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Thousands Cheer
America was deep into WWII in 1943 and Hollywood was one of the military's biggest champions, churning out countless films about the war effort and showing how appreciative they were for what our boys were doing. MGM only had moderate success with Thousands Cheer, an overblown military-themed musical comedy that scores in terms of intentions but goes on forever.
Based on a story called Private Miss Jones, this is the story of Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson) a pretty classical singer and the daughter of an army colonel (John Boles) who decides to sideline her career to join the army and assist her father, while attempting to get him to reconcile with her mother (Mary Astor), from whom he's been divorced for many years and both of them seem to like it that way. Kathryn meets a young soldier named Eddie Marsh (Gene Kelly), a trapeze artist who has joined the army but, for obvious reasons, would rather be in the air corps. Kathryn finds herself very busy trying to help Eddie get a transfer, getting her parents back together, and organizing a huge variety show that features just about every star under contract to MGM at the time, with Mickey Rooney serving as Master of Ceremonies.
Outside of the military setting, there wasn't much out of the ordinary regarding the story except possibly the fact that Kathryn's parents are divorced and she is actually living with her father instead of her mother. Though I will admit that having John Boles and Mary Astor play Kathryn's parents brought an air of sophistication to the proceedings that I didn't expect. The film was clearly produced by the Joe Pasternak unit at MGM because Pasternak made sure that director George Sidney kept Grayson and her lyric soprano center stage for most of the proceedings. Grayson is given three solos, including an aria from La Traviata, while Gene Kelly is only given a single opportunity to dance in the entire film.
As for the big variety show, it takes a while to get there, but when it does, a lot of it is just not very interesting. The only real highlights for me were Judy Garland belting out "The Joint is Really Jumpin' Down at Carnegie Hall" and Lena Horne's sexy rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose". Frank Morgan's comedy skit with Ann Southern, Lucille Ball, and Marsha Hunt wasn't nearly as funny as its length, ditto Red Skelton's skit. There's also a second reprise of a song called "I Dug a Ditch" featuring Kay Keyser and his orchestra that went on forever. Why Pasternak and Sidney felt this song needed to be performed three times is a mystery. There's also a ballet featuring a pair of unknown dancers named Don Loper and Maxine Barrat that was over 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Rooney was kind of funny recreating a scene from Test Pilot imitating Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore, but if MGM wanted to show their support of the war effort, maybe they should have just made a cash contribution.
America was deep into WWII in 1943 and Hollywood was one of the military's biggest champions, churning out countless films about the war effort and showing how appreciative they were for what our boys were doing. MGM only had moderate success with Thousands Cheer, an overblown military-themed musical comedy that scores in terms of intentions but goes on forever.
Based on a story called Private Miss Jones, this is the story of Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson) a pretty classical singer and the daughter of an army colonel (John Boles) who decides to sideline her career to join the army and assist her father, while attempting to get him to reconcile with her mother (Mary Astor), from whom he's been divorced for many years and both of them seem to like it that way. Kathryn meets a young soldier named Eddie Marsh (Gene Kelly), a trapeze artist who has joined the army but, for obvious reasons, would rather be in the air corps. Kathryn finds herself very busy trying to help Eddie get a transfer, getting her parents back together, and organizing a huge variety show that features just about every star under contract to MGM at the time, with Mickey Rooney serving as Master of Ceremonies.
Outside of the military setting, there wasn't much out of the ordinary regarding the story except possibly the fact that Kathryn's parents are divorced and she is actually living with her father instead of her mother. Though I will admit that having John Boles and Mary Astor play Kathryn's parents brought an air of sophistication to the proceedings that I didn't expect. The film was clearly produced by the Joe Pasternak unit at MGM because Pasternak made sure that director George Sidney kept Grayson and her lyric soprano center stage for most of the proceedings. Grayson is given three solos, including an aria from La Traviata, while Gene Kelly is only given a single opportunity to dance in the entire film.
As for the big variety show, it takes a while to get there, but when it does, a lot of it is just not very interesting. The only real highlights for me were Judy Garland belting out "The Joint is Really Jumpin' Down at Carnegie Hall" and Lena Horne's sexy rendition of "Honeysuckle Rose". Frank Morgan's comedy skit with Ann Southern, Lucille Ball, and Marsha Hunt wasn't nearly as funny as its length, ditto Red Skelton's skit. There's also a second reprise of a song called "I Dug a Ditch" featuring Kay Keyser and his orchestra that went on forever. Why Pasternak and Sidney felt this song needed to be performed three times is a mystery. There's also a ballet featuring a pair of unknown dancers named Don Loper and Maxine Barrat that was over 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Rooney was kind of funny recreating a scene from Test Pilot imitating Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore, but if MGM wanted to show their support of the war effort, maybe they should have just made a cash contribution.