La ronde des étoiles

As was true of the 1944 "Hollywood Canteen", this star-studded variety show presumably was especially meant to entertain US servicemen, overseas or stateside. Thus, we begin with servicemen Ron Hagerthy and funnyman Dick Wesson at Travis Airforce Base, CA, hoping to meet up with a Hollywood star or 2, rumored to be visiting the base. Eventually, they meet a few. The first half of the film supposedly takes place at this airforce base, before moving to Hollywood, with occasional returns to the airforce base. These 2 nobody soldiers will be with us, on and off, through the whole film. But, the 'star' with the most screen time is ingenue Janice Rule: this being only her second film. Along with Ruth Roman, she often acts as a greeter to the servicemen, one(Ron) of whom she flirts with, in an on again, off again, relationship, generating some drama. At least this subplot is not very obtrusive, as was the comparable romantic dabbling in "Hollywood Canteen" She is attractive and personable. She also had stage dancing talent, and dances to 2 numbers with athletic dancer Gene Nelson: among the highlights. Despite screen versatility, she was not much used by Hollywood, finding a more accepting medium in TV for a while, before quitting acting to become a psychotherapist. The only other 'name' actresses who get to do a bit of dancing are Virginia Mayo and Virginia Gibson, who portray a South seas maiden, and saloon girl, respectively. The latter 2 teamed with classical music songstress Lucille Norman to form the Dillon Sisters, in "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine", released that same year. Sexy, blond, Lucille teams with familiar baritone and leading man Gordon MacRae in singing Cole Porter's "What is this Thing Called Love". Later, Gordon solos the inspirational "On the Good Green Acres of Home"............Gene Nelson sings Doris Day's recent mega hit "It's Magic", after which Janice accompanies him in dancing to it. I much prefer D.D.'s singing rendition!. Speaking of D.D., she briefly appears several times to sing "You Ought to be in Pictures", or "You Do Something to Me", or, with Gordon, "You're Going to Lose Your Gal". She and Gordon also got to sing periodically in several movies they did together during this period, before they both became really famous..........Hold on, we have a couple more star singers to point out. Although Jane Wyman was seldom presented in film as a singer, before she became a movie star , she was a professional singer, and was allowed to sing a bit in several movies I am familiar with, including "Hollywood Canteen", and the present one. In fact, she is the only star I recognize that was in both these films.........And, let's not forget Errol Flynn's sometimes wife: Patricia Wymore: always a striking, elegant, big-eyed presence , with her singing and dancing: here to "Lisa". For a few years, she was a Warner's player: mostly a second or third lead: often 'the other woman', or a villainess..........There were a few scattered non-musical skits, none of which I will comment on.........All in all, a moderately interesting musical variety show that may be worth your time, if presented on TV or it's DVD release. Just be forewarned that the well known stars won't spend much time on screen "

As a movie this barely rates a 4 but for movie fans of the 1940s period, it's almost a must-see and rates a 9 as a variety show! I was drawn to watch this by the presence of Richard (Captain Midnight) Webb who plays the Colonel in charge of the event. What surprised me was the stunning performance of Doris Day. Outside of 'Calamity Jane', I've never seen her put over a song better than she does here. Randolph Scott is memorable as well, even if he doesn't see much screen time. It's been a while since I saw the movie but I was almost sure Humphrey Bogart put in an appearance. With so many familiar faces, it's hard to keep track. If it ever turns up on a TV station near you, be sure to catch the Doris Day sequence, if nothing else!

I recommend this film despite the low rating. Though it is saddled with a simple story and it has a disjointed narrative, it features a plethora of stars and some memorable moments.

The story revolves around a base where military personnel wait for deployment in the Korean conflict. Some Warner Brothers stars (e.g. Doris Day, Ruth Roman, and Gordon MacRae) who play versions of themselves entertain the troops there. The story eventually settles into a plot about an Air Force crewman who is a hometown acquaintance of star Nell Wayne (Janice Rule). But just as that story becomes interesting, it shifts to another, unrelated musical performance.

But some of those vocal performances are very enjoyable, especially those by Day and MacRae. Jane Wyman also sings. Look for the dancing of Janice Rule. And Virginia Gibson, who performs as a saloon girl in a musical number featuring Gary Cooper and Phil Harris that is very entertaining.

Addendum 10/20/23: Among the many beauties in the film, watch for Patrice Wymore., a knockout who taps and sings with an all-girl band. Patrice was married to Errol Flynn until his death.

Starlift is a pleasant and interesting throwback to those all star musical pictures that every studio was putting out during the World War II years. When you've got such stars as Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, and Randolph Scott, etc., in the film and with such people as the Gershwin Brothers, Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn supplying the music, it's an easy to take film. And the plot isn't even in the way.

What plot there is involves two Air Force enlisted men, Dick Wesson and Ron Hagerthy, trying to meet Warner Brothers starlet Janice Rule using as a gimmick the fact that both come from Youngstown, Ohio and Hagerthy's father was Rule's dentist as well as half of the town's. The scheme works too well as Louella Parsons is soon putting them as an item in her column. Yes, Louella's in the film as well. She must have liked Warner Brothers or Jack Warner catered to her more than the other studio bosses because she also used this studio to publicize her Hollywood Hotel radio program back in the day.

But the rest of the plot also touched on the real life efforts of Ruth Roman also playing herself to get her studio and others to do shows at the Air Force bases for the servicemen and women going to Korea. Some of the names I've mentioned and others sing and perform in a show at Travis Air Force Base where a lot of this film was shot.

One specialty number was shot for the talents of Phil Harris who sing/narrates a ballad Look Out Stranger, I'm A Texas Ranger aided and assisted by Virginia Gibson, Frank Lovejoy and Gary Cooper. Yup, Cooper looked like he was having a great old time kidding his image.

This is the oldest of clichés when you say they don't make them like this any more, but they really don't because you don't have a studio system that has all this talent under contract. That's one thing about the demise of the old studio system we can mourn.

The only time this movie ever really comes to life is when Doris Day is on screen. Sadly, she disappears after about 30 minutes. Her musical numbers, " 'S Wonderful" and "You Ought to Be in Pictures" are the film's high points, and she delivers them as only she can. Day just lights up the screen and proves once more how underrated she is as a vocalist. She's also charming in her small scene visiting Jack Larson, who plays a hospital patient.

As for the rest of the movie, the script is even more dreadful than the one for "Hollywood Canteen," of which this bears a resemblance. Janice Rule and Rick Hagerthy have zero chemistry as the romantic leads. The "comedy" routines by Peter Marshall and Tommy Noonan, and Phil Harris, Dick Wesson and the others, are cornier than an Iowa field. Virginia Mayo's South Seas number and Patrice Wymore doing "Liza" helped relieve the tedium, but Doris Day is clearly the standout. If only she'd been in more of the movie, it would have been so much better.