La taverna delle stelle

You'll never see films like Stage Door Canteen again. The all star support the troops film is a thing of the past. Try to make something like that today and see how many stars would be willing. This is an art form deader than the dinosaur.

No reason it can't be enjoyed though. Skip the slight plot involving the servicemen who are patronizing the Stage Door Canteen who hook up with the hostesses there. Concentrate on the number of stars in the film, each doing some bit of business for themselves.

Though a number of film stars are here, the film concentrates on stars of the Broadway stage. Katherine Cornell makes her one and only appearance in a film, in fact my favorite part of Stage Door Canteen is her impromptu reading from Romeo and Juliet with bashful GI Lon McCallister who played Romeo in high school. Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne are here also. The Lunts later did some televised plays and we have some kinescope version of them. They eschewed the screen though, so even a bit of footage of them doing kitchen police at the Canteen we should be grateful for.

The concert violinist Yehuda Menuhin is also here and it's nice the GIs took time to hear some serious music, a break from the swing bands of the era that are featured like Count Basie, Freddy Martin, Benny Goodman, and Kay Kyser.

Director Frank Borzage was known for doing films of tender romances and the nominal leads William Terry and Cheryl Walker were little heard from again. Still they do their best to provide the note of poignancy for the serviceman enjoying time with the stars before going to war.

Funniest unintentional moment occurs when Franklin Pangborn and Johnny Weissmuller are on the serving line. Pangborn who was very close to being an out gay actor at the time is looking admiringly at Tarzan and engages in a little banter with Weissmuller. Tarzan decides things are too hot in the kitchen and removes his shirt. I thought Pangborn was going to faint on the spot.

I'm a sucker for these all star extravaganzas, I'll never give a bad review to one of them. Stage Door Canteen provides a glimpse of a bygone era, not likely to return.

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.

The Stage Door Canteen really existed in New York. It was the east coast's answer to the Hollywood Canteen (there is a movie by that name too). If you want to get a good look at America in 1942 this is it. You can see the stars of the east and get to see some funny people and hear some great stars and some of the great bands of the era. All using their talents for those fighting for freedom. In WW2 Americans were into supporting their soldiers. This is a slice of American life that we don't often get to see.

A young soldier romances a hostess at the famed New York City canteen. A barrage of entertainers feed, mingle, chat and perform for the soldiers. Starring Cheryl Walker and William Terry. Just a few of the big stars contributing are: George Raft, Ed Wynn, Tallulah Bankhead, Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, Katherine Hepburn, Georgie Jessel, Kay Kyser, Count Basie, Gypsy Rose Lee, Benny Goodman, Helen Hayes and Edgar Bergen. Most prints of this "rally the boys" film run 132 minutes and others run 93 minutes. Watching this is like looking into a window of an era. Relaxing.

"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.