Something for the Boys *** (1944, Carmen Miranda, Michael O’Shea, Vivian Blaine, Phil Silvers, Sheila Ryan, Perry Como) – Classic Movie Review 11,519

Director Lewis Seiler’s exuberant 1944 20th Century Fox Technicolor film Something for the Boys is a most entertaining movie of Cole Porter’s attractive Broadway musical about cousins (Carmen Miranda, Phil Silvers, Vivian Blaine) who inherit an abandoned, ruined plantation mansion house in Masonville, Georgia, and devise a show to pay to turn it into a home for servicemen’s wives. Chiquita Hart (Carmen Miranda), Harry (Phil Silvers) and Blossom (Vivian Blaine) leave their jobs to reform the place and rent it out, combining a hostel service with performers’ shows.

There is jolly music from the high-spirited cast (with extra Jimmy McHugh – Harold Adamson songs), plus Peter Como in his début (it is interesting to see the young singer in action) as Sergeant Laddie Green and a cameo from Judy Holliday as a welder in a brief role six minutes into this her third film. Michael O’Shea also stars as Staff Sgt Rocky Fulton, a well-known orchestra leader before joining the military, who arrives on the scene with some of his men, including Sergeant Green.

And Carmen Miranda is certainly something for some of the boys as defence plant worker Chiquita Hart.

The screenplay is by Robert Ellis, Helen Logan and Frank Gabrielson, based on the 1943 Broadway musical of the same name that starred Ethel Merman.

Typically the film uses only the title song from Porter’s score, dumps stage star Merman, and instead expands Chiquta’s role for Miranda.

Also in the cast are Phil Silvers, Sheila Ryan, Glenn Langan, Cara Williams, Thurston Hall, Eddie Acuff, Murray Alper, Rory Calhoun, Roger Clark, Jimmie Dodd, Paul Hurst, Clarence Kolb, Jane Nigh, Garry Owen, Harry Seymour, Andrew Tombes, and Cara Williams.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,519

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