Humphrey Bogart

Eddie Cantor

Bette Davis

Olivia de Havilland

Errol Flynn

John Garfield

Joan Leslie

Ida Lupino

Dennis Morgan

Ann Sheridan

Dinah Shore

Alexis Smith

Jack Carson

Alan Hale

George Tobias

Edward Everett Horton

S.Z. Sakall

Hattie McDaniel

Ruth Donnelly

Don Wilson

Spike Jones

Harry Adams

Samuel Adams

Doris Ake

Henry Armetta

Paulita Arvizu

Lynn Baggett

Harry A. Bailey

Leah Baird

Juliette Ball

Elmer Ballard

Don Barclay

Joy Barlow

Janet Barrett

Benny Bartlett

William Benedict

Willie Best

Ted Billings

Monte Blue

Lennie Bluett

Perry Botkin Sr.

Mildred Boyd

Betty Brodel

Jess Lee Brooks

Morgan Brown

James Burke

Fred Burns

David Butler

Rita Christiani

Stanley Clements

J.W. Cody

James Conaty

Alan Cook

Tex Cooper

James Coppedge

Ben Corbett

Eleanor Counts

Howard Davies

Dorothy Dayton

Igor Dega

Harry Depp

Joe DeRita

William Desmond

Henri DeSoto

Ralph Dunn

Dick Earle

Dick Elliott

Edgar Fairchild

Betty Farrington

Frank Faylen

James Flavin

Iris Flores

Art Foster

Charles Francis

Louise Franklin

George B. French

Edward Gargan

Phyllis Godfrey

Bert Gordon

Dick Gordon

Carl Grayson

William Haade

Harriette Haddon

Robert Haines

Bobby Hale

Creighton Hale

Avanelle Harris

Sam Harris

Paul Harvey

Hubert Head

Mark Hellinger

Cleo Herndon

Martha Holliday

Marjorie Hoshelle

Arthur Stuart Hull

Earl Hunsaker

Brandon Hurst

Henry Iblings

Boyd Irwin

Charles Irwin

Hans F. Koenekamp

Leo F. Forbstein

Norman Panama

Melvin Frank

James V. Kern

Everett Freeman

Arthur Schwartz

Arthur Edeson

Irene Morra

Jack L. Warner

Anton Grot

Leo K. Kuter

Walter F. Tilford

Milo Anderson

Perc Westmore

Philip Quinn

Charles David Forrest

Francis J. Scheid

LeRoy Prinz

Frank Loesser

Ray Heindorf

Herbert Farjeon

Heinz Roemheld

Harvey Parry

Duke York

Dudley Chambers

Maurice De Packh

Comedy

Music

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Warner Bros. Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

How many lyricists can rhyme nylon with pylon? Well that’s pretty much the standard of the work from the likes of Frank Loesser and Johnny Mercer as this jolly crowd-pleaser assembles quite a formidable cast of A-listers to augment a silly vehicle for Eddie Cantor. Playing himself, he is determined to wrest control of a big show from it’s producer “Farnsworth” (Edward Everett Horton) and his composer “Schlenna” (S.Z. Sakall) who are desperate, on bended knee, for Cantor to provide Dinah Shore. In the end, they have no choice but to cave in, but as Eddie imposes his own brand of humour on the proceedings, they are soon at their wits end. Then, serendipity steps in and introduces them to “Joe”. He is the spitting image of Eddie, so if they can only swap them round then they can manage their new man and keep their old one busy elsewhere. That’s the thread of the drama, and it’s perfectly watchable as it allows Cantor to weigh in, twice, with his corny jokes. The main thrust of this feature is a series of on stage performances from an whole range of stars. Most notably, for me anyway, were Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino and George Tobias doing a stage routine that reminded me of “Andy Pandy”; then there’s Errol Flynn covering up for the fact that he was tone deaf by sporting a Londoner’s accent to deliver his own wartime tune forewarning the Nazis “that’s what you’ll jolly well get!”. What I found it also showed us was just how similar many of the acts actually looked. Ann Sheridan, Joan Leslie, Miss Shore - they all had a very studio “look” to them. The star of the show has to be Bette Davis who hasn’t the singing voice for a baby’s lullaby much less the big stage, but by acting her way through most of her quite wittily crafted “They’re Either Too Young or Too Old” and getting flung about enthusiastically by jitterbug champion Conrad Wiedell, she participates but remains aloof from the more pantomime elements of this musical extravaganza. I enjoyed Sakall’s bumbling performance and Cantor demonstrated that he was no slouch when it came to making himself the butt of the jokes, even if perhaps I’d have left him strapped to that undulating operating table. It’s a decent example of the efforts both Hollywood and Broadway were going to to support their military and to raise war bond capital, and though perhaps a little too long it still has just about enough variety to sustain it.

English