Stage Door Canteen

I was lucky enough to stumble upon this during a week of WW2 B&W's run on TMC. Read all the other posts for a description. I'd just like to add my admiration for my dad's generation. What a fabulous film! I so envy their patriotism. Sure there were plenty of scumbags exploiting and dodging the war but this film makes me think of all those young men going of to an almost certain death. Our losses were bad, but I was surprised at the tribute paid to the Russian and Chinese servicemen (and women) whose losses were each in the multi-millions. I appreciated the performers for their skill and professionalism. The violinist seemed out of place until you see the crowd, enthralled, quiet, and admiring, politely keeping quiet, and then the applause. It made me think of how my dad's generation, without our over-bearing music industry, appreciated real classic music. Now, classic music is largely unappreciated by the masses. The comments of others on Hepburn are not deserved. As usual, people often try to judge films, attitudes, and events based on present-day ideals. Yeah, patriotism may be embarrassing and corny now, but in 1942 after some of your relatives are killed trying to stop Hitler I don't think it was out of place. Hepburns performance was one of the few of hers that I liked. I hoped she didn't have to be coaxed.

In wartime, a group of soldiers stop off at a canteen before they are posted to heaven knows where. In this canteen they are entertained and served by luminaries from stage and screen (so much fun for the viewer spotting big names in little roles). The soldiers (California, Dakota, and Tex) are the lynchpins who carry the paper-thin story around delightful performances from the likes of Ethel Merman, Ray Bolger, Gracie Fields, Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee, Kay Kyser, Xavier Cugat, and Count Basie.

Blink and you might miss (a few names for a taster) Tallulah Bankhead, Ina Claire, Judith Anderson, Aline MacMahon, Katherine Cornell, the Lunts, George Jessel, Ed Wynn, Ralph Bellamy, George Raft, May Whitty, Harpo Marx, Ned Sparks, and Dorothy Fields. You'll remember Katharine Hepburn as she goes all patriotic at the end of the movie.

Is it a good film? Probably not, but it is certainly historically interesting and probably has the most big names in one movie. The three soldier boys stand for all their compatriots who went to war'during both that conflict and the ones which followed. They aren't glorified, but are simply depicted as young lads who like dancing with girls and being treated with courtesy. We may never know what happens to California, Dakota, and Tex (and millions like them) but 'Stage Door Canteen' gives you a bit of their lives, and a snapshot of the wartime canteen.

You'll never see films like Stage Door Canteen again. The all star support the troops film is a thing of the past. Try to make something like that today and see how many stars would be willing. This is an art form deader than the dinosaur.

No reason it can't be enjoyed though. Skip the slight plot involving the servicemen who are patronizing the Stage Door Canteen who hook up with the hostesses there. Concentrate on the number of stars in the film, each doing some bit of business for themselves.

Though a number of film stars are here, the film concentrates on stars of the Broadway stage. Katherine Cornell makes her one and only appearance in a film, in fact my favorite part of Stage Door Canteen is her impromptu reading from Romeo and Juliet with bashful GI Lon McCallister who played Romeo in high school. Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne are here also. The Lunts later did some televised plays and we have some kinescope version of them. They eschewed the screen though, so even a bit of footage of them doing kitchen police at the Canteen we should be grateful for.

The concert violinist Yehuda Menuhin is also here and it's nice the GIs took time to hear some serious music, a break from the swing bands of the era that are featured like Count Basie, Freddy Martin, Benny Goodman, and Kay Kyser.

Director Frank Borzage was known for doing films of tender romances and the nominal leads William Terry and Cheryl Walker were little heard from again. Still they do their best to provide the note of poignancy for the serviceman enjoying time with the stars before going to war.

Funniest unintentional moment occurs when Franklin Pangborn and Johnny Weissmuller are on the serving line. Pangborn who was very close to being an out gay actor at the time is looking admiringly at Tarzan and engages in a little banter with Weissmuller. Tarzan decides things are too hot in the kitchen and removes his shirt. I thought Pangborn was going to faint on the spot.

I'm a sucker for these all star extravaganzas, I'll never give a bad review to one of them. Stage Door Canteen provides a glimpse of a bygone era, not likely to return.

STAGE DOOR CANTEEN, of course, is set during WWII, and its main locale is the canteen of the film's title that is run and staffed by stars of the cinema and stage. The New York version of the Hollywood Canteen set up on the West Coast by Bette Davis and others, the Stage Door Canteen welcomes the boys in uniform when they're on leave, giving them a little comfort, a little entertainment, a little taste of home. Although STAGE DOOR CANTEEN really is about the big-name entertainment involved (with cameos by top-billed stars like Katharine Hepburn, Harpo Marx and Ray Bolger among others), it tries also to tell a heartwarming tale of the bravery of the boys who must fight, if necessary to the death, so that the rest of their country might live in peace. The loyal and brave Dakota (William Terry) stumbles into love with the initially selfish, haughty Eileen (Cheryl Walker); young California (Lon McAllister) keeps missing out on his first kiss with Jean (Marjorie Riordan) and Tex (Sunset Carson) wants to go back west with Ella Sue (Margaret Early) when the fighting's done. It all revolves around the idea of the boys having something--someone--to fight for overseas, someone to write home to, someone to come home to.

In that sense, the film succeeds; I was actually rather moved by the final words each boy left for his girl at the end of the film. That doesn't mean the film isn't a little saccharine though; it *has* to be--it was meant to be a morale booster during the 1940s (including, as it does, songs about shooting down Japanese planes and marching into Berlin). It rides on the strong wave of American patriotism at the time, reflecting and hoping to add to it, and even hints at an internationalism unheard of these days (the crowd cheers for Russian soldiers and carries Chinese pilots on their shoulders in tribute to their bravery). If you strip it of these time-bound scenes, however, the message and the courage remains, which is what makes STAGE DOOR CANTEEN still a film that one can enjoyably sit through not just for the glamorous star cameos. It's sweet when California keeps trying to kiss Jean and missing out (including an incredibly frustrating final attempt when someone cuts in on them when they're dancing!), and you feel just as dejected as Eileen must when she realises that Dakota *isn't* coming back this time. (Let us, for now, leave aside the fact that I can't seem to find a redeeming quality in Eileen beyond the fact that she's willing to break the canteen rules to make it up to Dakota for being mean to him at first.)

The big-name entertainment in STAGE DOOR CANTEEN really can't be faulted: there are appearances by the orchestras of Benny Goodman, Xavier Cugat and Count Basie (to name just a few!); cameos by Merle Oberon, Katharine Cornell and Alan Mowbray; and a pretty literal striptease that ends way too soon for the boys' liking by Gypsy Rose Lee. My favourite numbers would be 'We Mustn't Say Goodbye' and 'Don't Worry Island', alongside Yehudi Menuhin's beautiful rendition of 'Ave Maria' (unfortunately given under some quite terrible lighting) and the very funny opening act with Edgar Bergen and Charlie. As, essentially, the final act, Hepburn gives her few words great weight and is as striking as ever with her five minutes (tops!) of screen time.

All in all, STAGE DOOR CANTEEN is great fun to watch. It'd be even better fun if one knew all of the people making cameos in it--I could only half-guess at most of them, and I'm sure I missed many many others. A sweet, patriotic film made with a very definite purpose, and if you make allowances for that purpose, it's easy to accept the overdoing of the message, and appreciate the film for what it is... good, clean entertainment!

The Stage Door Canteen really existed in New York. It was the east coast's answer to the Hollywood Canteen (there is a movie by that name too). If you want to get a good look at America in 1942 this is it. You can see the stars of the east and get to see some funny people and hear some great stars and some of the great bands of the era. All using their talents for those fighting for freedom. In WW2 Americans were into supporting their soldiers. This is a slice of American life that we don't often get to see.