Thank Your Lucky Stars *** (1943, Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart) – Classic Movie Review 10,693

Director David Butler’s 1943 musical Thank Your Lucky Stars is the Warner Bros’ wartime extravaganza where Bette Davis gets to sing ‘They’re Either Too Young or Too Old’ and turns it into a showstopper.

There is perhaps too much of a goodish thing in Eddie Cantor, who is the main star and plays two roles – Joe Sampson and himself – indeed there is perhaps too much altogether at over two hours, but the great guests atone.

Look out especially for Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn (bizarrely as a cockney matelot trilling performing ‘That’s What You Jolly Well Get’), John Garfield (performing ‘Blues in the Night’), Dinah Shore (with the title ditty) and Ann Sheridan (who sings ‘Love Isn’t Born It’s Made’), along with Jack Carson, Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale, Ida Lupino, Hattie McDaniel, Alexis Smith, George Tobias and Spike Jones. The star-struck will be in heaven.

The show is hung on a peg of a story by Everett Freeman and Arthur Schwartz, in which two producers are putting together a World War Two wartime charity show with an all-star cast.

Also in the cast are Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton, S Z Sakall, Ruth Donnelly, Joyce Reynolds, Richard Lane, Don Wilson, Henry Armetta, Willie Best, Frank Faylen, Creighton Hale, Noble Johnson, Ed Gargan, Billy Benedict, Stanley Clements and Joan Matthews.

The guest stars’ fees of $50,000 each were donated to the Hollywood Canteen, a club at 1451 Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, for servicemen and women, with free food, dancing and entertainment. Founded by Bette Davis and John Garfield, it was open from 3 October 1942 to 22 November 1945. The film raised over $2 million for the club.

Hollywood Canteen (1944) is a feature film about the club.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,693

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