Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)

Best movie ever!

A Disappointing Continuation

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

A security guard (Victor Moore) has been telling his son (Eddie Bracken) in letters that he's the head of Paramount. Now the son is home on shore leave from the Navy and the dad wants to keep him from finding out the truth. So he gets help from a studio switchboard operator (Betty Hutton) who is in love with his son. Together they hatch a plan to have the father impersonate the studio head during the son's visit.Most of the studios during WW2 made one of these all-star films, usually with a flimsy plot and lots of musical numbers. They're all great fun and this is one of the best. Betty Hutton is just the most adorable person ever. I could watch her read the phone book for an entire movie. Eddie Bracken and Victor Moore are wonderful, too. The real treat with this, and other films like it, is for classic film fans to eat up all of the movie star comedy and musical numbers. The stars include Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ray Milland, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Cecil B. Demille, Alan Ladd, and many more. Oh, and she's not the biggest star in this one, but wait 'til you get a load of Dona Drake! Hubba hubba! Have mercy! Makes me wish I had a time machine. This movie's just sheer fun from start to finish. If this doesn't make you smile, you're dead inside!

Anyone who considers himself an old movie buff must see this film. It is a time capsule of Paramount in 1942. All the studio's great stars, including Susan Hayworth, Fred MacMurray, Bob Hope. and others participate in this film. Unfortunately, some of the big stars of that time are no longer known today and the surprise of seeing them do certain numbers no longer amaze contemporary audiences as would have happened in 1942. There are some priceless vaudeville skits (such as Betty Hutton trying to get over a studio wall) that are real classics. The ending of the movie is a grand patriotic number sung by Bing Crosby as he asks Americans what this country means to them. It is too bad that today's movies don't do a little reminder like that about the glories of our country.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US mobilized unlike any society before or since.A large part of that was because of a very cooperative media, especially the new medium of movies. The White House asked them to rush some feel-good films into production and this was paramount's first response. It is a collection of skits wrapped in a thin story. Most of the skit material is in the form of a "show" for sailors, but many of them inexplicably use cinematic conventions that couldn't be staged.Because this was stitched together so quickly, it is of widely varying tone and quality. I suppose the parts you like will depend on who you are. There's a pretty big, lush production number (ostensibly a movie being shot that some sailors visit) that has atypically svelte and acrobatic girls. Later, there's a number where black straight man Rochester dances pretty well.So far as comedy, there are two classic scenes here that made this enjoyable for me: This was Betty Hutton's first big role and she does Lucy better than Lucy I think. One scene is a hilarious attempt to climb over a wall with the aid of two men. It's amazingly physical, worthy of Keaton. Check her out in "Perils of Pauline," also directed by Marshall, who seems to have understood her.The other comic bit worth seeing is Bob Hope trapped in a shower with William Bendix, and avoiding being discovered. Hope's not a great comic, in fact he falls flat elsewhere in this project. But this one skit is perfect for him.Preston Sturges is one of the main figures in folded films (films about film), and he plays himself here, screening a film.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Eddie Bracken is in the Navy. His dad (Victor Moore--aka Bronco Billy) is a guard at Paramount but has told him he is head of the studio. His girl (Betty Hutton who he has never met) does her part to keep the deception going. When Eddie gets shore leave with his buddies they naturally want to go to the studio and then the fun begins as the attempts at keeping the deception going get more involved and intricate up to the point where dad agrees to hold a show for the whole ship.No question that this movie was to be patriotic and to showcase Paramount stars. This is a good vehicle for it. You get a chance to glimpse studio life in its' various forms and to see many stars of the time perform brief numbers. Yet the stars don't overwhelm the story.Some very funny scenes such as when Betty wants to get into the studio by climbing over a wall and during the show for the ship's men there is an absolutely hilarious sketch with men showing how women act when they get together for an evening of playing cards. There is also a great sketch where Bob Hope is trying to hide from William Bendix and he has to do it while Bendix is taking a shower with Bob in the shower with him! A nice light-hearted movie with good entertainment.