1943 - SO PROUDLY WE HAIL, a World War II war film made during World War II

A war film made for the boys and the girls at the home front during World War II.  So Proudly We Hail is based on the actual experiences of some Navy Nurses serving in the Philippines at the start of the war.  The Japanese attack on the US military finally ended in the surrender of the Philippines after General MacArthur was evacuated.

This film while fiction is not above sticking in some love stories for the nurses (as if this situation isn't dramatic enough) to appeal to the female audience.  During the second half of the film the action finally kicks in with some very well done war scenes for the boys which is certainly a break from the lovey dovey stuff you have to endure.

Paramount cast their top female performers, Claudette Colbert as the Lieutenant in charge of the nurses.  Paulette Goddard is the all American gal juggling two Navy captain boyfriends but hooking up with a good old regular marine/former football player.  Finally the smoldering Veronica Lake plays a nurse with a score to settle with the Japanese.

Frankly the romance between Colbert and her fella, George Reeves (TV's first Superman) gets mighty tiresome.  Paulette Goddard has a little better chemistry with the regular marine played by a goofball of an actor named Sonny Tuffs.  As for Veronica Lake, well she has a memorable scene confronting a squadron of Japanese soldiers.

 

This film was a big hit and the idea of telling a war story from the point of view of the nurses was at the very least original.  So Proudly We Hail for all the usual jingoistic wartime stuff, particularity directed towards the Japanese, does give the viewer a little bit of a sense of the attitude of Americans during the war.

The film was written by Allan Scott who wrote a lot of those Astaire/Rogers musicals at RKO.  The running time is 126 minutes.

1942 - HOLIDAY INN, a good musical.

 A fairly good 1940's musical from Paramount which features two big stars, Bing Crosby who was one of the kings of the Paramount lot in the 1940's and Fred Astaire.  The film's female leads are okay but really didn't have what you would call a breakout career.  Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale are decent dancers but they don'ty measure up to Astaire's former partner Ginger Rogers.

Holiday Inn is such a light piece of fluff that the plot is practically nonexistent.  Bing wants to get out of the show business rat race, he proposes to Virginia Dale but she's in love with Fred and wants to continue with her career.  They break up and Bing buys an Inn which will only be open on holidays.  Bing meets Marjorie Reynolds who has one of those big Hollywood smiles and they sort of have a romance.  Re-enter Fred Astaire who has been dumped by Virginia Dale and is looking for a new dancing partner, he sets his sights on Marjorie Reynolds.  Will Bing win Marjorie back?

 

What this film really has going for it are the songs by Irving Berlin and the musical numbers under the direction of Mark Sandrich who had worked with Astaire during his famous RKO period with Ginger Rogers.  With the exception of a tasteless and cringe inducing black face number the film is for the most part an entertaining time.

 

 The film was written by Claude Binyon and Elmer Rice, the running time is 100 minutes.

1934 - THE GAY DIVORCEE, the first starring Astaire and Rogers musical

After a couple of featured parts in some other films, RKO finally teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and made them the leads of The Gay Divorcee.  The film was a hit and Astaire and Rogers went on to star in a series of RKO films for about the next 6 years.

Nobody watches a musical for the plot and this one is as about as silly as they come with Astaire falling in love with Rogers, who is trying to get a divorce from her cheating husband.  Lots of mistaken identity scenes as only screenwriters in the 1930's could come up with in between the dance sequences.

 Astaire was known for being a perfectionist and he would patiently work out the dance routines during pre production.  Astaire was also insistent that that the dances would be photographed with the least amount of editing in order to showcase the performers better.  The songs were a mixture of different composers, the big production number "The Continental,"  was written by Cole Porter.  Frankly "The Continental" could have used a dance director like Busby Berkley, at times the dancers seem to be lumbering around. 

 

Viewed today the film seems a tad primitive, the comedy scenes are kind of a chore to sit through, but the art-deco sets are fun to see and the dancing is still very good.

 The film was written by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman,  the film runs 107 minutes.