Up in Arms

1944 "SHOW OF SHOWS...AND YOUR ENTERTAINMENT DELIGHT OF ALL TIME!"
6.2| 1h45m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 17 February 1944 Released
Producted By: Avalon Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Hypochondriac Danny Weems gets drafted and accidentally smuggles his girlfriend aboard his Pacific-bound troopship.

Genre

Comedy, Music, Romance

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Up in Arms (1944) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Elliott Nugent

Production Companies

Avalon Productions

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Up in Arms Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.
Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
douglas hansen I remember seeing Up In Arms on TV when I was a young boy and found it thoroughly entertaining. I remember so much of it as if I'd just seen it and now it's been at least ten years.The story concerns a hypochondriac (Danny) who gets drafted despite his terrible perceived problems. Along the way he hitches up with his friend Joe(Dana Andrews), Dinah Shore in one of her better roles and Constance Cummings. I'll not tell you which girl Danny gets but this is the movie that has his famous spoof on the movies of the time. It's his incredible "Lobby Number" which precedes to get him and his friends "escorted" out of the movie theater before the show even starts.There is also a great Technicolor musical number towards the end of the film "Tess's Torch Song" with Danny and Dinah. It's a swingy, torchy, blues of a thing that has always left me smiling. Sure it's a fluff of a movie but that's what many pictures were in those days.So if you wish to escape reality and go along for a tuneful and comedic ride, just get Up In Arms. Personally I'd jump at a box set of Danny Kaye DVD's. I don't understand why the Inspector General gets a release but Up In Arms, Knock On Wood and the Kid From Brooklyn are left in VHS form. These are some enjoyable movies and truly highlight Danny Kaye's knock out entertaining.
dunkiin This recently showed on Turner Classic Movies and I was lucky enough to catch most of it. The film is old and features some cartoonesque lampooning of racial stereotypes (especially the Japanese, but hey it was made in 1944 - do the math), but nothing as offensive as incidental references made in the modern media. Danny Kaye's antics had me in stitches and the ladies are still lovely despite the age of the material - the song-and-dance silly humor is unlike anything you'll find in Hollywood these days but was quite fitting at the time. Overall it was highly entertaining and I would not mind watching it again either alone or with company.
Robert J. Maxwell This is about as corny as they come. Everybody's so -- NICE. Danny Kaye is a shy elevator operator. Dinah Shore is a nurse who loves him. Constance Dowling is the girl Danny Kaye thinks he loves, but when she meets Danny's roommate, Dana Andrews, they fall for one another. (During a scene involving a horse-drawn milk wagon -- those were the days.) They all wind up in the Army and are sent to the Pacific. Danny accidentally becomes a hero. He winds up with Dinah, and Constance winds up with Dana. Everybody lives happily ever after.The whole thing was shot in an MGM studio and looks entirely phony.I love it. I used to watch it repeatedly with my kid when he was about ten. We had practically all the dialog memorized. The hypochondriacal Kaye is taking a passenger in his elevator, down from a doctor's office to the lobby. The guy tells Kaye he's feeling just fine now and clears his throat a bit. "What's that clicking in your throat?" asks Kaye, backing away. By the time they reach the lobby the poor guy staggers out, his face pale, his hands clutched to his chest.Well, no need to go on about this. It's a salubrious mixture of romance and comedy, with Kaye having to imitate a Scotsman and so forth, acquiring the reputation of a real lady's man and the nickname "The Purple Flash." His ridiculous song is in my opinion the funniest he's done on screen. We glean from the gibberish that he's been drafted and is trying to get out of it by offering all kinds of excuses to the draft board. In one of them -- I guess I can mention this, since it seemed to have slipped by the censors -- he's offering medical reasons why he should be exempt. Weeping piteously, still sputtering nonsense, he makes a pumping motion with his fist then points to his head and twirls his finger. At the end he falls off the stage into the band.Just two more things, I swear, then I'll quit. Dinah Shore gets to sing and record a really lovely gelatinous 1940s ballad. What a marvelous voice she had, so on pitch, feminine, and full of feeling. The name of the song is "Now I Know." The lyricist should be drummed out of his professional society. Here -- as in the other one or two songs -- the lyrics are about as bad as they come. ("Ten million Yankees are standing PAT and the world knows THAT isn't hay!") At any rate, Kaye takes the record and a forbidden record player on board the troopship, where he is harassed by most of the other soldiers, big tough specimens too. During one confrontation with them, the record starts playing and Kaye has to lip-synch the words while the others stare at him goggle-eyed. Finally, the stylus gets caught in a groove and Dinah Shore's voice repeats itself -- "Now I know....Now I know.....Now I know...." One of the soldiers, a suspicious and particularly feral brute, Blackie, slowly traces the music to its source, uncovers the record player and says in his working-class New York accent, "Now we BOTE know," and flings Kaye against the bulkhead.It's an engaging movie, well worth catching if it's on, and suitable for family viewing. (Never mind that gesture during Kaye's gibberish song. I'm sure the practice flourishes but the causal meme has faded.)
moose-51 This is only the second Danny Kaye film I've had the pleasure of watching, and he certainly didn't disappoint. The scene at the beginning of the film is fantastic, and Kaye's outstanding ability to tongue-twist in a song mixed in a conversation is hilarious! It has a lovely plot and Kaye steals every scene, from his serious romantic side, to his outrageous physical comedy. There are loads of brilliant one liners in there from Kaye, and his character being a hypochondriac just adds to the enjoyment! If you haven't seen this film yet, then what are you waiting for?!