Saluting Our Troops - Follow the Fleet

RKO, 1936
Starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Harriet Hillard, and Randolph Scott
Directed by Mark Sandrich
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

This year's Veteran's Day review returns us to the glittering romantic comedy world of Astaire and Rogers. Scott's joining them again, this time for the tale of two gobs and their girls based the old play Shore Leave. How well does this nautical-themed backstage story hold up now? Let's head to a ship coming into port to find out...

The Story: Navy sailor Bake Baker (Astaire) is thrilled to be on shore leave with his buddy Bilge Smith (Scott). His former partner Sherry Martin (Rogers) wrote him and told him she was dancing in a fancy club. Turns out she's really a singer at a dime-a-dance hall. Her shy school teacher sister Connie (Hillard) is also seeking her. Bilge thinks she's cute but bland, until Kitty (Lucille Ball), one of the dance hall girls, finds her a gown and gets rid of her glasses. Now they're both attracted to each other. Connie claim she'll salvage her father's old sailing ship for him, even though it'll cost a bundle.

A few months later, Bilge is now being pursued by a glamorous widow (Astrid Allwyn) with a crush on him. Connie wants marriage, and he's afraid of commitment. Meanwhile, Bake attempted to set Sherry up with a job in a Broadway show, but a series of mistaken identities leaves her without a job and angry at him. He does a better with setting up a benefit show to earn the remaining money needed to raise the girls' ship...but he not only has to jump ship to do so, he needs to convince Bilge to help him do it.

The Song and Dance: The stars and the Irving Berlin score are the things here. Scott, while still a tad out of place, at least seems more comfortable as a seaman than he did as a football player in Roberta. Astaire and Rogers have a great time with their numbers, and Rogers even gets a rare solo dance routine. Lucille Ball has a short but fun role as the sarcastic dancer who gives Connie a dress, and later dealing with a sailor who tries to hit on her.

Favorite Number: Astaire and Rogers get three great duets here. "Let Yourself Go" at the Paradise Club begins with them competing with another couple, only to explode into a lot of kicks and prancing that's a lot of fun to watch. "I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket" is similar, only this time, they're challenging one another to keep up with their moves. Rogers gets her only solo in any of her movies with Astaire in an instrumental version of "Let Yourself Go" that shows she's no slouch in the dance department herself. Astaire challenges the entire fleet in his solo, "I'd Rather Lead a Band."

The big one is "Let's Face the Music and Dance." A mini-story within a story has Fred and Ginger as gamblers about to end it all before they find - and dance with - each other. It's by far the most dramatic number in any of the Astaire-Rogers films, and it comes off as a dark moment floating in a sea of fluffiness.

Trivia: Harriet Hillard became far better known when she married bandleader Ozzie Nelson and had two sons named Ricky and David with him. The four appeared on the radio and TV show The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for over a decade.

What I Don't Like: The plot is even more ridiculous than Top Hat and lacks that movie's hilarious supporting cast. The entire side plot with Hillard and Scott is cliched and very dated. Scott may be happier in the Navy, but Astaire isn't. He never really worked very well in uniform. The down-to-Earth setting makes things feel a little grittier than usual. Fancy costumes are limited to the nightclub scenes and the finale, and there's none of the elaborate sets that mark many of their other films.

The Big Finale: Worth sitting through the silly plot if you love Astaire and Rogers or the musicals of the 1930's.

Home Media: Available for streaming and on DVD solo or packaged with other Astaire/Rogers films.

DVD
DVD - Silver Screen Icons: Astaire & Rogers Vol. 2
Amazon Prime

Saluting Our Troops - Anchors Aweigh

MGM, 1945
Starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Dean Stockwell
Directed by George Sidney
Music by Jules Styne; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

In honor of Veterans Day, we're going to be covering one of MGM's biggest musicals of the 1940's. This tale of two Navy officers on leave who help a struggling singer was wildly popular during the waning days of World War II, and even won an Oscar for best musical score. Nowadays, it's probably best-known for Kelly's dance routine with Jerry the Mouse. Let's head to Hollywood to see if the movie still holds up, or if Jerry isn't the only one who should be worrying...

The Story: Naval officers Joe Brady (Kelly) and Clarence Doolittle (Sinatra) are given shore leave in Los Angeles for four days after Joe rescues Clarence when he falls overboard. No sooner do they get on dry land than they encounter little Donald (Stockwell) at a police station. He's run away to try to join the Navy. They take him home to get that idea out of his head and meet his aunt, the lovely Susan (Grayson). Susan is movie extra, but what she really wants to do is sing with classical pianist Jose Iturbi (himself). Joe, seeing how badly Clarence is smitten with her, lies and tells her that his buddy is friends with Iturbi. The duo spend most of the next few days trying to sneak past a persistent cop (Rags Ragland) to see Iturbi at the MGM lot and secure an audition for Susan. Trouble is, not only has Clarence fallen for a waitress from Brooklyn he met on Olvera Street (Pamela Britton), but now Joe's beginning to have feelings for Susan too.

The Song and Dance: Kelly and Sinatra do have a lot of fun together; they have more chemistry than each other than with Britton or Grayson. We get some invaluable glimpses of the real MGM studios in the mid-40's, including members of the actual MGM Studio Orchestra playing "The Donkey Serenade" with Iturbi. Stockwell has some amusing bits early-on when the guys catch him and they're trying to get him to go back home.

Favorite Number: By far the most famous routine from this movie is "The Worry Song," the one that has Kelly dancing with a cartoon Jerry the Mouse in a fantasy castle. The effects with the two hoofing together still look impressive to this day. Kelly gets another well-choreographed fantasy dance routine towards the end of the movie, as he uses his swashbuckling prowess to imagine himself as a dashing lover and Grayson as his beautiful senorita. Sinatra has two really lovely ballads, "What Makes the Sunset" and "I Fall In Love Too Easily." He and Kelly get a hilarious duet right at the beginning, "We Hate to Leave," as they describe Kelly's legendary prowess with the opposite sex.

Trivia: This movie was nominated for five Academy Awards; as mentioned, it won for Musical Score. It was also nominated for Best Actor for Kelly, Best Picture, Best Song ("I Fall In Love Too Easily"), and it's color cinematography.

Sinatra and Kelly would re-team in two more MGM musicals in 1949, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On the Town.

What I Don't Like: I have no idea why this got all those Oscar nods. The story is overlong piffle. Grayson is stiff as Aunt Susan (and Joe is right that she really should be paying more attention to her nephew than to going out to the opera). As much fun as Kelly's Spanish fantasy ballet and "The Worry Song" are, they're basically padding and add nothing to the story. Sinatra's only slightly better here than in The Kissing Bandit; Kelly isn't doing anything he doesn't usually do. I can understand getting nominated for the score and "Fall In Love Too Easily," but almost everything besides the music and dancing is as generic as you can get for the 40's.

The Big Finale: Like DuBarry Was a Lady, this one was made for it's time and place and just hasn't dated well. Recommended only if you're a really big fan of Sinatra, Kelly, or the MGM musicals of the 40's and 50's. Everyone else can look up the musical numbers on YouTube or in the That's Entertainment films.

Home Media: Another one that's pretty easy to find on DVD; it's also one of the few classic MGM musicals on Blu-Ray and Amazon Prime.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime