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"The War and Show Biz" is inescapably the theme, stated as a headline of the Variety under which the slick careerist dozes. As an applause-hogging hoofer ("Bet he bows every time he hears a thunderclap"), Gene Kelly dons baggy trousers and tramp greasepaint and spins and stomps on the bare stage, sweet on his own virtuosity. Judy Garland is his match, giving the film its most entrancing, split-second effect—the way her voice modulates from ingénue lilt to torchy bass on the word "daddy" during the "Doll Shop" number with George Murphy. The world of vaudeville ca. 1916 accommodates just such pairings, Busby Berkeley's camera cranes and swoops but first and foremost remains steadfast in preserving the wholeness of the period interludes. (Ben Blue's "Oceana Roll" pantomime is a characteristic number, an almost unbroken record of a jester's frenzies until he leaps through the painted backdrop.) Troupers and doughboys (cf. The Shopworn Angel), the switch from "Ballin' the Jack" and "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose" to "Over There" and "What Are You Going to Do to Help the Boys?" Amid patriotic medleys and whirlwind montages, sacrifice of the lamb (Richard Quine) out of medical school and into No Man's Land, redemption of the draft-dodger before bullets and grenades. "I'm in the right Army, but I've got the wrong suit on." Armistice, fanfare, pardon of country and woman. At the center of the flag-waving vortex are Garland and Kelly, harmonizing melodically and emotionally, performing the title tune in a snowbound café and being surprised by the force of their feelings ("Say, what hit us?"). With Mártha Eggerth, Stephen McNally, and Keenan Wynn. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |