This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Michael Curtiz directed this World War II (flag-waving propaganda) Musical which is stitched together with a threadbare script and two Irving Berlin road shows (1918's "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" from WW I and "This Is The Army" from WW II) to earn almost $2 million for the Army Emergency Relief fund; Casey Robinson and Captain Claude Binyon wrote the screenplay. Though its Technicolor and Sound quality are both in need of repair (per the DVD I reviewed), the film won an Oscar for its Score; its Color Art Direction-Interior Decoration and Sound also earned Academy Award nominations. The cast includes George Murphy, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Charles Butterworth, Dolores Costello, Una Merkel, Stanley Ridges, Rosemary DeCamp, Ruth Donnelly, Dorothy Peterson, and Ronald Reagan (among others). Additionally, singers Frances Langford, Gertrude Niesen and Kate Smith, boxing champion Joe Louis, and Berlin perform as themselves.
The story begins during World War I when hoofer Jerry Jones (Murphy), Maxie Twardofsky (Tobias), and bugler Eddie Dibble (Butterworth) are drafted or otherwise enter the Army to serve their country; Hale plays their career soldier Sergeant McGee, Ridges is Major Davidson. Despite McGee's doubts, the civilians make it through training and become good soldiers once the fighting begins. Before they're shipped out, however, the Major thinks utilizing the talents of Jones to boost morale would be a good idea and so the show "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" is born. Opening night is a great success, but the men are sent to the front after it's over. Though some die, these named characters survive, though Jones is wounded such that dancing will not be in his future.
Though it was called "the war to end all wars", history proved otherwise and twenty years later the sons of these principle characters are old enough to enlist or be drafted themselves. Kate Smith sings a stirring patriotic rendition of Berlin's "God Bless America" over the radio; it brings tears to many listeners' eyes. Jones's son Johnny (Reagan), named for General John J. Pershing, is engaged to Dibble's daughter Eileen (Leslie), but he refuses to marry her before being shipped out for fear that she'd become a proud poor war widow with child. Major Davidson's son (Herbert Anderson) joins the Navy! When Johnny and Twardofsky's son enter the service, McGee is their Sergeant too. The WW I veterans think a show would be a good idea during World War II as well, and naturally their sons and other talented persons are signed up to do one. Since Jones had become a show producer, he and Johnny are put in charge of creating "This is the Army". The rest of the movie is comprised of scenes and numbers from the show, with a continuation of the subplot involving Leslie's character trying to convince Reagan's to marry her; in the end, she gets her wish. Berlin himself gets into the act, singing one of the last numbers in the show, a song he wrote titled "Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning".
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