Star Spangled Rhythm
Director: George Marshall
Year: 1942
Rating: 8.0
If you are a fan of the Golden Age of Movies when the studio system ruled
the world and created more stars than in the Galaxy - as they liked to say
- this film is like a big glass of joy juice. I love these kind of films
that only have a plot to bring in the big guns. During WW2 there were a few
films like this where the studios stuffed all their stars into a film as
themselves as a boost to morale and often to raise money. A plot, a few musical
numbers and a lot of known faces. This has all of that.
How about this as a cast - Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Veronica
Lake, Franchot Tone, Ray Milland, Paulette Godard, Dick Powell, Mary Martin,
Alan Ladd, Rochester, William Bendix, Fred MacMurray, Susan Hayward, Preston
Sturges, Cecil B Demille and others. What do they all have in common? They
were working for Paramount. So this works as both a morale booster
but also as an advertisement for the studio. They all play themselves and
put on one of those movie show's for the Boys in the Navy. It's great. They
all make fun of themselves or others or the studio - Hope and Crosby banter
of course, a studio head says of Veronica Lake , we tried covering both eyes
but it didn't really work, Sturges is sitting in the screening room when
some navy boys come in - one of them being Eddie Bracken who starred in a
few of his films - and Sturges is insulted and swears he is going to MGM.
The plot is an old chestnut with a gender change. Bracken plays a sailor
on home leave in Los Angeles with some fellow sailors. He tells them his
father is the head of Paramount. Not quite true. His father was an old silent
actor, now a security guard at the gate who lied to his son (think Lady for
a Day). Played by the wonderful Victor Moore. Betty Hutton is Bracken's zany
girlfriend and schemes to make it seem that Moore is in fact in charge. Scatter
brained comedy follows as they run around the studio. Then Moore tells his
son that he would put on a show with all the stars if there was time but
there isn't.
There is and a gigantic show is put on. None of the numbers are as good as
they should have been - a comedy skit with Bendix and Hope is great, the
trio of Goddard, Lamour and Lake (in slinky black leather) are enjoyable
watching them make fun of their image, Rochester does a big music number
and earlier a fine number with Powell, Mary Martin and a black quartet (the
Golden Gate Quartet). But my favorite number is a comedy skit in which Hutton
attempts to climb over a wall with two men helping her. It is hilarious and
I have no idea who the two guys are. It ends with a super patriotic number
with Bing. This is my kind of movie. I sat there and grinned for 90 minutes.
For others it may be boring especially if you have no idea who many of the
stars are and 80 years later that is probably most people. Hope and Bing
everybody knows but Betty Hutton who was a huge star during WW2 or Mary Martin
who was Peter Pan forever or Lamour and her sarong, Lake and her Peek-a-boo
hair style and Goddard in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. I love them
all.
