Best Foot Forward (1943)

Too much of everything

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is a fun musical from MGM, based on a Broadway hit that was directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Gene Kelly (Eddie Buzzell and Charles Walters have these jobs for the movie). Several kids from the New York cast were brought out to Hollywood for the film. Lucille Ball plays Lucille Ball, a movie star who is asked to a military school prom by a young cadet.Harry James and his Music Makers are in it, as well. The band has several great numbers, including Two O'Clock Jump, and Flight Of The Bumblebee.The film contains one of the great numbers in an MGM musical, The Three B's, with Nancy Walker, June Allyson (both from the Broadway show), ands Gloria DeHaven. It's a humdinger. Other high spots include the opening song, Wish I May, and of course the rousing "Buckle Down Winsocki." If you know what director Stanley Donen looks like, you can immediately spot him as one of the cadets in the chorus. You can also briefly spot Harry James' vocalist Helen Forrest on the bandstand, though her number was cut from the film.This movie is also a rare chance to see Broadway star William Gaxton ("Of Thee I Sing") in a movie lead (though he has no songs).The movie is funny and entertaining.

A cadet at a military academy invites Lucille Ball to the senior prom and she shows up after her manager convinces her that it's good publicity! Who better to play Lucille Ball than Lucille Ball? In fact, she was so good at it that she played herself in two movies in 1943 ("Thousands Cheer" being the other). She looks rather alluring in this one! Dix, who kind of looks like Leonardo Di Caprio, apparently retired from acting after this one big role. Weidler, who plays his girlfriend, also retired after this film. In her film debut, Walker is funny as a homely student who tries to get the attention of every man she can. The plot is very thin, but it's mildly amusing.

I really did enjoy seeing 1943's Best Foot Forward (BFF) again , after more than 50 years. I note that a couple of other reviewers have commented that they most enjoyed the film, as did I, for the song Buckle Down, Winsocki, as sung by Tommy Dix, and wondered what ever became of "military cadet" Tommy Dix, real life and career-wise. Young Tom would be about 82 years old now. As I recall, Tommy Dix was also in the original Broadway stage production of BFF in 1941. As far as I can find, there is absolutely not one shred or hint of bio or other life/career information re Tommy Dix on the internet, except that he was born in 1924 and appeared in very minor roles in two other movies in the early 1940's. Finito!INDEED, what ever DID happen to our cadet, Tommy Dix? Does anybody out there know? Anyway, I hope he graduated with full honors from life's academy and had a grand and rewarding career, whatever and wherever it may have been, in or out of the movies.

When this first came out in the theater and I saw it then, there was a military academy in the town where I lived. And I was just going into high school. I thought this movie was the greatest thing I had ever seen, maybe the greatest movie ever made. I felt like it had been made especially for me, my friends and our local cadets. And the song, Buckle Down Winsocki was absolutely the best fight song in the world. I realize now that the movie probably wasn't that good, it was trite and predictable, as well as being juvenile. It still thrills me, and the memories that I have of that time all come back when I watch this movie again. I'm not capable of seeing it from any other point of view, so I am going to give this a 10, just for old times' sake.