Sensations of 1945

On Oct. 4 2004, an interesting Comment by "John5th" contained a serious slip of the pen in the following sentence: "... we see a huge production number called Circus In The Sky featuring Sammy Kaye and his band and a host of circus acts all at the top of a skyscraper." Clearly, John5th intended to write "WOODY HERMAN" (who stars -- even sings! -- in several musical numbers in this film, and is prominently mentioned in the opening credits, along with Cab Calloway). And NOT Sammy Kaye (who doesn't appear at all, and isn't mentioned in the credits). If John5th is still reading this Commentary, I feel sure he'd make the correction himself. I tried 2 ways to contact John5th, but got no reply; he may have gone on to other interests. -- Prof Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.

Sophie Tucker was probably sixty years old when she filmed her scenes in "Sensations of 1945". My comments here will focus on her participation in this film. Sophie sings two songs in a nightclub setting that was filmed at Republic Studios facilities and released by United Artists. These songs are "Mammy O'Mine' and "You Can't Sew A Button On A Heart"; this last also recorded commercially for Decca by Sophie. Sophie is in full voice for Maceo Pinkard's song "Mammy O'Mine" and this appearance is a wonderful preservation of her singing style as well as her splendid appearance with her beautiful ensemble including fur cape, hat, jewelry , and 1940s upsweep coiffure. In fact, she looks like one of her many beautiful Maurice Seymour photographs taken through the years of her long career spent singing on the variety stages of the world.

You'd be hard pressed to find another film with the number and variety of acts that Sensations of 1945 has. Eleanor Powell is amazing as always. In addition to her more conventional numbers, she's a pinball and even dances with a horse! The circus acts are wonderful and fast paced. Pianist Dorothy Donegan steals the show with her performance during Cab Calloway's appearance. The storyline, as usual, takes second billing to all of the acts, however it does loosely ties things together. Definitely a must see for everyone.

I saw the film on VHS tape wondering what to expect as I knew that this was Eleanor Powell's final starring role. Well, I found the film to be quite different than Miss Powell's usual MGM offerings. I liked that fact the Eleanor played quite a different character than the ones she played at Metro. Her dance number with David Lichine also showed Eleanor in a completely different light...very jazzy. The movie at times has a very surrealistic quality especially the scenes depicting Times Square with the big bands playing on the rooftops. I thoroughly enjoyed the film with its very campy and surrealistic elements combined with Miss Powell's very creative numbers, especially when she dances inside a hug pinball machines. My only criticism is that a few of the numbers may have gone on a tad too long.

Some wonderful ideas are in this film, which taking into consideration when it was filmed, are quite wonderful, inventive and enjoyable. Yes it gets a bit boring now and again, however stick with it! During these years when many movie theatres would not screen motion pictures with Black performers (they often deleted scenes for their audiences) this film highlights Cab Calloway and His Orchestra in two great numbers (well 2.5)!!!

The cast is delightful! In fact, they are perfect! And Sophie Tucker is always a pleasure to watch, as is Woody Herman and His Orchestra.

Sit back and enjoy a good fun musical with some great staging, fantastic big band music!