Starring Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Virginia O'Brien, and Bert Lahr
Directed by Charles Reisner
Music and Lyrics by various
Meet the People began life as Los Angeles revue in 1940. It moved to Broadway on Christmas Day, where it lasted five months, not bad for the time. MGM hit it with the This Is the Army Syndrome three years later, adding a thin wartime-related plot to stuff between songs. Ball was MGM's glamor girl of the moment; Powell stopped there on his way to RKO by way of Warners. Toss in Bert Lahr and original cast members Virginia O'Brien, Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra, and Spike Jones and His City Slickers, and you have a formula for an extremely of its time musical comedy. Let's begin with stage star Julie Hampton (Ball) talking before a crowd of eager shipyard workers and find out just how much of it's time this show is...
The Story: Welder William "Swanee" Swanson (Powell) lies that he sold the most bonds so he can meet Julie. He's so thrilled, he tells the workers she'll kiss everyone who makes additional pledges to him, allowing him to win. After he does win, he takes her out on a date and shows her the musical he's written, Meet the People. She's impressed and shows it to big-shot Broadway producer Monte Rowland (Morris Ankrum), but he's angry when the showy costumes don't reflect the working man depicted in his show and takes off.
To prove she has the common touch, Julie goes to work at the same shipyard he's at. Julie's surprised as anyone when she finds the work enjoyable and the people fun to be around, and manages to convince Swanee to sign with Monte again. Bringing in photographers to show her working with the people and her speech to the workers goes over less well, leading him to accuse her of hypocrisy. Things get even worse when his cousin John (John Craven) comes home and learns there's no show. Swanee runs off to secure the funds for the show...but Julie and the workers have more than a few surprises in store for him.
The Song and Dance: Once place where I do give this one credit - at the very least, the plot about everyone banding together to create something that truly shows the voice of the people is a lot less dull than the romantic melodrama Warners shoehorned into This Is the Army. The real interest is the cast and the music. Monroe even gets in on a few numbers, and Spike Jones and the City Slickers have an obvious ball with their routine. (Their performances here and in Thank Your Lucky Stars makes me wish they turned up more often in the movies.)
Favorite Number: We hear the romantic ballad "In Times Like These" twice, first when Powell and Ball duet on it while he sells her on his musical, and later as a number for Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra. The title song also appears twice, in a stirring version for Powell during a daydream when Swanee imagines his show reaching all the workers of America, and later in a more glamorous rendition during rehearsals for Ball and the chorus, bedecked in feathers and glitter. June Allyson joins O'Brien and Monroe at the worker's dance insisting "I'd Like to Recognize the Tune."
The real emphasis here is on the supporting cast. One young female dancer gives us an amazing acrobatic dance routine during a show at the shipyard, featuring lots of incredible bends and spins. The City Slickers get into swashbucklers spoofs in French Revolution dress for the wacky "Shicklegruber." Bert Lahr gets on the gags as well while making fun of nautical shanties with "Heave Ho, Let the Wind Blow." Virginia O'Brien gets in on the dark and rather disturbing comedy number "Say We'll Be Sweethearts Again," about a young woman who wants to stay with her boyfriend despite him being obviously done with her, at the show.
Trivia: Bert Lahr's mannerisms in this film and his catchphrase "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" would later inspire the Hanna-Barbara pink lion character Snagglepuss.
Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart wrote "I'd Like to Recognize the Tune."
"Say We'll Be Sweethearts Again" found a somewhat more appropriate showcase as a number for Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series.
What I Don't Like: Powell and Ball are clearly bored. Powell left Warners to get away from this type of malarky. No wonder he never did another musical. While the emphasis on shipyard work and the importance of war workers makes this slightly more interesting story-wise than other semi-revues of the time, it's still too fluffy for its own good and, like This Is the Army, was probably better off as an unrelated collection of songs and sketches. In fact, all that talk about how important war work is and how easy Julie's life is by comparison comes off sounding preachy and annoying nowadays. (Even Julie calls Swanee on it.) Other than "Recognize the Tune" and the rather disturbing "Say We'll Be Sweethearts," the songs aren't all that memorable, either.
The Big Finale: For fans of 40's musicals or the stars in question only.
Home Media: Currently DVD-only; in fact, it was one of the earliest Warner Archive titles.
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