Starring George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, and Ronald Regan
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
This year, we celebrate a rejuvenated 4th with the most patriotic film musical in existence. Berlin originally wrote the songs for Yip Yip Yaphank! in 1918, after the US entered World War I. The Army put on the show as a morale-booster. It went over so well then, they decided to do it again twenty years later for World War II. Berlin wrote new numbers, radio star Ezra Stone directed, and the show was renamed This Is the Army. It was such a smash success on Broadway and on tour, Warner Bros reworked it into a movie. How does this tale of two generation of performers putting on a show for - and with - the boys look now? Let's begin in 1917, just as vaudevillian Jerry Jones (Murphy) is drafted, and find out...
The Story: Jerry's ordered to stage a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank with his fellow Army soldiers. During their final number, his troop gets orders to leave for France. Eddie's hit in the leg by shrapnel, which ends his dancing career, but he does make it home to his wife Ethel (Rosemary DeCamp) and their new son.
Twenty years later, his son has grown into a man, Johnny Jones (Regan). He's in love with Eileen Dibble (Joan Leslie), the daughter of the former bugler in Jerry's troop Eddie Dibble (Charles Butterworth), and is all set to marry her before Pearl Harbor is bombed. He now says he wants to wait for the wedding and avoid making her a widow. Meanwhile, he's also asked to put on a show with the troops, just like his father. It's such a fabulous hit, they take it on the road. Eileen, now in the Red Cross Auxiliary, follows. She'd better get a move on if she wants to marry him, because they're soldiers, and they won't be doing shows forever...
The Song and Dance: "Song and dance" are the operative words here. The only reason to see this today are the unique numbers, with men in women's roles as they were on the stage. Some of them are still funny as heck. Alan Hale Jr. has a great time as the drill sergeant who terrorizes two generation of New York soldiers, and Butterworth and George Tobias get a few good gags as two of Jerry's buddies in the Army who survive the war. Original stage director Ezra Stone gets a wordless skit doing a magic act while a sergeant gives him orders.
Favorite Number: The best of the songs in the early Yip Yip Yaphank sequences is the big finale where they end up leaving the theater for good, "Goodbye France" and "We're On Our Way to France." It's truly stirring, especially seeing the reaction from loved ones in the audience whose husbands and sons are going overseas. "God Bless America" is performed by radio favorite Kate Smith as war clouds gather over Europe, providing the background music for a montage showing where the men of the World War I army are in 1941.
"What Does He Look Like?" and "This Is the Army, Mr. Jones" introduces the World War II soldiers, as four undressed new recruits wonder what army life will be like. "I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep" was the hit ballad, here introduced simply onstage by one of the soldiers. "Ladies of the Chorus" and "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen" are the drag numbers, spoofing chorus routines and the real Stage Door Canteen respectively. We even have men imitating stage luminaries like Alfred Lunt, Lynne Fontanne, and Ethel Barrymore. "Ladies" is the one with Alan Hale Jr. very reluctantly being forced into a pastel gown to dance with the boys. Black soldiers bring their own version of jazz (including another drag dance by telling us "What the Well Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear" in an incredible jitterbug routine.
Even Irving Berlin gets in on the show Yes, that's the songwriter himself reprising "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up In the Morning" from the original Yip, Yip Yaphank near the very end.
Trivia: It entered the public domain in the 70's.
It was a smash as a movie and a show, earning nearly ten million for the Army Relief Fund.
Regan and Murphy went into politics after their film careers fizzled. Murphy was a Senator from 1967 to 1971. Likewise, Regan became the Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, and later became President of the US during the 1980's.
What I Don't Like: This Is the Army was originally a flat-out revue onstage with no story. Studios were wary of plotless musicals after the failure of many revues during the early sound era, but maybe they should have left this one alone. The corny plot barely exists, especially once the numbers kick in during the second half. We don't even see much of Leslie, despite Johnny's claim that he does intend to marry her eventually. The big "Mandy" minstrel number, with men in blackface and doing bad stereotypes, was nostalgia for an earlier time then, but may offend a lot more people than it inspires now. It doesn't help that the "Harlem" number is also riddled with stereotypes.
There's also the movie's just too darn long. Probably half the songs during the second half and a lot of the weaker plot moments could have been cut or trimmed with no one the wiser.
The Big Finale: See it for the numbers if you're a fan of Murphy or Regan's film careers, or are feeling especially patriotic.
Home Media: As mentioned, it's in the public domain, so you can pretty much find it anywhere. I recommend just avoiding all those sub-par cheap DVDs and watching it online, or as part of the Warner Bros Home Front Collection.
Great review! I love "O How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning"! I used to sing it before work! :-) One thing: the sergeant is played by Alan Hale Sr. Alan Hale Jr. was the Skipper and Casey Jones. They look a lot alike; boy, can you tell they are father and son!
ReplyDelete