La parade aux étoiles

This 1943 Classic film clearly showed how Hollywood supported our Armed Forces during World War II and there are so many talented actors appearing in this film who all gave great performances with their talented gifts.

Always enjoyed the great singing talent of Lena Horne who appeared in many Musicals during the 1940's and one of her famous songs was "Stormy Weather". I use to live in St. Albans, Queens, New York and she was a neighbor. Lena was the pioneer of Black entertainers who started to break into the Hollywood scene and finally it was accomplished.

Naturally, the War was going on and this was a picture that was created to cheer our Fighting Men and it also was a propaganda film to cheer up the American Citizens with a cast of hundreds of famous actors. Enjoyed seeing a very little known actress who is now 91 years of age, Marsha Hunt who was very young and attractive in the film, she was only 26 years of age.

Don't miss this film, it is really a gem of a gem. Enjoy

Rats! Not only are the numerous actors and actresses good looking they are also talented. Gene Kelly's dance with a broom is as good as anything he ever did on film. But the World War Two message of this movie is that talent and good looks are not enough to win a war, one must also have high moral character. Bad boy Kelly says that he can get himself into trouble and that he can find his way out of trouble--but can he? There are some great Vaudeville lines that keep one amused while Kelly is trying to find out what a good soldier should be. For example, the doctor says he "only did appendix operations on the side" and that he did grafting "only because his salary was so small." The movie is great fun at a time in United States history when there was not much to laugh about. Song and dance does take the edge off war, if only temporarily.

Thousands Cheer had a lot going for it from the get go, the biggest selling point being the amount of talent involved. While it is not a great film there is still plenty to enjoy and on the most part the cast are well-used.

Thousands Cheers' story is very thin and very contrived with the lead in to the film's second half feeling rather abrupt and the script is even thinner with a lot of hokey dialogue and too many moments where it sags in energy. A vast majority of the cast are great and are well-utilised, but Mary Astor is wasted with not very much to do and Red Skelton is more irritating than funny.

It is on the other hand very well-made with lavish sets and gorgeous photography while the Oscar nomination for the music score was deserved, it's very characterful and lush. The songs are not exactly memorable, apart from Honeysuckle Rose, but they are very pleasant and don't bog the film down at all, they are also very well-choreographed. Of all the show segments the highlights were Gene Kelly's dance with the mop, Eleanor Powell's tap dance, Lena Horne's beautiful rendition of Honeysuckle Rose and Judy Garland's uproarious The Joint Is Really Jumpin' in Carnegie Hall. You do wish that Gene Kelly had more dancing to do but he is dashing and very watchable and Kathryn Grayson is charm personified and sings beautifully.

All in all, not a great film but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Not a great movie, but it has a few high spots. The first half is a mediocre patriotic musical. The second half is a cobbled-together "variety show" performed for an army camp. Grayson sings sweetly, if you like that sort of thing (opera style + show tunes). As for Jose Iturbe's jazz piano, the less said the better. But Lena Horne sings "Honeysuckle Rose" beautifully, Judy Garland does her number well, and Eleanor Powell does a fun boogie-woogie routine. In the first half, there's a rarely seen Gene Kelly dance that's pretty good. The rest is modestly diverting, and MC Mickey Rooney's impression of Lionel Barrymore (in the variety show) is pretty funny.

This is one of those WWII era musicals where a studio assembles all their top talent for an all-star extravaganza. The stars' appearances are incorporated via a very thin plot. The plot doesn't matter, because the real point in watching this film is to see the musical talent.

This film stars Kathryn Grayson who is the daughter of military colonel John Boles and Mary Astor. Grayson is a singer who is performing onstage with Jose Iturbi. Grayson decides to put her musical career on hold in order to entertain the troops on her father's base. One of her father's new recruits is acrobat Gene Kelly, who is drafted into the Army, but would rather be in the Air Force. Kelly and Grayson end up falling in love (of course). Things are complicated when Astor wants to take Grayson back home because she doesn't want Grayson falling in love with a soldier. Astor tells her that being the wife of a soldier is undesirable because the army will always be a priority. There is also another subplot where Grayson tries to get her parents back together. The highlight of the first half, IMHO, is Gene Kelly's "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" dance with a broom.

However, all of that plot is meaningless, because the second half of the film is where all the action is. Mickey Rooney appears as himself. He emcees the show and also provides some impressions along the way. The best performances in the second half are Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne and Judy Garland's. Lucille Ball, Ann Sothern and Marcia Hunt appear in a skit with Frank Morgan, and Donna Reed and Margaret O'Brien appear in a routine with Red Skelton. Virginia O'Brien does another of her awful deadpan routines with Gloria de Haven and June Allyson providing support. Gene Kelly's stunt double performs a trapeze act. Kathryn Grayson come out to sing another song while, almost literally, "thousands cheer" - the soldiers that is.

Thousands Cheer is an average film viewed from today, although it is fun to watch for Kelly, Garland, Powell, and Horne. As little as they gave Kelly to do here, you can tell MGM just didn't know what to do with the fellow yet After all he had only been on the MGM lot for about a year. However, they did give him some great comic bits.

I guess you have to view this one from the wartime perspective of when the world was a canteen and morale boosting on the home front was the order of the day.