Starring Ann Miller, William Wright, Dick Purcell, and Franklin Pangborn
Directed by Charles Barton
Music and Lyrics by various
During World War II, Miller starred in a series of inexpensive B musicals featuring her dancing and the music of various big bands and singers. Reveille With Beverly was unique among those films, and even among musical films period. It was an adaptation of a hit music show that became an enormous favorite with soldiers during the war years hoping to hear a friendly voice and familiar music from home. How does this somehow translate into the story of a young woman who finally gets her chance to break into radio when she becomes the soldiers' favorite DJ? Let's start at that radio station with our first act and find out...
The Story: Beverly Ross (Miller) is supposed to be the switchboard operator at KFEL, but she would give anything to be on the radio. Her boss Mr. Kennedy (Tim Ryan) won't listen to her many ideas about getting a show focusing on swing and jive on the air. He prefers classical music. He fires her after she abandons the switchboard to do a commercial on the air, but then lets her take over for the dull early morning host Vernon Lewis (Pangborn) while he's on vacation. She turns his sleepy early-morning classical show into a showcase of the latest swing music and becomes wildly popular with the GIs just getting up for reveille.
Her brother Eddie (Larry Parks) introduces her to two of his fellow soldiers, Barry Lang (Wright) and Andy Adams (Purcell). Andy used to be the wealthy Barry's chauffeur, but them getting into the same unit puts them on far more equal footing. Barry makes a bet with Andy that he can't get a girl with his millions and tells Beverly he's Andy. He even suggests the name for her show, Reveille With Beverly, and ponies up the cash to sponsor her when Lewis returns and wants his job back. The guys think she'll never know...until she announces a tour of camps to boost morale and wants to see both of them...
The Song and Dance: With a story that slim, the real highlights are Miller as the determined Beverly and the musical numbers. They're more like early music videos or musical shorts of the time, with the real singers on Beverly's records performing the actual songs they made famous. We even get a cameo from Frank Sinatra. It's almost like a black-and-white version of early MTV with a thin plot tying it together. Miller gets to show off her comedic side as she dashes from job to job and throws out comic patter between numbers for the boys in Europe and Asia. Pangborn and Ryan have a few good moments as the snobbish classical DJ and her blow-hard boss, who doesn't get her music, but does understand the bottom line.
Favorite Number: In fact, the film opens with one of those "illustrated" numbers, the Mills Brothers singing the Latin "Cielito Lindo." Once Beverly starts her show, the music really kicks in. Bob Crosby and His Orchestra give us a nice "Big Noise From Winnekta," while Duke Ellington and his folks, along with singer Betty Roche, give us a really swinging version of "Take the 'A' Train." Beverly plays Sinatra's heartfelt version of the Cole Porter standard "Night and Day" after she loses her show to Lewis; when she gets it back, she gives the boys "Cow Cow Boogie," sung by Ella Mae Morse with Freddie Slack and His Orchestra.
A trio called "The Radio Rogues" do imitations of popular radio singers then on the air during the show at the military camp, including Kate Smith singing "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" and Irish tenor Morton Downey Sr. doing "Wabash Moon." The Mills Brothers return, this time with the more traditional "Sweet Lucy Brown." The movie puts its best foot forward for its big finale and only large-scale production number. Miller taps up a storm for the boys with "Thumbs Up and V for Victory."
Trivia: Look fast for Irene Ryan as Mr. Kennedy's whiny switchboard operator and secretary.
Beverly's former boss Mr. Smith (Andrew Tombes) claims that clumsy record store clerk Elmer has "broken more records than Whirlaway," the horse who won the Triple Crown in 1941.
Reveille With Beverly was indeed a real-life early-morning radio program on KFEL from Denver that ran from 1941 to 1944 and was broadcast by the Armed Forces Radio. Jean Ruth was the actual hostess and creator of the show.
What I Don't Like: Did I mention how thin the plot is? It's so thin, and Wright and Purcell are so interchangeable, no wonder they go to war before Beverly has to choose between them. It's barely of consequence which guy she ends up with, or really who sponsored her show. Miller, for all her screen time, doesn't get a chance to dance or sing beyond her big number in the finale. Like Carolina Blues, many, many references to the World War II home front - from rationing to the Radio Rogues' spoofs of then-popular radio performers - may baffle people today who aren't familiar with the era. And the gag with Miller running back and forth from the record job to the station and back again when she gets her radio gig back runs on for way too long and may annoy viewers as much as Mr. Smith.
The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Miller or the big band, swing, and jazz music of the World War II era, this movie is worth tracking down for the numbers alone.
Home Media: This rare musical can only be found on YouTube at the moment and occasionally on TCM.
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