Hollywood Canteen

Be ready to sit back and be gloriously entertained for 2 hours. The Hollywood Canteen was a real place that was the idea of John Garfield who enlisted the help of Bette Davis and they took it from there. Bette got Jules Stein (head of Warner Brothers) involved and it really took off from there. Then they made the movie, the bulk of the proceeds went to the Hollywood Canteen. The stars just keep on coming and they all put on a show. Here is your chance to see them virtually in their prime or heading into their prime. Nothing boring here. Then there is the love story between Joan Leslie and Robert Hutton (there was a tremendous chemistry between them on the screen). Sure it would never happen in real life but it certainly would be every soldier's fantasy that it could happen. And that would keep a lot of spirits up in cold fox holes. I can see why it was such a success when it came out. The Hollywood Canteen closed after V-J day. It had $500,000 left in bank account. That was used to set up a foundation to fund projects for the armed services and it is still going today!

Simple story that would inspire any soldier or soldier to be. Serve your country and you could be rewarded with being supported and entertained by top Movie Stars!

Two soldiers on leave wander thru Hollywood and Vine area and there they find the Hollywood Canteen, a USO for all branches of the service. Many famous actresses and actors volunteer to entertain and/or dance with lonely servicemen, chat with the homesick men, and serve the young soldiers food and drink.

Our story follows one of the soldiers that has a crush on actress Joan Leslie and his dream of meeting the beautiful actress. Suddenly he gets a real "Hollywood" welcome by becoming the 1 millionth man to enter the USO canteen. His prize, a date with the Hollywood Actress of his choice.

Fun to see Bette Davis, Joan Leslie, Joan Crawford, Jane Wyman, and many more famous women in their dewy youth. Great to see handsome John Garfield, Alan Hale, Jack Carson,+ more in their younger years.

Great entertainment by Roy Rogers, Dorsey Band, Andrew Sisters and Eddie Cantor.

The film is an excellent period piece... one of those Hollywood wartime spectaculars that sort of carries out that sense of wartime thrift -- use just enough plot to glue the songs lightly together, and make sure you wave the flag enough to produce some enthusiasm for the "Buy War Bonds" trailer. The plot's thin, the music's good, the dancing OK, and it's actually pretty cool to see stars being "themselves." Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet are hilarious in a two-minute gag that evokes "The Maltese Falcon."

If you want suspense, drama, excitement - find another movie. This is pure entertainment with a huge cast of top name stars. The story is a poor excuse to parade the big names, but who cares about plot when you have this historical document demonstrating how "old fashion decent folks" used to behave. The canteen was real, the stars banded together to do their part for the war effort. As a retired military officer I remember the good days when the military was respected and treated just as good as it was shown in the movie.

I could never imagine todays self centered stars banding together to do something similar to the Hollywood canteen. Hurray for Hollywood - the real entertainment folks with true talent.

Hollywood Canteen (1944)

*** (out of 4)

The Hollywood Canteen club was started by Bette Davis and John Garfield as a way for Hollywood to show support to U.S. Troops who were heading overseas. The club offered the service people a chance to meet, dance and be waited on by various celebrities from Hollywood. This movie here gathers up some of the biggest people in the business and we're given a side story of a soldier (Robert Hutton) getting a three day pass and spending it at the club where he meets and falls in love with Joan Leslie. If you're looking for a film with a story then you're not going to find it here. Many people have attacked this film for being stupid and I understand that but at the same time this thing offers up a chance to see the actual club and we also get some of the biggest stars every put together for a film. A lot of the cameos are rather silly and of course everyone is introduced by name but it's still quite fun seeing so many people in one film. Not only do we get Davis, Garfield and Leslie but there's dozens of other stars including the likes of Crawford, Stanwyck, Lorre, Greenstreet, Rogers (and Trigger), Benny, Parker, Alexis Smith, Ida Lupino, Henried, Brown and countless others. Seeing these stars in one picture is reason enough to check it out and there are also some musical numbers to keep you entertained. I think the film works best during the first hour when we're inside the club and the various stars are just making cameos. Once the love story kicks in things gets extremely silly and obviously staged but both Hutton and especially Leslie are charming enough to keep you slightly entertained. At 124-minutes the film does run out of gas before it's over with but film buffs should still enjoy it.