Cairo

If you are a Jeanette MacDonald fan this is a "MUST SEE" film. No, it's not her very best film, but it's different enough for her that it's really great watching!! Read the other comments - except for the fellow that doesn't like Musicals (poor fellow), they're pretty much right on track. While Robert Young gets a bit "hammy" in a couple scenes, overall it's a very delightful musical/spy spoof/drama/etc. A good balance of songs and drama, which was important for morale during the early years of WWII.

Hint for Jeanette MacDonald fans: You _MUST_ see Ethyl Waters and Jeanette's rendition of "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" about half way through the film. You've NEVER seen Jeanete like this - very cute, very well done!!

Really, they could have gone to 2-1/2. Would it have killed them? When I see two stars, I expect to see a complete disaster.

"Cairo" from 1942 is a bit convoluted, but there are some fun moments. The film stars Robert Young, Jeannette MacDonald, Ethel Waters, Lionel Atwill, Eduardo Ciannelli and Reginald Owen.

Part of the problem with "Cairo" is you're not sure what you're watching - musical, comedy, drama, what? It's a comedy with music, but a bit unsure of itself. Young plays Homer Smith, a newspaper reporter who suspects the famous singer/movie star Marcia Warren of being a Nazi spy. She suspects him of being one as well.

The best scene occurs when they go out for an evening, manage to get away from one another, and each go back to MacDonald's house to search the other's room. There's also a joke with her high C, which inadvertently opens a secret passage.

One of the assets of "Cairo" is Jeannette MacDonald, who was so beautiful, and here she's in good voice and very appealing in her performances. Ethel Waters is wonderful, though she certainly could have done more. Young was never a top-flight movie star, but he does okay. MacDonald is excellent, very charming and funny.

With a little work on the script, this could have been an excellent film. However, it looks like it was rushed out as a propaganda movie and done on the cheap.

The film has some great in jokes. When Marcia Warren and Homer Smith question one another, they learn that they are both from California. She's from the north; he's from the south. Both denigrate where the other lives. Finally Smith says to her, "Have you ever been to San Francisco?" "Once," she answers, "with Gable and Tracy and the joint fell apart."

I enjoyed the story line and comic sequences in this spy-movie spoof. But, I was a bit wary knowing that Jeanette MacDonald was in the cast. I hoped that, for a change, she would give her voice a rest and just play the comedy. I was sure wrong. There are too many musical numbers in this film and, for me, they detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.

I guess there was no way that the producers of any movie with Ms. MacDonald in the cast would not utilize her voice. My fault, I should have known better. Oh, I almost forgot. Ethel Waters (she of the very big mouth) was also in the cast and, of course, sang a couple of songs.

If all of this sounds as if I don't like Musicals, you're absolutely correct. We all have our own individual tastes.

Cairo doesn't open in Cairo. It opens in that garden spot community of Cavity Rock, California in the northern part of the state where the local paper has won a contest by being declared the best small town newspaper in the USA. That contest carries with it the distinction of having their star reporter, one Homer Smith played by Robert Young, the appointment of foreign correspondent to cover World War II personally.

Previous to getting the news Young is watching his favorite film star Marcia Warren on the screen. It happens to be a scene from Maytime with Jeanette MacDonald singing Les Filles Des Cadiz. In the film MacDonald had gone to Europe to make a film three years earlier and the outbreak of war forced her to flee to North Africa from France.

In the meantime Young gets torpedoed in the Mediterranean and finds himself on a floating piece of wreckage with a garrulous, but mysterious Englishman played by Reginald Owen. They're forced to split up, but Young's given a message for someone in Cairo by Owen who tells him he's with British Intelligence.

Of course Young meets the movie star girl of his dreams in Cairo and what follows is a comedy of errors in which each believes the other is a spy. The enemy does have a dastardly bit of business cooked up, but that's for you to watch the film to find out.

As a satire on spy films Cairo is uneven. Some of the stuff is brilliant, some of it trite. One of the gags involves Jeanette's ability to hit a high C because that opens certain doors. Even the bad Nazi lady, Mona Barrie, says why don't we just have doorknobs like everyone else.

The master plot itself is kind of dumb. It's an elaborate scheme, but it only involves the destruction of one troop transport which it the long range scheme of things seems a waste.

But what really makes Cairo worth watching isn't Jeanette so much as Ethel Waters. Ms. Waters is playing a maid, but she's quite a bit more than that as Jeanette's girl Friday and personal assistant. She's not subservient in the least. And of course she gets a couple of numbers to sing with her style contrasting quite nicely with Jeanette. Ethel sings the Harold Arlen-E.Y. Harburg tune Buds Won't Bud and in grand style.

Jeanette's highlight is a song about the Lady in the Harbor, the Statue of Liberty. She sings it in grand bravura style and I'm sure brought many a tear to the eyes of GIs when this film was shown abroad.

Fans of Jeanette will love this film, others might find it amusing but only in spots. And fans of Ethel Waters shouldn't miss it.

Although not very funny, it does have its moments. Jeanette and Ethel are the classiest folks in this and one wishes the vehicle were more worthy as they are a great team, both vocally and in easy going comedy.

I won't go into the story line as it can be found elsewhere on this page. Robert Young tries valiantly, but is miscast. A light comedy actor with a penchant for bumbling or being a bit dumb, such as Ralph Bellamy or Fred MacMurray, may have been a better choice, although they were not under an MGM contract at the time.

The score, by Arlen and Harburg, is lackluster with the exception of the classic "Buds Won't Bud," which Ethel Waters does full justice to in what is for me the high point of the film.

Jeannette takes part in 6 numbers: Les Filles de Cadiz, The Waltz is Over, No Place Like Love, Avalon, Cairo, and a bizarre patriotic medley, including Keep The Light Burning Bright, Waiting For The Robert. E. Lee, Sky Blue Waters, Home Sweet Home and The Beautiful Ohio.

This is the sort of film that needed an Ernst Lubitsch at the helm to make it a frothy and fun spoof on espionage and mistaken identity. W. S. Van Dyke takes the script a bit too seriously and loses most of the comedic opportunities.

All in all, harmless fun with a splendid Jeanette and Ethel duo.