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ACTOR
Cheryl WalkerWilliam TerryJudith AndersonKenny Baker
DIRECTOR
Frank Borzage
SYNOPSICS
Stage Door Canteen (1943) is a English,Russian,Spanish movie. Frank Borzage has directed this movie. Cheryl Walker,William Terry,Judith Anderson,Kenny Baker are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1943. Stage Door Canteen (1943) is considered one of the best Comedy,Musical,Romance,War movie in India and around the world.
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Stage Door Canteen (1943) Reviews
Big stars, small cameos, good film...
STAGE DOOR CANTEEN, of course, is set during WWII, and its main locale is the canteen of the film's title that is run and staffed by stars of the cinema and stage. The New York version of the Hollywood Canteen set up on the West Coast by Bette Davis and others, the Stage Door Canteen welcomes the boys in uniform when they're on leave, giving them a little comfort, a little entertainment, a little taste of home. Although STAGE DOOR CANTEEN really is about the big-name entertainment involved (with cameos by top-billed stars like Katharine Hepburn, Harpo Marx and Ray Bolger among others), it tries also to tell a heartwarming tale of the bravery of the boys who must fight, if necessary to the death, so that the rest of their country might live in peace. The loyal and brave Dakota (William Terry) stumbles into love with the initially selfish, haughty Eileen (Cheryl Walker); young California (Lon McAllister) keeps missing out on his first kiss with Jean (Marjorie Riordan) and Tex (Sunset Carson) wants to go back west with Ella Sue (Margaret Early) when the fighting's done. It all revolves around the idea of the boys having something--someone--to fight for overseas, someone to write home to, someone to come home to. In that sense, the film succeeds; I was actually rather moved by the final words each boy left for his girl at the end of the film. That doesn't mean the film isn't a little saccharine though; it *has* to be--it was meant to be a morale booster during the 1940s (including, as it does, songs about shooting down Japanese planes and marching into Berlin). It rides on the strong wave of American patriotism at the time, reflecting and hoping to add to it, and even hints at an internationalism unheard of these days (the crowd cheers for Russian soldiers and carries Chinese pilots on their shoulders in tribute to their bravery). If you strip it of these time-bound scenes, however, the message and the courage remains, which is what makes STAGE DOOR CANTEEN still a film that one can enjoyably sit through not just for the glamorous star cameos. It's sweet when California keeps trying to kiss Jean and missing out (including an incredibly frustrating final attempt when someone cuts in on them when they're dancing!), and you feel just as dejected as Eileen must when she realises that Dakota *isn't* coming back this time. (Let us, for now, leave aside the fact that I can't seem to find a redeeming quality in Eileen beyond the fact that she's willing to break the canteen rules to make it up to Dakota for being mean to him at first.) The big-name entertainment in STAGE DOOR CANTEEN really can't be faulted: there are appearances by the orchestras of Benny Goodman, Xavier Cugat and Count Basie (to name just a few!); cameos by Merle Oberon, Katharine Cornell and Alan Mowbray; and a pretty literal striptease that ends way too soon for the boys' liking by Gypsy Rose Lee. My favourite numbers would be 'We Mustn't Say Goodbye' and 'Don't Worry Island', alongside Yehudi Menuhin's beautiful rendition of 'Ave Maria' (unfortunately given under some quite terrible lighting) and the very funny opening act with Edgar Bergen and Charlie. As, essentially, the final act, Hepburn gives her few words great weight and is as striking as ever with her five minutes (tops!) of screen time. All in all, STAGE DOOR CANTEEN is great fun to watch. It'd be even better fun if one knew all of the people making cameos in it--I could only half-guess at most of them, and I'm sure I missed many many others. A sweet, patriotic film made with a very definite purpose, and if you make allowances for that purpose, it's easy to accept the overdoing of the message, and appreciate the film for what it is... good, clean entertainment!
Superstars entertain enlisted men.
This movie has more stars in it than the firmament! Even more stars than its cousin Hollywood Canteen. I remember seeing it as a child in 1943 and have had it on tape for years and wonder why it has not been digitally remastered. The picture is scratchy and bumpy in parts, but nothing can spoil the innocence of our youth in uniform ready to go off to war. Cameo appearances of so many entertainers on one stage give you an idea of what vaudeville and the big band era were like. There is no plot line or even a semblance of continuity in the performances of these stars, but all are polished appearances as if the casts were on tour. Their time was donated and their patriotism shows through loud and clear. The story line involves a group of army enlistees who are given a mini furlough in New York City before they ship out. They are in awe of the big city at first but are told of a place where there is entertainment and free food. This, of course, is the canteen. Over the course of less than forty-eight hours, Dakota, Californa, Tex, Jersey, and others pair off with hostesses at the Stage Door Canteen. It is amazing how quickly love blooms in this setting. The hostesses have taken a vow not to get involved with the fellas, but how can they resist when they see the innocence, charm, and sincerity of the boys? If there are starring roles in the storyline, they belong to California and Eileen, though they are not paired as sweethearts. California (LonMcAllister)looks like a teenager and is so likable. He has never kissed a girl! Eileen (Cheryl Walker) is torn between her duty to the canteen and her love for Dakota. Some have said this movie is a morale booster or war-time propaganda. I like to think of it as the way things were during World War II.
A once in a lifetime movie
"Stage Door Canteen" is one film that you can unashamedly call a once in a lifetime movie without feeling a bit embarrassed by saying it. Simple and modest as well as grand and uplifting this movie probably did more to boost Americas morale during WWII then all the Blood & Guts war movies made during that war put together and did it without a single shot being fired and without anyone on "Theirs" side as well as "Ours" getting killed or wounded in the movie. The fact that the film "Stage Door Canteen" can be seen today or anytime in the future without being taken back for a second by the off-the-wall, and even hysterical, war propaganda that was in almost all the films made during WWII by Hollywood shows just how good and unique this movie really is. The movie is about a group of American Servicemen on their way to the European Theater of war and how they spend their last week in New York City before their sent into arms way via the dangerous North Atlantic convoys as well as to the bloody battlefields of North Africa and Europe. Getting to see not just how the man in the street but a galaxy of movie stars, that are just too many to mention in this review, appreciated their efforts in going "Over There" to fight the good fight where they may very well end up at the bottom of the cold U-Boat infested North Atlantic Ocean. Beautifully filmed in black and white with a number of wonderful songs by the top recording artists of that time with the star-struck GI's Sailors and Marines dancing with beautiful girls and movie stars that they could only dream about about or see on the silver screen and motion picture magazines. Watching the movie puts you right inside those servicemen heads and how they felt just before they were to face the horrors of war and how the American public felt an cared for them and how they went out of their way to show it. "Stage Door Canteen" didn't try to glorify the fighting in the war, even though it was made during the darkest days of WWII. The movie showed us those who were to fight the war as human beings who only wanted to do what was necessary to win the war so they could come back to their family and friends and the America that they left behind. Like I said before "Stage Door Canteen" is a once in a lifetime movie that during those most bleakest and uncertain days of the Second World War shines like a beam of light through those dark clouds and gave hope to all those on the battlefield as well as those on the home front. One of the most moving scenes in the movie was when a home sick GI asked Helen Hayes the first Lady of the Theater who played Queen Victoria on the stage to dance with him. Helen somewhat surprised asks the GI why he would want to dance with her since there are so many young and beautiful movie stars, much more beautiful then her, for him to choose from? The GI tells her, awestruck, that in the future, if he were to survive the war, he wants to tell his grandchildren that he once danced with Queen Victoria.
The perfect cinematic reflection of an era.
I am old enough to have seen Stage Door Canteen when it first appeared.It was a morale booster, and nothing more than a delightful musical with a lot of big bands and performers. But after more than 50 years, it is not only a wonderful piece of nostalgia, but the perfect reflection of an era and of the spiritual climate of the war years. It is now that I can understand that the miracle is that Frank Borzage was called to direct it. All the classic Borzage feeling is present, and the sentimental master was able to make gold out of Delmer Daves' sentimental dialog. I wonder why these two gifted gentlemen did not collaborate again. I strongly recommend that every old timer who remembers the war years, the forties, the music, the bands and the feeling, should see again this picture which has become a magnificent piece of authentic nostalgia. I own it and intend to see it again and again.
Broadway's contribution to WWII
"Stage Door Canteen" was created by the theater people in New York as a way of entertaining the young men who were going to fight in WWII. Most of the young men passing through the canteen, were facing an unsure fate, but at the moment they were among the Broadway luminaries of the period, all the fears and troubles evaporated as they stood among the stars of the New York theater. In fact, what comes across in the film is the easy camaraderie all the young men shared with people that otherwise they had never met in their ordinary lives. Meeting the likes of Tallulah Bankhead, a woman larger than life, was almost impossible for most of the people going to war. Some of the best actors of that era are seen doing "supporting roles" in the film. Katherine Cornell, Paul Muni, Katherine Hepburn, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontaine, Ina Claire, Ray Bolger, Helen Hayes, are seen interacting with the GIs and as they give them hope and courage about an uncertain future of their lives. The film is good to watch some of these long gone theater stars in a nostalgic look at our past.