Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

IncaWelCar In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

richard.fuller1 Back in the dark ages of three networks (four if you count ETV with Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers) and before tivo, dvr and vcrs, a late movie was what you stayed up to watch, if you remained awake.Such was the case with Thank Your Lucky Stars. I remember other movies airing late at night on the local ABC network, such as James Cagney with that grapefruit, believe it or not, among others, but Thank Your Lucky Stars had the distinction of airing late Sunday night on the first day of summer vacation. I was about 11, making this '77 or so.I knew Dinah Shore from her daytime talk show and recognized Alan Hale Sr from his son's stint on Gilligan's Island, and I knew Errol Flynn from Robin Hood airing Sunday afternoons. Didn't realize that was Abner Kravitz from Bewitched at all tho.I would not see this movie again for over 30 years, with the intention of watching it on New Year's Eve, then a tornado took out the power, so I had to wait.Cantor absolutely amused me to no end. I thought he was brilliant in the dual role of a look-alike as well as himself who no one could stand. Maybe the Cantor resentment doesn't carry over today as well as disdain for Margaret Hamilton or Lionel Barrymore, but Cantor really got it in that mental hospital.For some reason, I remember Ann Sheridan's number. She's very lovely and I understand she was popular for her time, but she's hardly striking and that hairnet deal isn't appealing. Maybe that is why I remembered her; for that odd hairnet.Most astonishing for me, upon purchasing the movie on DVD, was seeing Hattie McDaniel's Ice Cold Katie number.Where I live, in the south, this number was cut, out of some odd feeling of being considerate now? Her reprisal with Cantor was kept in. I think it was removed because of MS native Willie Best's portrayal, now regarded as offensive.I'll always enjoy this movie (being a lot longer than I recalled) simply because it means no school the next morning, if nothing else.

Richard_vmt This is a Cavalcade of Stars ( the storyline production of which is the pretext for the show) an inside look at showbiz. which is all great. With Bogart and Garfield doing extemporaneous drama, it is every bit like a TV variety show. The effect is very modern and the talent all top notch. Edie Cantor, even after familiarity during the Fifties seems bizarre as ever. Cantor dances like a magician and/or juggler. When he starts clapping and dancing like a seal, it is really all him. Quite a display. And it could be said to be pretty much the Edie Cantor Show. The songs in this particular flick hold up really well. It is still entertaining and it is history as well.This film is a great little entertainer and carries you along all the way to The End in first class spirits. The War plays almost no part in the story.

Gunn This film could have been much better if it were 30 minutes long. I realize that in 1943 Eddie Cantor was considered talented, but his music, antics and humor(?) have not survived the test time. He drags this movie way down. I kept nodding off every time he was on screen. I agree that, with the exception of Spike Jones, the music was extremely forgettable. I feel bad saying that, as I was born in 1943. There were a lot of great songs that year but none are in this film. By the time the (Lucky) stars arrive we are asleep! The highlights were Spike Jones and his City Slickers (still great after 65 years), a terrific song and dance routine "Goin' Way Up North" with Alan Hale and Jack Carson (Hale was quite surprising as a 'hoofer'), Bette Davis singing off key, but who cares she's great, Hattie McDaniel singing was fun and all were better than Cantor and the two leads Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie. I blinked and almost missed Bogart, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and John Garfield. S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall and Edward Everett Horton were fun and what was Ann Sheridan wearing on her head? This should've been a lot better but I guess it helped the War effort so that's a positive.

richard-1787 Tnis is at best a very uneven film, with very misleading billing. Humphrey Bogart, who gets first billing, appears for about 3 minutes in a very forgettable and poorly done cameo. (No, he doesn't try to sing.) Olivia de Havilland and Ida Lupino appear together in a rather mediocre dance number. Bette Davis, though she can't sing, puts in a great appearance singing "They're either too young or too old," and Errol Flynn does a remarkably good job with his song and dance number. Alexis Smith looks very elegant and graceful in her dance number, though it is true that she is lifted through the air by various male dance partners as much as she actually dances herself, which helps. Still, she looks very beautiful for her 3 minutes of screen time. Ann Sheridan looks good in her song too, but it is so mediocre that there's not much she can do with it, and since she doesn't get to do any glamorous dancing, the number is forgettable.. The same applies to Jack Carson and Alan Hale, both very talented actors, who get saddled with a truly dead song and dance duo.In fact, the weakest element in this movie is the music, which is almost all forgettable.These various cameo appearances are fitted into a frame: Dennis Morgan is trying to break into show biz as a singer, while EE Horton and SZ Sakall, who are way down on the billing, are trying to put on a charity variety show. The three of them, plus Eddie Cantor, who plays himself and is very funny doing so, are the actual stars of this movie, though you would never guess it from the billing. All four are good.There are other forgettable musical numbers, including several with Dinah Shore, who comes off as having no personality, a rousing if forgettable number for Black singers and dancers in which Hattie McDaniel holds up her own, and a monologue of sorts with John Garfield that's not half bad, but only because he's a good actor.In short, a largely mediocre effort. If you like any of the stars who do the cameos, you will want to see them do their 3-5 minute bits. If you're looking for 2 hours of entertainment - this movie runs just over 2 hours - you won't find it here, though.-----------------------------------I've just watched it again two years later. Perhaps I'm in a more charitable mood, but this time I got more pleasure out of it. It really only works if you know the work of the various actors who appear, as most of them either play against type - like Errol Flynn or his frequent side-kick, Alan Hale - or satirize themselves, like John Garfield, who is really very good playing a highly exaggerated version of his usual tough guy. Ann Sheridan is a knockout in her number, thanks to her dress and the way she moves; you really don't notice that she wasn't a great singer. That's the case for most of these cameo performances: they're done by often very fine actors who didn't normally sing and dance on screen. Most seem to be having a good time doing something they didn't usually get to do, and none of them embarrass themselves. Bette Davis definitely couldn't sing, but she brings off her number through sheer personality. The same goes for many of the others.If you don't know the classic Warner Brothers movies of the 30s and early 40s, this won't hold you. If you know how these stars normally appeared, you may get a kick out of seeing them do something very different, or making fun of what they normally did.