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Wednesday, March 6, 2019

STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM (1942)

First out of the gate with a WWII All-Star Revue pic, Paramount trooped the colors and their contract players as part of Hollywood’s morale-building war effort. An effort soon followed by the other ‘Majors.’ The story in this one, such as it is, has longtime studio gatekeeper Victor Moore letting soldier-boy son Eddie Bracken think he’s running the joint. A fib he’s forced to fake when Bracken & his army pals show up on leave before shipping out. Fortunately, aggressive telephone switchboard jockey Betty Hutton, already pen-pals with Bracken, is around to press the stars into putting on a really big show. Harmless, but very hit-and-miss, the film keeps threatening to turn into serious fun, but comes up short. Fortunately, the big variety show uses half the players on the lot which livens things up even with sketchy comic sketches and largely forgettable songs. One new classic though, THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC, sung by Johnny Johnston (who he?) and danced by Vera Zorina/staged by husband George Balanchine (both fresh from Rodgers & Hart’s I MARRIED AN ANGEL on B’way). Click on the poster to make out the impressive cast list.*

DOUBLE-BILL: Next year, Hutton, Bracken & director Preston Sturges (tres soigné in a small bit here) would team up for a true American classic, MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S CREEK/’43.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Even standing next to Dorothy Lamour & Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard is some kind of knockout.

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