Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

GazerRise Fantastic!

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

rfgaines Turned on the TV and found a TCM movie from 1944 I have not seen before (which is rare). Two Girls and a Sailor World War II "soldier's canteen" type movie with a hell of a cast, and many of the young male character actors you see in many of the wartime movies. You recognize the faces but not the names. Great music, Harry James and Xazier Cugat and James plays a small part. June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven and that ever-present WWII actor, Van Johnson. AND Jimmy Durante! AND Gracie Allen! AND dozens of entertaining parts by famous singers and dancers and musicians of the time. It's a smorgasbord of the very best of the entertainment industry during the war (AND a far cry from the GARBAGE today). Every now and then I get lucky and find a real gem! Sad to realize that virtually ALL of the folks in this movie have joined Bob Hope and others, over the rainbow. The Greatest Generation is fading fast. Gloria DeHaven died just last summer at age 91. If you missed the TCM broadcast, it's free on the Internet!

edwagreen While the plot is very thin, the entertainment is long. This usual World War 11 type of canteen movie works nicely due to the chemistry of Gloria De Haven and June Allyson, two sisters who wind up vying for the affection of Van Johnson,a sailor, who unknown to the two girls is worth $60 million.As the love interest of De Haven, Tom Drake is given very little to do here.Jimmy Durante is charismatic as the guy they meet living in the warehouse after so many years of abandoning everyone when his wife took their young son and left him.The entertainment at the canteen is excellent with Harry James, Xavier Cugat, Lena Horne and Jose Iturbi.As the picture goes along, you know who the wealthy Johnson character will wind up, but the music, dancing and atmosphere make it all worthwhile.

Robert J. Maxwell June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven are two sisters who fall for the same sailor, Van Johnson, at a party for servicemen in 1944. Johnson comes from a very wealthy family and anonymously buys the girls (they were "girls" then, not yet "women") a huge warehouse where our boys (they were "boys", etc.) can REALLY be entertained. Of course only one of the girls can wind up with Van Johnson but, not to worry, Sergeant Tom Drake is always hanging around in the background and he gets the other.More MGM stars than you can shake a baton at -- Harry James, Xavier Cugat, Gracie Allen, Jimmy Durante, Jose Iturbi, everybody. Most of the names will not be familiar to people who weren't around at the time but they were big ones in 1944. Every girl had a crush on Van Johnson.All of the musical numbers are pleasant in their own quiet way but none are outstanding although they were popular at the time. Never entered the Great American Songbook. Sic transit gloria mundi. Exception: Harry James gets to play "Estrellita", a sentimental love song written around 1912 by the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, which was immensely popular and never aspired to membership in the Great Songbook. You will probably recognize it. June Allyson, in her first major role, already looks and sounds like the steadfast, loyal wife she would become in later movie. Gloria DeHaven, on the other hand, had a relatively short career and wound up hosting a TV program in New York. Don't know why her impact was so ephemeral. She has long, fluffy hair, the eyes of a gazelle, and a lower lip that droops sensually, invitingly. She should have gone on to erotic thrillers, the kind in which the babe is rescued from the murderer with her dress half ripped off and some of her underwear showing. What a waste.Nothing much to the plot -- a series of coincidences and pedestrian interludes between musical numbers. But what a time capsule this is.

mrsbocek This movie was made in the years when life was turmoil, when Europe was at war and the US military was more than visible. Consequently the plot twists and turns but you know it will turn out happy. I was enthralled by the movie. Lots of humor and sisterly love draw you into the plot. The mystery of who will end up with whom keeps you riveted. But most of all June Allyson and Van Johnson together, in their 1940's lovemaking way, make this one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.