Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), 8

A Paramount Studios security guard who was a major actor during the silent film era must carry out the illusion that he is still a big deal when his sailor son comes to visit.
1h 39min | Comedy, Musical | 2 December 1942
Directors: George Marshall, A. Edward Sutherland (uncredited)
Stars: Victor Moore, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken and more than a dozen Paramount stars.
George Balanchine ... choreographer for miss zorina
Daniel Dare ... choreographer (as Danny Dare)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035379/

Very disappointing that IMDb says this was released 5 Mar 1942 in Argentina, which seems unlikely, unless things were added for the American release. Now I have ideas in my head that are 9 months ahead of their time, and those are significant months. (I submitted a correction.)

At this website about the war effort, they say "As early as February 1942, women were responding to local calls to enter the workforce." In this film, we have a musical number set in a stylized aircraft plant employing equal numbers of men and women (Dona Drake is featured here; doesn't dance much). We also have Bob Hope, as MC of the show making jokes about women in the workforce. Those sound like accepted ideas from the latter part of '42, not the early part.

I love this film for the comedy and the music and the war effort. I'll bet that by the end of this post I'll have talked myself into bumping this from a prior 7 to an 8. Here are my favorite scenes:

• 4. Hit the Road to Dreamland: Dick Powell (yay!) and Mary Martin sing in a film clip that Preston Sturges is screening. They're alone in the dining car of a moving train, after 2 a.m., and the waiters want to close up. As they sing their duet, the 4 black waiters (The Golden Gate Quartette (sic)) sing their reasons for asking them to go. All 6 voices are gorgeous.
• 5. Swing Shift: Dona Drake, Marjorie Reynolds and Betty Jane Rhodes and dozens of chorus boys and girls "employed" at an aircraft factory, singing and dancing.
• 6. I'm Doing It for Defense: Betty Hutton singing to Eddie Bracken with his navy pals and Victor Moore in a jeep in a loony 1-car all-terrain chase sequence.
• 8. over the wall, with BH and 2 comic acrobats, one trying to help her, the other trying to hinder that effort. It looks like BH herself comes crashing down to the ground in at least one attempt. I love how Fred MacMurray gets involved once she's reached the other side.
• 10. A Sweater, a Sarong and a Peek-a-boo Bang: Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake, followed by Arthur Treacher, Walter Catlett and Sterling Holloway singing and strutting.
• 13. That Old Black Magic: Vera Zorina dances alone in a soldier's dreams. (She finally leaps!) But for singing/arrangement, this pales compared with Louis Prima and Keely Smith.
• 15. Sharp as a Tack: Eddie Rochester Anderson and Katherine Dunham strut with chorus boys and girls, singing the glories of zoot suits, until uniforms become more appealing. (In the Tap! Appendix (actually from Jazz Dance by Stearns, 1994) for Dunham.)
• 16. wife, husband and wolf: Bob Hope in the shower with William Bendix. I need more WB comedy time.

I believe I complained about BH&EB in their prior outing. But here they are so over the top that they really achieve Funny. But we get taken away from them often+long enough that they're tolerable.

Maybe next time through, especially if they fix the release date so I can truly see it in sequence, I'll want to bump it to a 9. 

Paramount, dir. Marshall & Sutherland; 8