Starring Fred MacMurray, June Haver, Joan Leslie, and Gene Sheldon
Directed by Gregory Ratoff
Music by Kurt Weill; Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be on hiatus for vacation from October 13th through October 18th. Regular reviews will resume the 19th...which is why you'll be getting an extra review this week to make up for it.
German songwriter Kurt Weill didn't have much luck in Hollywood. His three major hits of the late 30's and early 40's - Lady In the Dark, One Touch of Venus, and Knickerbocker Holiday - came to the screen without most of his music. Still determined to go Hollywood, Weill joined Ira Gershwin (who worked with him on Lady In the Dark) and screenwriter Morrie Ryskind to create this one-of-a-kind wartime fantasy. Let's head to a USO canteen in the Bronx to find out just how unique this World War II fairy tale is...
The Story: Bill Morgan (MacMurray) wants to be a soldier to impress USO hostess Lucilla Powell (Haver), but he's been rejected by every branch. He find a genie (Sheldon) in a bottle left at a scrap drive who gives him three wishes. He wishes to be in the army...and lands in the American Army at Valley Forge. George Washington (Alan Mowbray) recruits him as a spy, but he's almost shot by the Germans as a traitor. His request to be in the Navy takes him to Columbus (Fortunio Bonanova), whose crew he convinces not to mutiny. He heads to New York, only to buy Manhattan from an enterprising Native chief (Anthony Quinn). The Dutch residents don't believe him and toss him in jail. If he can't stop the ancestor of his sweetheart Sally (Leslie) from getting married and do a prison break fast, he may never be born or join the Armed Forces!
The Song and Dance: I give these folks credit for attempting something totally different. There's no other musical out there quite like this one. MacMurray does better than you might think as the poor guy whose desire to fight for his country and impress a pretty girl lands him in some sticky situations. Look for Herman Bing as the German officer who leads the "Rhineland" number and the local farmer Katrina is to marry in the Dutch sequence. The Technicolor costumes and settings still look pretty decent too, occasionally a bit saturated due to a different Technicolor stock, but not that bad.
Favorite Number: Bill wonders how "All at Once" a guy like him could love a vivacious girl like Lucilla as he trips and tumbles amid piles of dirty dishes in the USO kitchen. Lucilla and the hostesses do a big chorus number at the USO to raise "Morale" for the soldiers. While Bill yammers on about all the wonderful things that will be discovered in the future, Sally's ancestor Prudence and the chorus at Valley Forge think the important thing is what happens "If Love Remains." Lucilla's ancestor Gretchen leads the German soldiers through the rousing "Song of the Rhineland" at the beer hall.
The big one here is that operatic sequence. "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria" has Columbus arguing with his crew over whether the world is round or not, and Bill convincing them that finding pretty girls at Cuba is more important than mutiny.
Trivia: There was a fourth historical sequence set in the Wild West with Roy Rogers, but it was apparently cut, along with a musical number for the Native/Manhattan Island segment.
MacMurray went on to marry June Haver in the early 50's.
What I Don't Like: Yeah, this is one bizarre musical. A genie helps a guy out by making him a soldier throughout American history? Talk about strange. Like its hapless hero, it never seems to have found it's place or its audience. It's an ultra-patriotic wartime romp...released just a few weeks after the Germans surrendered and the war in Europe ended. Weill's music isn't nearly as memorable as his trio of 40's stage hits, and Haver and Leslie come off as bland and interchangeable in dull roles.
The Big Finale: This is another one people seem to either think is a lost gem, or just don't quite understand. If you love MacMurray, Weill's other work, or wartime musicals, it's worth checking out at least once for the novelty factor alone.
Home Media: Never available on video, it finally debuted via the 20th Century Cinema Archives made-on-demand DVD collection in 2012.
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