, wanders away from the meeting, apparently the first he attended. He meanders down the street, passing several Nazi soldiers. Then one stops to light a cigarette, and WH stops to look at him. When the soldier passes, WH turns and savagely beats the man with his cane. This murder sets off the events of the rest of the story, which involves a lot of shooting with machine guns on both sides. After the priest, the first to attack the soldiers from the balcony of the church, mows down several Nazis with his own machine gun, and we reveal women shooting rifles from their home windows, the rest was just endless carnage which I'd prefer the censor had suppressed.

The fact that the nature of the attack on AS is never discussed is fascinating. That is the benefit of censorship: you must be clever about communicating what cannot be spoken or shown.

The fact that we're shown the long battle between soldiers and armed resistance is deliberate propaganda (and crowd pleasing?), to again inflame doubters about the war. In fact, the film closes with a Winston Churchill speech that war doubters need only look at Norway.

Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the topic or any of the actors.

Warner, dir. Milestone; 7

Song of Russia (1944), 6

In June 1941, famed American symphony conductor John Meredith (Robert Taylor) is touring Soviet Russia with his manager Hank (Robert Benchley) when they go to a small rural town where famed... 
1h 47min | Drama, Music, Romance, War | February 1944
Directors: Gregory Ratoff, Laslo Benedek (uncredited)
Stars: Robert Taylor, Susan Peters, John Hodiak, Robert Benchley

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036378/
Watched online; blurry print.

The vast majority of the Soundtracks are by Tchaikovsky, who is honored in the film by a town named after him, and by crediting various musical works to him. So there's a lot of music and it's very good (for when you're in the mood for Russian symphonic comps.)

We get battle footage injected a couple of times. And, like The North Star ('43, Goldwyn/RKO), we get civilians strafed in their farm fields, with a child dying (Darryl Hickman, playing 12 y.o.). Both films show or talk about villagers setting fire to their own property to keep it out of Nazi hands.

SP (b. 1921) plays a very heroic young Russian woman, matched well with American conductor RT (b. 1911). Both are accomplished, musical, and have high ideals. Their romance and marriage begins before the Nazi invasion, and survives.

Instead of touring with her husband (she is a concert pianist), SP wants to return to her village when the war begins for USSR. But even her villagers (voiced by John Hodiak) want her to return to America with RT to spread the word of the brutal destruction they've witnessed, and the great citizenry they've met, so that America will join the war (USSR was invaded in June '41). So we close on them giving a concert performance, presumed in the USA.

This really isn't pro-Communist. At least I didn't see any arguments for, or even descriptions of, their economic/governmental system. But it is very heavily pro-involvement in the war, which is silly, because this is released in '44, and we're in it up to our necks. So I should describe it instead as a morale-booster, to REMIND us why we're sending our young men overseas.

I wonder how long will it take after the war for musicals to ignore the war. I'm certainly tired of it; imagine what it was like to live with the rationing and the worry. Ugh.

MGM, dir. Ratoff & Benedek; 6

Career Girl (1944), 6-

Joan Terry, a girl from the country wants to become a Broadway Star, but this proves to be not so easy.
1h 9min | Musical | 11 January 1944
Director: Wallace Fox (as Wallace W. Fox)
Stars: Frances Langford, Edward Norris, Iris Adrian

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035714/

Watched on AmazonPrime, also on a megapack; mediocre print.

She's from Kansas City, which ain't "the country". Clearly this synopsis was written by one of those metropolitan coastal people. Oh, wait, I live on a coast. 

I like FL's singing (she's alto or lower), but never noticed any acting from her. This film doesn't break that streak, even though she's the star.

Lorraine Krueger in Career Girl ('44)

The best moment of the film, which came back to me almost 2 days later, was at ~27:45, when Lorraine Krueger, one of the roommates (a young blonde woman), did a tap dance impersonating "our greatest colored tap dancer(s?)". And sure enough, she does a recognizable Bill Robinson. I'm not sure if she does more than his style, because I couldn't understand if she said dancers (plural), but after a cutaway to plot nonsense, she did some leg moves that I don't recognize as BR. She had a short career (22 credits, '37-'46), and I made note of her in her first film, New Faces of '37, even keeping a link to her filmography so I could pull out her 10 musicals. I haven't noticed her again until now, but I've only seen 2 films in this quest, and she wasn't featured. She has only a few films left; among the music/als: 1 owned, 1 online. (I just submitted the attached screenshot to this title on IMDb.) 

The plot is backstage struggle plan C, where the unknown is roaming around trying to land a part. (Plan A would be a show struggling to find a backer. Plan B would be a show that suddenly had to replace the star with a newbie.) The twist: she has a rich beau back home, but he's dull and controlling while she's ambitious to share her talent.

When she's agreed to give up and go home to marry Mr. Dull, her house mates form a corporation to support her financially and promote her with their jobs (fashion, newspaper, etc.).

When that doesn't work, by luck they have a good script in hand, and we switch to Plan A. Then on the eve of opening night, in rides Mr. Dull to buy the production and shut it down. I forget how they overturn him, but the last scene is FL singing, maybe only in dress rehearsal (they couldn't afford stock footage of an audience?)

If they gave me any dancing to enjoy, I missed it (and there's no DD in the credits, so probably didn't happen.) Whoops, read an IMDb review by ptb-8, who made me go back and re-view the last few minutes of the film, confirming and enjoying this:

Here in CAREER GIRL the final clumsy dance number is only worth seeing for the hilarious costume design: halter tops which are OK but.... white short pants with a black maple leaf patch on the crotch which makes the chorus girls look as though they are nude and are sporting the biggest bush of lower body pubic hair you have ever seen in a step line of high kicking girls. Yippee! Hilarious. Otherwise, a dirge.

Somehow s/he left out the pairs ensemble was all-women in pairs, with one dressed in ruffled dresses, and one in pants and boy-ruffled shirts (they're singing about the rumba), but all with the same 2" heels and each had longish hair. Is this a nod to the war, when the male chorus had been drafted? Yet we have Mr. Dull and the B'way guy who look eligible for service.

from Roxie Hart ('42)

Previously rated 6 on 25 May 2014, the Sunday preceding my last week of work.

Today, when I feel like I've become more tolerant of bad musicals, I want to downgrade this. About the only fun I had here was when Iris Adrian, whose name rings no bells, but whose voice immediately brings her face to mind, is introduced to the film by her voice from another room. I felt that was a deliberate wink to the audience; she's made about 50 films by now, with 120 total. I'll be generous and just add a minus.

Jack Schwarz Productions, distr. PRC, dir. Fox; 6-

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), 5 {nm}

An opium-addicted choirmaster develops an obsession for a beautiful young girl and will not stop short of murder in order to have her.
1h 27min | Drama, Horror, Mystery | 4 February 1935
Director: Stuart Walker
Stars: Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, David Manners.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026758/
Watched online; mediocre print.

Only sought this out because in a few days I'll be going to see a high school performance of the Musical adaptation of this story (my friend's son is in the cast). So I thought I should know the story. 

One reason I like old movies is that I grew up with them, so the faces are familiar, and therefore it's easier to keep track of new characters. (It's why, in these posts, I always refer to the characters by the actor's names, although that is absolutely the wrong practice.) And back then the casting was usually With type (not against it), so it's even easier to discover who's good/bad.

Here, I don't know the actors playing Drood and Landless, and they look verrrrrry similar to me. And oh, looky, the actors have the same initials too. Gggh.

Here's my understanding (almost all possible spoilers are here):

• Jasper (called Jack = John) is uncle to Drood (Ned = Edwin)
• Jasper is obsessed with Rosa (last name Bud. Really? Attempted humor?)
• Drood and Rosa are semi-betrothed from childhood, but have no chemistry, feel like siblings
• Rosa's guardian gives her mother's ring to Drood for their wedding
• Neville Landless (do all Dickens' names telegraph the character? Was there ever a Lord and Lady Landless?) & sister arrive; he has a terrible temper from their abusive childhood (a bit early for Freud, but there it is)
• Rosa is smitten by Landless; (sister Landless looks smitten with Rosa, but that goes nowhere; she's not even around later when brother is in trouble)
• Jasper witnesses Rosa flirting with Landless, Jasper becomes jealous
• Jasper witnesses Landless' temper, and it was directed at Drood
• Jasper tells the tale to the best gossips, and the whole town knows some version of the confrontation (Landless/Drood), usually exaggerated far beyond reality
• Jasper sees Drood & Rosa kiss, not understanding they finally ended their "romance"
• Jasper visits the cryptkeeper, learns they cover bodies with lye, and makes a wax impression of one of his keys
• On a dark and stormy night, Landless and Drood finally make peace, but the next morning Drood is missing, and Landless is late returning home
• Eventually Landless is accused of killing Drood, so Landless runs away.
• Landless disguises himself as an old man (where did he get wig/makeup/knowledge?) and comes back to town, asking lots of questions. He finds the wax impression of the key.
• Finally Jasper's drug consumption pays off to the plot, when he talks while under the influence, and his pusher pieces together that he likely killed Drood
• Landless manages to meet and question the pusher
• The pusher ends up dead in Jasper's abode; a street urchin runs around accusing Jasper of killing the pusher; Landless in disguise interviews him, which leads to ...
• Landless meets with the cryptkeeper, finds the crypt that Jasper was interested in, digs up the fresh mortar, and sure enough some fresh bones remain (the lye having done most of its job), but Rosa's mother's ring is there to identify the body
• Jasper, confronted with his crime (the cryptkeeper accuses him), jumps from the balcony of the church and dies
• Landless & Rosa marry. The End.

Has Landless been cured of the PTSD from his childhood, or is Rosa in for a tortured life? And what happened to his sister? (Maybe she appeared in the wedding scene and I didn't recognize her.)

I watched this late in the day with the sound low, and was consumed with something else for at least the first 2 attempts. I finally got through it, and then had to watch it in note-taking mode to get this much straight.

Released in 1935, this conforms to the freshly (beginning 7'1934) enforced Production Code (censorship) by not showing Jasper doing the deed (although he sort of acts it out in his drugged-dream), but does NOT conform by revealing that lye dissolves bodies. (Thou shalt not explain how to commit crimes.)

I'm giving this a 5 to wave me off of watching it again. Maybe if I weren't in Musicals mode I'd be more receptive. But today I did NOT enjoy it, because it took too much effort to follow. (At least give one of the guys a mustache, OK? Uggggh.)

Universal, dir. Walker; 5

Hands Across the Border (1944), 5 {nm}

Horse breeders Adams and Brock are vying for the Army contract. When Adams is killed trying to ride his horse Trigger, Roy saves the horse from being shot. He trains him and then plans to ride him in the race to win the contract.
1h 12min | Western | 5 January 1944
Director: Joseph Kane
Stars: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Ruth Terry.
Dave Gould ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035965/
Watched online, decent print; also on AmazonPrime.

Only watched because it's on Steve Condos' filmography. He finally appears in the finale, which starts at about 56:40. He and a partner appear about a minute later, and when they're done a minute later, they're gone. I think they are the only ones who actually shake hands across that border painted on the floor. We get some decent ensemble dancing in the finale, and early in the film (can't find it now; the preview popups aren't popping). Otherwise this is just a western, and Trigger deserves his star billing. Which makes this not my cup of tea, hence the 5. (I think the lack of Music/al tag is appropriate, but I could support it's presence too. One of the reviewers on IMDb downgraded it because it had too much time devoted to musical numbers.)

Republic, dir. Kane; 5

The Gang's All Here (1943), 8 Color

A soldier falls for a chorus girl and then experiences trouble when he is posted to the Pacific.
1h 43min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 24 December 1943 | Color
Director: Busby Berkeley
Stars: Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman, Eugene Pallette, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton.
Busby Berkeley ... dance director
Fred Sersen ... special photographic effects [per commentary: especially the finale]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035916/

Be sure to observe CM's shoes, rarely visible in her films, but visible often here. Commentary said they are 5" heels, but the soles are at least 2" (so the heel would be 3" above that).

I love the opening number, with BB expressing his love of surrealism/abstraction from the moment the credits end. I love the way Alice Faye is introduced, almost hidden among her "fellow" showgirls, who are all blonde and made to look like her; she has the deep alto voice.

Songs performed (28 custom chapters; my favorites are bolded):

• ch1. Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here!, Sung by a chorus during the opening credits 
• ch2. Brazil (Aquarela Do Brasil), Sung by Aloysio de Oliveira, Carmen Miranda and chorus 
• ch3. You Discover You're in New York, Performed by Carmen Miranda, Alice Faye, Phil Baker and chorus; (for AF's intro)
• ch6. Minnie's in the Money, Sung by Benny Goodman with his band and a jitterbug chorus 
• ch8. The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat, Performed by Carmen Miranda and chorus; don't miss the ending.
• ch9. A Journey to a Star, Sung by Alice Faye (and reprised by cast) 
• ch11. The Jitters, Danced by Charlotte Greenwood and Charles Saggau; CG does her rubber-hipped side kicks here. 
• ch15. No Love, No Nothin', Sung by Alice Faye (this one kills me every time).
• ch17. 'Valse des rayons' from 'Le Papillon' aka "Valse chaloupée", Music by Jacques Offenbach, The "Apache Dance" referred to and sung by Charlotte Greenwood and Phil Baker 
• ch18. No Love, No Nothin', Danced by Tony De Marco and Sheila Ryan 
• ch25. Paducah, Played by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Sung by Benny Goodman and Carmen Miranda, Danced by Carmen Miranda and Tony De Marco 
• ch26. A Journey to a Star, Sung by Alice Faye, Danced by Tony De Marco and Sheila Ryan 
• ch27. The Polka Dot Polka, Sung by Alice Faye with dancers 
• ch27. The Polka Dot Ballet, Performed by Busby Berkeley dancers 
• ch28. Kaleidoscope

Good commentary track; Dr. Drew Casper appreciates Busby Berkeley, as do I. He mentions that during the war, 1941-5, H'wood released 400 musicals.

This is one of my favorite musicals; if I had to choose my top 10, this would be in the list. Why not a rating higher than 8? Because I don't like the romantic lead for AF, his "betrothed" subplot, the intrusion of the war in his heroism montage, nor Tony De Marco dancing. 

Fox, dir. Berkeley, 8

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), 6- {nm}

After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.
1h 38min | Comedy, Romance, War | 19 January 1944
Director: Preston Sturges
Stars: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037077/

I'm a big fan of Preston Sturges (who also wrote this), but not of this film. It's the Hutton/Bracken effect. If this were Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, I'd probably love it.

So PS is spoofing the Dione Quints, 1-upping them, and complicating the story vastly, perhaps only to torture the censors and challenge himself to get things past them.

BH deceives her father, goes to a dance for departing GIs using EB as her beard (he gets to sit in a movie house instead of going to the dance). While jitterbugging too wildly, she conks her head on a disco ball, and is dizzy (not drunk) the rest of the evening (while still driving her cohort from venue to venue.) One GI keeps suggesting they should all get married.

But the next morning she is without a license, doesn't remember which GI she married, nor the names of the suspects. Her father (WD) assumes she was out the whole night with EB, and doesn't know she was married.

Advance time a few weeks, and she learns she's "expecting". Now she's desperate to BE married, and manipulated EB into being the groom. He's enthused about the idea, even when he knows she's preggers. But he slips at the wedding, and signs his own name instead of Ratzkeywatzkey, and WD gets the J.P. to tear up the certificate.

So EB decides to find the real Ratzkeywatzkey, and steals money from his employer, leaving behind his bonds of equivalent value. He has a long list of criminal charges against him, including taking a minor across state lines (when he tried to marry BH), and impersonating a soldier (he wore a WW1 uniform so the J.P. could verify the groom was a GI, since they're trying to reenact the original wedding.)

When he comes back, having failed to find Ratzkeywatzkey, he's immediately spotted by the banker, and arrested. WD, the town sheriff, tries to help him escape, but EB is too dense and loyal to catch on. But BH and her sister get it, and they assist an escape.

Of course, he's found and detained again. But when BH tries to testify for him, finally willing to reveal her pregnancy and its original source, she goes into labor. When the births finish at 6 boys, the governor is called, and he arranges to retroactively straighten out all the legalities.

Using newspaper headlines and a montage of clips without dialog, we see the war pushed off the front page by the births, with the premiere of Canada enrages (Dione Quints were Canadian), Mussolini resigning, and Hitler demanding a recount. EB, who's been in jail, doesn't know she's given birth, so we get more physical comedy at the end when they show him the result.

As I'm writing this, I can see Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea doing it, much less manically, and it being much better. Oh well.

Paramount, dir. Sturges; 6-

True to Life (1943), 6 {nm}

A writer for a radio program needs some fresh ideas to juice up his show. For inspiration, he rents a room with a typical American family and begins to secretly write about their true life ... 
1h 34min | Comedy | 24 December 1943
Director: George Marshall
Stars: Mary Martin, Franchot Tone, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, William Demarest.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036461/

Not classified as Music/al, but with DP & MM, I guess I decided to add it to the quest. Only 3 songs in the Soundtracks: 2 by DP, 1 by MM.

There's nothing special about this comedy, except how difficult the ending is to follow (especially when I don't pay attention very well to a dull comedy.) Pops (VM) wants MM to marry DP; her mother wants her to marry FT. Although the family is suing the Sudsy Soap sponsors for transcribing their lives into a radio drama without their knowledge or consent, their lawyer thinks that airing VM's intervention with MM, DP & FT will "make their case", even though VM agrees to the airing and hides the microphones in the house??? Even more elusive is why MM decides on the man of her choice. And really really confusing is the final moment when the loser howls after breaking the 4th wall with 1 sentence for the only time in the film. The End? What?

Paramount, dir. Marshall; 6

A Guy Named Joe (1943), 8 {nm}

A dead World War II bomber pilot named Pete Sandidge, becomes the guardian angel of another pilot, Ted Randall. He guides Ted through battle and helping him to romance his old girlfriend, despite her excessive devotion to Sandidge's memory.
2h | Drama, Romance, War, Fantasy | 24 December 1943
Director: Victor Fleming
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond, James Gleason

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035959/

Although this is not a musical, ID sings I'll Get By a few times to ST in one scene, and this becomes his leitmotif.

2nd film for Esther Williams. In her next one, she begins her decade+ reign as water ballet queen. Here she plays a USO-style hostess spending a small amount of time with Van Johnson, in a scene dominated (in the writing and the performance) by Charles Smith as Sanderson.

ID plays a pilot in the Ferrying Command. Very much the lipstick feminist (she liked wearing girly clothes for the first time in long while.)

The primary message here is that when your loved one dies, you need to move on.

The message is wrapped in a lovely fantasy, and delivered by gloriously good actors (ST, ID) with terrific support (JG, WB, VJ).

MGM, dir. Fleming; 8

Higher and Higher (1943), 6

With their employer bankrupt, servants scheme to marry maid Millie to a rich husband. But Frank Sinatra lives across the street...
1h 30min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | December 1943
Director: Tim Whelan
Stars: Michèle Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Mary Wickes, Victor Borge, Barbara Hale, Mel Torme.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036919/

Pleasant fluff with 9 songs that reinforce the story (they sing about what they just talked about). 5 are sung by FS, 3 where Mel Torme lent his voice, 3 with Dooley Wilson participating (no excisable specialty here), 5 featuring Michele Morgan (dubbed by Martha Mears). The whole cast sings, so they do. And most songs are lively, hence "fluff." Apparently this was a musical play first.

Mel Torme's (b. 1925) first of 22 acting credits.

4th film for Sinatra; first where he has a role beyond singer.

RKO, dir. Whelan; 6

Girl Crazy (1943), 6+

Rich kid Danny Churchill (Rooney) has a taste for wine, women and song, but not for higher education. So his father ships him to an all-male college out West where there's not supposed to ... 
1h 39min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 26 November 1943
Directors: Norman Taurog, Busby Berkeley
Stars: Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Gil Stratton, Rags Ragland, Nancy Walker, Guy Kibbee.
Charles Walters ... dance director
Jack Donohue ... dance director (uncredited)
Sheila Rae ... assistant dance director (uncredited)
Busby Berkeley ...  "I Got Rhythm" number directed by

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035942/

In the Tap! Appendix for Busby Berkeley Girls, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney. Plenty of chorus boys tap too.

It's nice to have MR & JG as adults instead of teens. But I'm not developing a tolerance for MR.

Songs/dance performances, all songs by George and Ira Gershwin (24 menu'd chapters):

• ch2. Treat Me Rough (1930), Performed by June Allyson, Mickey Rooney, The Music Maids, The Stafford Sisters and Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. JA is doing her best Betty Hutton impression, and I don't like it.
• ch8. Bidin' My Time (1930), Performed by Judy Garland, The King's Men and chorus 
• ch10. Could You Use Me? (1930), Performed by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney 
• ch11. Embraceable You (1930), Performed by Judy Garland and chorus, Danced by Judy Garland and Charles Walters with 2 unfortunate, visually jarring cuts in the sequence 
• ch18. Fascinating Rhythm (1924), Performed by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, with Tommy Dorsey on trombone and Mickey Rooney on piano (dubbed by Arthur Schutt) 
• ch21. But Not for Me (1930), Performed by Judy Garland, singing to Rags Ragland in the desert
• ch23. I Got Rhythm (1930), Performed in the finale by Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Six Hits and a Miss, The Music Maids, Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra and chorus. The movement of people and camera is signature BB and wonderful. (No overhead geometric shapes, though.)

I like the last 4 (bolded) numbers; the first 3 are skippable.

Berkeley was fired from the film for being too elaborate (therefore extending shoot time and going over budget); he was loaned to Fox for The Gang's All Here ('43), which is one of his best contributions to film.

Commentary track is informative; would be a good one to listen to INSTEAD of watching the movie, then just watch the good numbers. I'll give this a + for the good Gershwin tunes, CW dancing with JG, and the BB number. But I dislike the story and MR.

MGM, dir. Taurog & Berkeley; 6+