Janie

Janie is a pleasant family comedy that had its origins as a successful play on Broadway running 642 performances during the 1942-44 seasons on Broadway. Warner Brothers bought the film rights and brought the film to the movie-going public the same year the play closed on Broadway. It certainly reflects more innocent times.

Young Janie is your typical teen of the times, having romantic thoughts mostly instigated by the fact there is an army camp just been built in her sleepy little Midwest town of Hortonville. All those soldiers around may excite her, but for her father Edward Arnold town newspaper publisher and former doughboy from the last war who remembers what soldiers are like, they're oversexed and over here and the sooner we get them off to war the easier he'll feel.

Janie played by Joyce Reynolds gets the idea to have an intimate gathering for her girl friends and their soldier dates at home and gets Arnold and her mother Ann Harding out for the evening. But her civilian high school sweetheart Richard Erdman gets on the horn and pretty soon Janie's got a regular USO going at her house for the evening. Worst of all her own soldier beau Robert Hutton is stuck on a bus with her little sister Clare Foley. Hutton by the way looks like a pale imitation of Jimmy Stewart.

Janie got an Oscar nomination for Editing, but the highlight of the film for me is the lone musical number Keep Your Powder Dry performed in Busby Berkley style by the partygoers which include the Williams Brothers Quartet with that youngest Williams brother Andy who had a solo career of sorts, future head Mouseketeer Jimmy Dodd, and even Hattie McDaniel who is Arnold's and Harding's maid. As usual Hattie gets some devastating lines.

Although the mores of the times have changed and Janie has a most old fashioned look, I hope someone put a print of this film in a time capsule. The vacuum will keep it pristine and some folks in the future will have an idea of the American home front in 1944.

Janie is a delightful example of mid-1940s escapist cinema - a spirited, breezy comedy that captures the flavor of small-town American life during World War II with warmth and wit.

At its heart is a lively and headstrong teenage girl whose exuberance and imagination drive the film's pace. The film balances light-hearted mischief with sincere moments of reflection, tapping into the patriotic mood of the era while never losing its sense of humor.

Visually, the film is crisp and bright, with snappy dialogue and an ensemble cast that knows how to deliver charm without slipping into caricature. The energy never flags, and the tone remains upbeat even when touching on the complexities of wartime life and young love.

Though its themes are firmly rooted in the 1940s, Janie holds up surprisingly well as a nostalgic time capsule. It's a film that celebrates youthful independence and family dynamics, offering a sweet, playful story that's easy to enjoy.

For me, the real star of this movie is Clare Foley, Janie's seven-year-old little sister. She is tremendously funny, ALMOST at a level equal to child actress Margaret O'Brien (Noted for the terrific movie, Meet Me In St. Louis.) Sadly, Clare Foley died at only 39 years of age. A DuckDuckGo search gives little information about her. As far as I can tell, she was only in the two Janie movies.

In an effort to compete with the popular family pictures being produced by MGM during the World War II era, like the Andy Hardy series, studio mogul Jack Warner charged his staff with creating a wholesome entertainment which would incorporate patriotism, small-town Americana and romance into an audience-pleasing film. The result was Janie (1944), a light romantic comedy about a 17-year-old year who decided to support the war effort by opening her home to every enlisted man stationed nearby. The accent is on humor in Janie with the central premise of adolescent girls developing crushes on visiting soldiers being treated in a charmingly naive way, devoid of any lewd suggestiveness. We will briefly see a very young singer Andy Williams (with his brothers) providing entertainment at a party scene.

Janie became one of Warner's biggest hits of 1944 grossing nearly two million dollars domestically! Pleased with Janie's success, Warner reassembled most of the cast for the inevitable follow-up, Janie Gets Married (1946), but replaced the engaging Reynolds with the studio's favorite all-American (Drop Dead Gorgeous) girl, Joan Leslie, (Joan Leslie's best role is in the movie, The Male Animal.) Also in Janie Gets Married is the very attractive Dorothy Malone.

The movies (Janie and Janie Gets married comes on the same disc.) comes on a burned (purple) DVD, not a longer lasting pressed (Silver) DVD.

Now we know how America won the war. There's more sheer bounce and energy in this 1944 family comedy than in the Nazi invasion of Poland. The gag lines and wisecracks fly faster than speeding bullets, while director-General Raoul Walsh cranks up the movie engine to jet speed. Note the constant movement inside the house as people are always going here and there. Shrewd move-- adapting a film from a stage play is like moving into a a coat closet if you're not careful. Not much of a plot-- something about soldier-boys coming to steal the local girls from their highschool sweethearts, creating a big commotion at the same time.

But who cares, with such a great cast right down to bratty little Elspeth who gets all the good lines and does nothing without being paid. Already she's learned our great economic lesson. The trouble is Dad can't figure out the younger generation because he's forgotten his own, while Mom can't seem to figure out which service uniform to wear. But that's alright because she looks good in all of them. And of course there's Janie, all spunk and glow, with her own army of boy-hungry pals. Together, they keep the phones buzzing with enough animal pizazz to light up a defense factory.

Check out the cutting-edge teens of the day-- taking a blanket on a "smooching" date with just a few hundred others. Now Dad's in an uproar when he finds out, but that's nothing compared to what he and Mom find after coming home late. There's the sailor in the bedroom, the soldier in the bathroom, and the wall gone flat in the living-room. Naturally, there's an innocent explanation for everything. And, of course, the invading servicemen were nothing but gentlemen the whole time.

Hard to believe that boys like these were dying by the thousands on the beach-heads of Normandy and Saipan. None of that here. After all, it's the Janie's of the world, safe and shielded, that the boys were fighting for. Even if it's just 90 minutes, what a great escape from all those other horrors. This is small town America, about to undergo a sea change. You can hear the waves lapping already. It's really not just the army that's come to Hortonville; it's the outside world. And all the malt shops, "smooching" parties, and small town innocence will never be the same once the war ends. This is not only a darn good little comedy-- but also a darn good little time capsule worth preserving.

Charles Conway (Edward Arnold) is tired of his daughter Janie Conway (Joyce Reynolds) and her flighty teenage ways. She and her friends get on Life Magazine for their blanket party. It's WWII and a new Army base is built nearby. All the girls are obsessed with the soldiers. Janie gets obsessed with Pfc. Dick Lawrence. His mother is a friend of her mother.

This is wartime and this is a bit teenager fun. I do wonder if these young girls would be acceptable during that time. I think they are supposed to be around fifteen. The big party is some chaotic screwball fun. There is a harmless triangle. It also works as propaganda to show some Americana for the troops.