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
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