Bill wants to join the Army, but he's 4F so he asks a wizard to help him, but the wizard has slight problems with his history knowlege, so he sends Bill everywhere in history, but not to ... 1h 14min | Musical, Fantasy* | 23 May 1945 | Color
Directors: Gregory Ratoff, George Seaton (uncredited)
Stars: Fred MacMurray, Joan Leslie, June Haver.
Ruth Fanchon ... dances stager (as Fanchon)
Seymour Felix ... dance director (uncredited)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038245/
Watched online, ok print; also on bootleg disc, but played on computer or portable, not Blu.
According to Wikipedia, this is the only Kurt Weill musical written for the screen. Neither Wp nor IMDb does justice to who performs what, and I'll assign that to myself for a subsequent viewing.
That Wp article also says this is where FM and JH met. It's certainly their first credit together on IMDb, and their only feature film. They didn't marry until 6'54. He was 6'3, she was 5'1. With heels and hair, she doesn't look quite that much shorter.
I should like this movie better; I certainly remember it more fondly than my final impression today. JL can dance, but doesn't get much. JH too, and the danciest she gets involves some stunt dancing from bar to stools, up and down, wasting the opportunity completely, and making me worry that she'll fall and injure herself, although she's being handed off among male dancers as she goes. It's inelegant, unfun and unnecessarily risky.
The storyline, of a genie who can't get it right (his time-travel watch is blamed, but it manages to get FM to key moments in history) should be cuter. FM goes from the American Revolution to Christopher Columbus, then rows from Cuba to Manhattan, buys the island, pops forward in time to New Amsterdam, and finally home. FM meets JL and JH in at least 2 vignettes each, and it helps him realize which one he really loves. When he gets back to his own time, the draft standards have been lowered, so he's now accepted into the Army, and he marches in a parade. The End.
This is not presented as a dream. Although FM is hit on the head by some kitchen pots, he goes to his scrap yard and accepts the bottle while nursing his bruised head. When he comes back to 1945, he's suddenly marching with WACs (so the time travel machine wasn't completely fixed). I've submitted the addition of Fantasy to the genres; and it's accepted while I reread this post.
Fox, dir. Ratoff & Seaton; 6-
