Stage Door Canteen (1943)

Littered with over twenty name stars, Stage Door Canteen was Hollywood's contribution to boosting the troops' morale in the thick of WWII. Everyone got together, playing themselves, and gave a song, dance, or speech at the Stage Door Canteen, for the soldiers in the movie as well as the soldiers in real life. Katharine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Ethel Merman, Harpo Marx, Ray Bolger, Ralph Bellamy, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Hersholt, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, George Raft, Gypsy Rose Lee, Elsa Maxwell, Ethel Waters, Ed Wynn, Helen Broderick, Jane Darwell, Martha Scott, William Demarest, Allen Jenkinis, Sam Jaffe, Xavier Cugat, Benny Goodman, Kay Kyser, Guy Lombardo, and many others lent their name and talent to show American boys that Hollywood was behind them all the way.Sprinkled in among the countless acts is a fictional story of three soldiers, named Dakota, California, and Texas, to symbolize the average American soldier, who visit the variety show and fall in love with three girls who work there. Romance is strictly forbidden at the hotspot, but the three couples make plans for after the war anyway, inspiring thousands of war-torn couples across the nation.If you're able to get in the WWII mindset, or if you like Americana films, you might enjoy this one. If you just look at it as a regular movie, it's not that great. It's over two hours, and with a very simple story to carry you through dozens and dozens of acts by people you might not have even heard of, you might find it a little long in the tooth.

. . . of an American Serviceman Holding a Rotten Orange" scene that can be glimpsed during SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's recreation of the Normandy D-Day Invasion. It turns out that these few Micro-seconds of Gruesome Handage are the proverbial "rest of the story" provided by RYAN director Steve Spielberg to the famous ROMEO AND JULIET interchange which begins this Tragic Tale of Woe from 15:28 to 17:08 of STAGE DOOR CANTEEN. Newly Boot-Camped High School Leotard Boy Jack "California" Gilman holds up his chow line in the canteen to dither over an aging stage actress who once played Ms. Capulet. When this seasoned matron gives him a "parting gift" of an orange, Jack vows to keep the perishable citrus fruit on hand till death do them part. Jack's ludicrous pledge festered in Spielberg's imagination for decades, finally germinating into his Stephen King wrinkle along Omaha Beach. Certainly one must hand kudos to Spielberg for verisimilitude here, as Jack's heirloom orange continues to dwarf his Itty Bitty detached Drama Club Appendage even in its withered state. It's too bad that Jack did not have a Real Estate Mogul Daddy to buy a doctor's note giving him a "4F" Get-out-of-the-Draft-Card in War Time due to his under-sized hands, a trick which worked for alleged U.S. President #45.

Not much stands out from this patriotic revue, either musically or comedically; the high spot is probably "The Flight Of The Bumblebee" on the violin! (the low spot is a slightly sickening song about shooting down Jap planes!) Most, if not all, of the famous actors who appear (as themselves) are wasted; Harpo Marx's blink-and-you-will-miss-him participation is especially disappointing (as is Gypsy Rose Lee's non-stripteasing "striptease"). The whole production is mostly airless and claustrophobic, but when (near the end) the two leads spend the night on a roof talking about each other's likes, it's a beautiful scene. My public domain copy runs neither 132 minutes nor 93, but 111. ** out of 4.

I loved this film. I actually found it on youtube. Most of the reviews have concentrated on the fact that all those celebrities of the wartime era were seen. And it was indeed lovely to see them especially Katharine Hepburn who was lovely as ever. And the beautiful Merle Oberon.But for me the best part of the movie was the interaction of the soldiers and the girls. And I was especially enthralled by the performances of the little known actor William Terry as Dakota and actress Cheryl Walker as Eileen.This was obviously their one chance to shine in a big movie and I feel they did so magnificently. Indeed without them I don't think there would have been a film at all as you can't just have a movie filled with a bunch of cameo performances.I thought William Terry gave a lovely performance as the gentle Dakota. While Cheryl Walker I thought to be quite brilliant as the self centred Eileen who changes at the end. Indeed there were tears in my eyes at the conclusion. And it was definitely their performances that made the movie for me.