Reveille with Beverly

In "Reveille with Beverly", you get to see a LOT of famous musical acts of the day...such as Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, the Mills Brothers as well as Duke Ellington! They all are playing themselves in this film based on a radio program of the same name, "Reveille with Beverly".

Beverly (Ann Miller) works in a music store, though jumps at a chance to work for a local radio station. She'd love to have her own radio musical show...and she hopes that working there as a receptionist will lead to a chance to be on the air. Well, after a bit of conniving, she gets to fill in for one of the disc jockeys and soon she's a hit...especially with the soldiers (since it was made during WWII, they were sure to add this to make the film seem patriotic). But her boss is a knucklehead and he fires her instead! What's next? Well, a lot...including a case of two guys pretending to be each other!

The story is slight but enjoyable but THE reason to see the film is to see and hear the great musical acts. This alone makes the film well worth your time.

By the way, the film also has support from Irene and Tim Ryan, who were married but in the midst of getting a divorce when they appeared in the movie. You might remember Irene, as she played 'Granny' on "The Beverly Hillbillies".

Beverly Ross (Ann Miller) is a switchboard operator at a radio station. She dreams of hosting a program for swing music. She gets her chance and transforms an early morning boring classical music show. She becomes the favorite of many soldiers on their way to the front.

I love the music. Frank Sinatra sings Night and Day which is probably my least favorite. I'm more interested in the big band swing music. I even like the Cow song and some of the weirder performances. As for the actual movie, I can mostly leave it. It doesn't help that it gets chopped up by the music interludes. By the time they get back to the story, I had forgotten what was going on. This is better off without a story. It's really only compelling as a performance for the troops and that's what happens in the end. During wartime, that's all that's truly needed.

Reveille With Beverly is one of Columbia Pictures all star war time contributions for the boys in the service. But not having a really big studio with a lot of contract players like MGM or Paramount, what was Harry Cohn to do.

The answer is take your stars from that other medium, that of swing music. Ann Miller plays a young lady named Beverly who works the telephone switchboard at an easy listening radio station. She'd like to break into radio on the air, but the boss Tim Ryan won't give her a break. Besides he's not into current musical tastes.

But the resourceful Beverly gets her chance when she gets the hypochondriacal Franklin Pangborn who plays classical music in the wee small hours around dawn into thinking he's down with something terrible. She subs for him and plays the current swing bands and the rest is history. The new draftees at a nearby army base like her music so much the program is dubbed Reveille with Beverly.

Of course there's a silly subplot involving a pair of draftees who used to be millionaire and chauffeur who are rivals for Ann Miller. These two parts are played by William Wright and Dick Purcell in a plot situation that is totally ripped off from Abbott&Costello's Buck Privates. They are a bit friendlier than Lee Bowman and Alan Curtis from the Universal classic.

But all of this is just so we can get to hear such bands as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Bob Crosby and Freddie Slack's respective orchestras. The Mills Brothers are also on hand. And a young singer who had just left the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra sings Night and Day with an all girl band. Frank Sinatra and the rest of the acts were brought into the film by Ann Miller as she introduces the record and it starts spinning and the screen dissolves into a performance by the performers.

So other than a toe tapping finale by Ann Miller this certainly was doing one of those all star extravaganzas on the cheap. Ann's number was clumsily introduced into the proceedings since at no time during the film was it mentioned she had any dancing talent. But Ann's fans bought tickets to see her dance so I guess it was understood there would be a dance number.

Reveille with Beverly is a great piece of World War II nostalgia and definitely for fans of swing music.

Ann Miller gets her chance on radio with a fill-in show when Franklin Pangborn takes off from his early-morning classical music show for a vacation. Miss Miller loves swing, and the spinning records turn into the actual performers doing their numbers: Ellington & band "Take the A Train"; Bob Crosby for "Big Noise From Winnetka; two helpings of the Mills Brother, and so forth. Meanwhile the plot has Will Wright and chauffeur Dick Purcell drafted, and both courting Miss Miller; to prove it isn't his money that makes women like him, they switch identities when she's around.

Good music, and Miss Miller goes a big tap routine at the end, so it's all good. What's astonishing to me is that there seems to be no way to cut the Black performers out without trimming the movie to a sub-second-feature length, and ruining the pacing. During this period, specialty numbers by Black performers were placed so they could be removed for the Whites-only theaters in the South.

Looking luscious at the age the ripe old age of 20, Ann Miller stars in this 1940s equivalent of today's music videos on MTV or VH1. The flimsy plot is just an excuse to string together musical performances of recording artists of that era.

The musical performance by Frank Sinatra of Cole Porter's "Night And Day" is a noteworthy highlight. His stage is set with six lady pianists at grand pianos and six lady violinists.

Although flimsy, the plot has some merit. Comic relief is provided by veteran character actors, Tim Ryan and Irene Ryan, along with perpetually persnickety Franklin Pangborn. You'll also recognize other character actors in this film.

The film wraps up with a splendid tap dancing production number by Miller, to a patriotic World War II-era song.

It's 78 minutes of nostalgia and worth watching just to see Miller at her loveliest. The print recently broadcast by Turner Classic Movies was in very good condition.