Wake Up and Dream

Starts out with a sappy WW II romance between waitress June Haver and farmer John Payne. He's too shy and she's impatient. He's got a mopey kid sister (Connie Marshall) and then there's the town crank (Clem Bevans) who's been building a boat even though they are nowhere near water. Payne enlists and goes off to war.

When they get a letter saying Payne's missing in action, they (accidentally) set off on a boat journey to find him. Here's where the film tries to link to THE WIZARD OF OZ by playing the theme song over and over again. On the road, the trio runs into a failed dentist (John Ireland) who joins the quest. He becomes useful, especially when they finally find a river.

They get lost on the waterways and come upon a nutty recluse (the wizard?) but a navy plane spots the stranded boat and they are rescued ... just about the time Payne returns unharmed.

Nothing about the plot makes any sense at all. The main story about the boat is annoying because it's so stupid, and the analogies to the Oz story makes no sense either.

Haver comes off best but that's no great prize. Payne is hardly in the film. Ireland is good but his character is strange. Bevans is way too hammy, and Marshall seems to be channeling Margaret O'Brien as a weepy and nearly hysterical child. George Cleveland plays the recluse. Charlotte Greenwood is totally wasted as the landlady (she may be the wife) of the Bevans character. Other familiar faces include Charles D. Brown as the commander, Minerva Urecal as the gossip, Charles Russell as Coles, and Lee Patrick who seems to be the woman sitting on a stool.

The song "Give Me the Simple Life" is the only good thing to come out of this mess.