Meet the People
Director: Charles Reisner
Year: 1944
Rating: 6.0
Back in the days when musicals were a top part of the film landscape, there
was still a division between the A musical unit and lesser low budget ones.
Even though this one has a solid cast, it clearly falls into the latter category.
The main problem is that the songs for the most part are just not all that
good - though they get stronger towards the end of the film. But till then
they are a bunch of one-off novelty numbers - some that fall quite flat.
Made during WW II, this has a propaganda angle to it giving kudos towards
the men and women who made our ships of war. This particular group of workers
just happen to have a fair amount of musical talent with the likes of Dick
Powell, Bert Lahr (The Cowardly Lion), Virginia O'Brien, Spike Jones and
June Allyson. A Hollywood star played by Lucille Ball comes to the dockyard
to promote war bonds and falls for a gruff man of the people worker. Hey,
it's a musical. What did you expect.
This was an interesting period for Dick Powell as he was making the transition
from "juvenile" music star in a bunch of Busby Berkeley films like 42nd Street
and some of the Gold Digger films to a rougher more mature persona that was
soon to culminate in the same year as this one in his portrayal of Marlowe
in the terrific Murder, My Sweet. June Allyson on the other hand was
just at the beginning of her career and has one musical number in this
film that is decent. She and Powell were to be married the next year that
was to last till Powell died in 1963. Another intriguing actress is Virginia
O'Brien who became a popular novelty singer in many films and had the nicknames
of Frozen Face, Miss Deadpan and Miss Ice Glacier for her manner of delivering
a song. Here she gets the best song in the film with Say That We'll Be Sweethearts
Again - an amusing and impossible to sing today - love ode to an ex-boyfriend
who abused her and tried to kill her.
