The United States Navy Band

Why do they start this short about the Navy band by singing the version of "Anchors Away" that's used at Annapolis' football games? The Negulesco musical shorts that Warner Brothers' Vitaphone unit produced in the 1940s tended to be livelier than earlier projects, with a lot more outdoor shooting -- like this one, which includes shot of the Lincoln Memorial -- but I find that a little odd. It's not the swing music. That's obviously to appeal to to the young men who might see this short subject in the theater, and then head out to enlist. Perhaps, like the William Tenn short story, the war that the Navy was fighting was, after all, against the Army.

No, that's can't be right. Perhaps, this was just one of the "selected short subjects" that a movie program encompassed during the war, when a show would include not just the feature, but cartoons, newsreels, educational shorts..... In the end, this was another chaser, a short subject meant to end the program and send the audience stepping out quickly. Some good music, some stirring images.

This 10 minute musical short features the United States Navy Band in concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Some of the numbers are done with a chorus and some are strictly instrumental.

It's a no frills short, we see edited shots of the band and chorus with some newsreel footage. When the band plays Don't Give Up The Ship there is some newsreel footage of visitors to the Lincoln Memorial and later they cut to shots of John Paul Jones's grave at Annapolis.

Via newsreel the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King also appears. Back before there was radio or sound films, the military bands would tour in concert, most famous the Marine Band of led by John Philip Sousa.

I would love to have had a newsreel short of that band in concert.

United States Navy Band, The (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Musical short from Warner was another in their series of WWII films that showed our men not fighting but instead creating music. I've seen three or four of these shorts and they're all fairly simple with stock footage being used with the music playing in the background. There's really nothing ground breaking here but it is nice seeing some of our soldiers doing other things rather than just fighting. We get several songs here being led by Charles Brendler and some of the highlights are "Anchors Aweigh", "Don't Give Up the Ship" and "V Calls for Victory". The band, which apparently toured the country, is pretty good in their own right and turn in good renditions of the songs.

Just watched this basically Navy band concert short (which was shot without an audience) on the Thank Your Lucky Stars DVD. They perform, instrumentally and with vocals, various patriotic songs on the steps of the Lincoln memorial with some inserts of a couple of uniformed men and a couple of young boys looking at the sitting Lincoln statue. There's also a famous quote from John Paul Jones on screen and a view of the Washington monument at the beginning. There's also a filmic recreation of a famous Naval battle. Quite enjoyable as directed by Jean Negulesco and so on that note, The United States Navy Band is worth a look for anyone interested in these rarities.