I saw the movies “That’s Entertainment” when I was Six years old in 1974 and “That’s Entertainment 2” at the age of Eight in 1976. Both times, it was a family trip of at least myself, my late Sister Courtenay, my Mother and Father and perhaps other Family members of friends on the periphery. Ironically, this was literally family entertainment, but for me at ages Six and Eight, I was still existing in that magical life development window, perfect for internalizing the spirit of show business. “That’s Entertainment” films, if you are not aware, are simply a two hour highlights package of scenes from movie musicals. A case of MGM self-pleasuring itself, the MGM Lion boasting about the best scenes of it’s best musicals with a slickly produced “best of” sequence that is simply demonstrative, there is no plot.
Many of the scenes shown appear to be from MGM technicolor musicals of the 1940’s and 1950’s and occasionally the scenes make you wonder what the movies that accompany these scenes were, seeing that some of these scenes seemed so ridiculous, so far removed from anything grounded, what in the world could these original source films have been about? Classic movie musicals, such as “Singin’ in the Rain” or “Meet Me in St Louis” are surreal, but made sense during moments of emotional outbursts that the characters involved in plot lines were experiencing internally. We the audience would get a stream of musical conscience from characters in an encapsulation of their true internal feelings. Followed, script-wise, by a return to mundane reality. In other films, such as 1937’s “Footlight Parade”, the majority of the musical numbers are part of stories about people in show business and the musical numbers are the show business characters performing for the public.
A movie plot of this era would be interrupted by song. Then there were movie musicals where it’s a bunch of musical numbers interrupted by plot, a plot typically meaningless other than to give the audience a respite. An example of the latter type of movie musical was released at the height of America’s involvement and engagement in World War II. “The Gang’s All Here”, from 1942, is a gorgeous-looking movie musical which is ablaze on screen in technicolor. I believe I saw this for the first time when I was Seven or Eight and had no idea what the fuck was going on onscreen. I just recalled a scene where a soldier carries a machine gun through the jungle looking for Japanese troops to shoot and I remember the movie was a visual feast of color. Aside from that, I don’t remember much. “The Gang’s All Here” is almost like Hollywood making a USO movie, the film takes place entirely on sets, it’s supposed to be about theater people throwing a benefit for US troops at a resort somewhere where only rich folks are allowed. Something about raising money through war bonds, the movie talks about the war effort constantly, but mostly about the war in Asia and with all the gravity of an upcoming High School Homecoming Football game and this is spirit week.
Featuring Singers, Dancers, Actors, Comedians as well as Big Bands full of musicians, “The Gang’s All Here” would be perfect as well as disorienting if one were high and attempted to watch it. If you blink, you miss the flimsy dramatic narrative and then there is a deluge of random scenes of furtively organized dancing as well as Big Bands belting out musical numbers. While I was in the midst of watching several of the skits early in the movie, I couldn’t remember for the life of me why the scenes were occurring in relation to the plot. The ultimate focus of the film is on Director and creative mind Busby Berkeley’s lavish song-and–dance numbers, if you started watching this film during any one of the musical numbers here, you might assume the last thing you had to eat or drink had been spiked. Between the lush technicolor, the multitude of exquisite-looking dancing girls, the dialed-in singing and dancing, this film’s choreographed scenes are a sensory explosion, they are worth the price of admission alone. The film provides a flimsy excuse for a plot with grandiose musical routines going down at a haughty New York City nightclub where for some reason, soldiers are hanging out on leave before they are off to potentially die in the Pacific Military Theater. (As opposed to Musical Theater, totally different gig.)
We are introduced to a totally glib and handsome Military enlistee (played by James Ellison) who catches a glimpse of a sultry song-and-dance girl (played by Alice Faye) and immediately falls head over heels in love/lust. Since he is about to head off to war in the Pacific against the Japanese, (A strange fixation on only fighting the Japanese in this film, I might add.), his amorous sales-pitch to the musical performer has quite a sense of urgency to it. Since this is a movie musical, there is no sense of dread here, everyone acts like World War II has all the tension and drama of a Yale-Harvard Football game.
The biggest conflict in this movie seems to be that our dashing young military guy has too many dames to deal with as we discover while he is wooing the Blond Alice Faye he is also supposed to be engaged to another Woman, who’s a dancer, named Vivian Potter and played by Sheila Ryan. Of course, all of this will get cleared up after a litany of song-and-dance routines. After an evening of singing, dancing and romantic promises made between the soldier and the singer, he goes off to war and she returns to her busy gig schedule, but rest assured, they will meet again. Meanwhile, the soldier’s Father, played by the often hilarious Eugene Palette (The Father in two of my favorite socialite comedies of all time; “My Man Godfrey” (1936) and “The Lady Eve”(1943)) wants to throw a big bash in honor of his returning-from-the-front-lines’ son after a tour of duty in Australia. He encourages his wealthy friends to purchase war bonds in support of a giant musical extravaganza he plans to host at a New York resort and country club. Of course, at this big blowout, all potential romantic entanglements will be settled and that’s pretty much the plot of the movie, for those viewers that desired a grounded story, there isn’t one. Any potential dissection of this film would be more about the analysis of the songs and their accompanying productions as well as the performers, of which there are many.
Singing, dancing, comedy, choreography and live music were all a big deal in the 1940’s, this is transparent in how alive this movie becomes when the numbers begin. An interesting paradox evolves in this movie as not only White Female singers are the star of the show but Latin ones are as well. Probably the best known musical number from this movie occurs early on involving Latin singing superstar Carmen Miranda. Miranda is also adept at comedy as she is given lines that make her sound like a Feminine variant on the comedy stylings of Chico Marx. When she makes a comparison between a Father and Son, she declares “It looks like he is a block off the old chip” and there are other Anglo-American sayings that she decimates in a cutesy Latina accent and delivery. The musical number featuring Miranda which lives in musical notoriety forever in this movie is titled “The Lady in the Tutti Fruit Hat”.
Describing the Tutti Fruitti Hat number cannot do it justice, although I would contend it’s neither the most impressive nor the best musical number in the film, but it may be the most outlandish, notorious as well as salient. While Miranda croons with a literal bunch of bananas on her head (while her costume is also adorned with what looks like strawberries, pineapples, etc.), a gaggle of chorus girls back up her singing at times holding what could only be described as giant phallic bananas. While the choreography is impressive, it’s not geometrically perfect, but I for one am tired of computer-generated synchronatic perfection, so a girl here and there being off a smidge with her giant banana rifle team-like precision didn’t bother me in the least when certain moves in the choreography seemed to call for regimentation.
There’s all kind of suggestive inappropriateness in this musical number, besides the sexual innuendo. Lyrics in the song sung by the Brazilian Miranda describe her character never taking the hat off except for her boyfriend, which sounds like disrobing. The chorus girls lay around at the onset and end of the routine under palm trees, inferring that not only do they represent lazy hot chicks that are naturally layabouts, but Latin-influenced layabouts as well. There is a primativism to this film that is at once endearing and also subtly and culturally and gender-related offensive. “The Gang’s All Here” is a 1940’s film that assumes that it’s audience revels in the same Anglo-tinged perspective of stereotypes as what the film is projecting. During one scene, an Anglo Female character has a verbal exchange with Miranda where she claims that she recognizes Miranda from the local police blotter, suggesting that because Miranda is a Latina, she must be a criminal. Though Miranda gives her the side eye for saying this, Miranda also seems to weigh the comment as if it has some merit.
Another whimsical and potentially daring narrative in this film is the characterization of show people as sketchy, promiscuous, volatile, scatter-brained, vain and slippery. A musical number involving songstress Alice Faye exhibits her singing about being a Woman during the war and all the real Men have gone off to fight so there’s nobody to share intimacy with. Partly due to the gravity of the war effort and also physically there are no Men around. Faye is the Blonde ideal in this movie, there is something alluring about her, she has a surprisingly deep voice and a carries a vixen-like appeal. While certainly not the most impressive singing or looking or her era, she does stand out here, however. She gives off the vibe like she’s the one everyone wants but she’s saving it for a real hunk that will fulfill her every need, not just pay her bills or share her bedsheets.
Edward Everett Horton is along for the ride as comic relief, he plays a stuffy, buttoned-up capitalist who has married a former song-and-dance girl (Peyton Potter, played by Charlotte Greenwood)after her prime. The conversations involving his wife’s past intimate that she was a party girl, again catering to this film’s inference that show people are wild and untamed unless you are covering their bills. In one scene, Miranda plants lipstick-marked kisses on Horton in exchange for financial advice, because you know only uptight WASPs understand high finance. Horton’s wife walks in on him and assumes his stiff ass is screwing around on her, in part because he’s a guy, in part because the Brazilian Woman is perceived to be a flirtatious trouble maker and in part because the wife is projecting if she were in the same situation since she’s an ex-theater babe. All of this transpires in a breezy manner, none of it is too serious or consequential.
From a technical standpoint, this movie is a jaw-dropping marvel. Shot by Cinematographer Edward Cronjager, edited by Ray Curtiss, watching this now it seems remarkable that it was made in 1942, the color is so vibrant, the imagery so tight-looking, the graphics seem comparative to something you might find today on the internet if a designer was attempting a retro look, yet the precision of this movie’s visuals seem far ahead of it’s time. While the pep rally feel of this film is omnipresent, concepts swirl about in this movie, most notably Berkeley’s visual scheme. it’s surreal at times, extending to totally leaving the narrative of the movie’s plot and displaying kaleidoscope -type visuals on screen for an extended few seconds just because it looks cool as shit. This is not just a film that blows kisses to the brave boys of yesteryear fighting fascism overseas (that used to be a thing, you know), inspiring them with a myriad of eye-fetching dancing girls, the film has something to offer the art-lover, or lover of the arts, more specifically. This is not just escapist entertainment, it is visual poetry for the erudite intellectual. Berkeley takes risks that aren’t troubling as much as they are abstract. They challenge the viewer to enjoy simple yet vibrant combinations of shapes, formations and colors that don’t have a direct impact on the surface story they are watching.
Then there are the performers who are not actors by trade that are featured in this, as a collective they provide a tone that is glib and peppy yet polished and glossy through the lens through the lens of Berkeley’s direction. In one scene at the resort, a Female dancer/ acrobat executes perfect-looking flips that are simply jaw-dropping to watch. The scene has no meaning behind it, it just looks really fucking cool. Then there is a professional ballroom dancer named Tony DeMarco that gets top-tier billing in the cast, he utters a couple of lines but mostly just twirls immaculate-looking Female upper-class dancing partners around the scenery as the dancing sets a tone of gaiety and romantic propriety. The international sensation Benny Goodman, the legendary and phenomenal Clarinetist and Bandleader performs here and as smooth and swinging as his band sounds, his tasty and buttery Clarinet playing sticks out. With glasses that make him appear to be a College Professor, Goodman is a natural as an entertainer and performer. His warm smile and all-knowing look gives us a sense of a performer in complete control. The Clarinet worked as a voice of calm and relaxation in the popular music of 1942. People are too manic and neurotic to allow such a soothing voice timbre guide them now. But if you were dressed to the nines in 1942, it was a sound of romance and intimacy.
You can see how Berkeley was involved in the 1943 Black-and -White equivalent of this film that featured an all African-American cast and was directed by Vincent Minelli, “Cabin in the Sky”. Berkeley and others in this film and in the industry were completely taken by the music, singing and dancing styles of African-Americans of this era. This is evident during one number performed by Goodman and his orchestra, where Goodman comes off sounding like he is singing in the style of an African-American of his day, not in a disparaging or disrespectful way, but it is noticeable. In another scene, involving Charlotte Greenwood (who plays Edward Everett Horton’s wife), the Female dancer’s movements and the way she snaps off dance steps seemed reminiscent of African-American Female singers and dancers of the time period. There is a certain gravitas toward the African-American music scene of the early 1940’s shown by the performers in this movie, even though there are zero African-Americans actually in the picture.
You may be reading the review and thinking that you’re hearing about a film that’s more than adequate, that it’s worth a watch due to it’s look and it’s cavalcade of famous performers and dizzying musical numbers, is that enough evidence to watch an Eighty year old movie? To you, I say, if that’s not enough, the climax, the big hot number, is a worthy performative apex. I’m referring to a musical number in the film that is to this movie as the psychedelic space voyage in “2001: A Space Odyssey” is to it’s legacy or the montage of mind-control about Americana is used in “The Parallax View” or the imaginary movie plot/dream sequence that Gene Kelly describes in “Singin’ in the Rain”, moments in film where time stands still and filmmakers give us messages and themes through moments of esoteric asymmetry that permits us to reflect and contemplate, if it is there in our minds.
Berkeley achieves this level of artistic expression and exploration through his “Polka Dot Polka”, maybe one of the ten best musical numbers I can ever recall seeing in a a movie musical. And I’m watching this shit on my phone! “The Polka-Dot Polka is quite frankly, a lavish and inundating sequence. A visual I can’t forget involves a moment where a dancing couple (I believe the aforementioned Tony DeMarco is the Male in the dancing duo) are dancing in what looks to be an outdoor gazebo at night with the camera using a Purple filter and lighting, the scene gives off the effect of dancing miniatures, the kind of thing that gets done with AI and computer artists now. “The Polka-Dot Polka is the complete package, it is so overwhelming, so meticulously polished that I was blown away by it’s plumage. Thinking to myself that this is now the standard for what we now watch on a daily basis in our lives except this was made over Eighty years ago.
The craftsmanship, the perfection that Berkeley and his creative scene and then brought to life is extraordinary. I don’t know if the movie musical can ever I return, we’re all so cynical now, it was such a perfect art form for it’s era and while this movie is nowhere near the emotional impact of a “West Side Story” or “Fiddler on the Roof” or “South Pacific”, it is original art and the film’s relevance to the combination American anxiety and enthusiasm is palpable in 1942, manufacturing confidence and optimism was a hoped-for byproduct. There is a scene between Faye and James Elison as the Military guy where Faye sings on a Ferry boat at night while extras pair off in sets of two under the moonlight and lights of the river. The passersby cheer Faye as she sings in the moonlight to her new soldier beau, the film giving off the image that America was so far gone in it’s patriotism in this moment that Americans were encouraging each other for no reason other than they were fellow Americans and this is what we did, cheer for each other is times of dire need.
Making a movie musical seemingly about nothing was not an exclusive idea to the 1930’s or 1940’s. There were plenty of films with singing and dancing in that era that had no plot. What sets “The Gang’s All Here” apart for me is the level of it’s technical precision, it’s unbelievable appearance and it’s hypnotic-like effect on the audience, we almost feel more intelligent after viewing these images for some reason. There is an artistic congruity in this film through it’s music, dancing and choreography. This film, in part, feels like it was meant to take everyone’s mind off of the real-life heavy shit that was about to go down for everyone involved, whether at home or abroad, in the European or Pacific Theater. Americans were about to enter a kind of hell that the rest of the world was being acclimated to. Instead of creating something frenetic, Busby Berkeley created a film that was intended to give everyone during a time of unprecedented stress an escapist visual, mental and physical chubby.
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