This Is the Army *** (1943, George Murphy, Joan Leslie, Ronald Reagan, George Tobias, Alan Hale, Irving Berlin) – Classic Movie Review 7091

Director Michael Curtiz’s 1943 movie This Is the Army provides military musical mayhem aplenty in this extravagant Technicolor wartime revue by Irving Berlin which, at the time of its release during World War Two, made a huge amount of money for the war effort. It was Bette Davis who persuaded the Warner Bros studio boss Jack L Warner contribute the profits from this film to the war effort. It grossed $20,831,178 at the US box office, so those profits must have been enormous.

Composer Ray Heindorf won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture, and the film was nominated for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color and Best Sound, Recording.

George Murphy, Joan Leslie and Ronald Reagan star, and there is plenty of fun for the boys, with 350 real sailors making up the majority of the cast. There are plenty of impressive large-scale production numbers, including ‘This is the Army, Mr Jones’ and ‘How About a Cheer for the Navy?’

There are also some enjoyable Hollywood star turns, including one by Berlin himself singing ‘Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning’, and a knock-out score from triple Oscar-winning composer Ray Heindorf. He also won Oscars for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and The Music Man (1962).

Henry Jones appears in his film debut. Also in the cast are George Tobias, Alan Hale, Charles Butterworth, Ronald Reagan, Una Merkel, Julie Oshins, Dolores Costello, Stanley Ridges, Rosemary DeCamp and Frances Langford.

This Is the Army is directed by Michael Curtiz, runs 120 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon, is shot in Technicolor by Bert Glennon and Sol Polito, is produced by Jack L Warner and Hal B Wallis, is scored by Ray Heindorf, with songs written by Irving Berlin and production designs by John Hughes.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7091

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