This is the army

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Movie
Original title This is the army
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1943
length 121 minutes
Rod
Director Michael Curtiz
script Irving Berlin
Casey Robinson
Claude Binyon
production Hal B. Wallis
Jack L. Warner
music Ray Heindorf
Max Steiner
camera Bert Glennon
Sol Polito
cut George Amy
occupation

Cameo appearances:

This Is the Army is a 1943 comedy musical produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner ; it was directed by Michael Curtiz . Written by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon , the script is based on the Broadway musical by Irving Berlin , which was created to raise US morale during World War II . Berlin also wrote the nineteen songs in the film and sang one of them herself. Many of the actors in this ensemble film were also Army soldiers , for example Ronald Reagan and Joe Louis . The film was in 1944 with the Oscar for Best Original Score of a Musical film excellent.

action

Actor and dancer Jerry Jones ( George Murphy ) is drafted into military service during World War I. There he stages a musical show called Yip Yip Yaphank , which is a great success. Nevertheless, the acting soldiers receive orders to march to France during a performance. Instead of playing the show to the end, they march through the auditorium, leave the theater through the main entrance and get on the waiting troop transports. Jones kisses his newlywed bride Ethel ( Rosemary DeCamp ) goodbye.

In the trenches of France, some of the soldiers who took part in the show are killed or injured by German artillery fire; Jones receives an injury to his leg and is dependent on a walking stick, which means the end of his career as a dancer. Still, he is determined to keep giving his life meaning, especially since he is now the father of a son; he opens a theater agency. Instructor Sergeant McGee ( Alan Hale Sr. ) and Private Eddie Dibble ( Charles Butterworth ) also survive.

25 years later the Second World War broke out. Jerry's son Johnny ( Ronald Reagan ) volunteered for the military shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor . He tells his friend Eileen Dibble ( Joan Leslie ), Eddie's daughter, that they cannot marry until he returns because he does not want to make her a widow.

Jerry, Eddie, and several other veterans visit the training barracks where Johnny is stationed and find that their old instructor McGee is still on duty. Together they decide to stage another musical called This Is the Army to support the soldiers' relief organization. Johnny reluctantly takes part in the performance, following in his father's footsteps. The show is on tour across the United States and even reaches Washington, DC , where President Roosevelt is in the audience. During the performance it is announced that it will be the final performance as the soldiers would have to return to their units to prepare for combat.

Eileen, who has reported to work at the Red Cross , meets Johnny backstage. She has brought a military chaplain with her and convinces Johnny to get married immediately. Weddings are being celebrated in an alley behind the theater; the two fathers serve as groomsmen. Then the men march to war like their fathers did before.

The performance of the two musical shows is built into the plot of the film.

Broadway musical

Musical dates
Title: This is the army
Original language: English
Music: Irving Berlin
Lyrics: Irving Berlin and Carmen Miranda
Literary source: Irving Berlin's Yip Yip Yaphank
Premiere: 1942
Three male soldiers in drag at the Broadway performance (1942)

In May 1941, former Sergeant Irving Berlin visited the Camp Upton army base in Yaphank, New York, where he had been stationed during the First World War. There he spoke to the commanding officers, including Captain Ainsworth Rankin, about the resumption of his play Yip! Yip! Yaphank! from 1917. General George C. Marshall agreed to a new Broadway production, so that Berlin could work on the arrangements and rehearsals in Camp Upton as it did in World War I. Sergeant Ezra Stone directed the new play, and together they worked on the plot and cast on weekdays. Berlin insisted that in the new play, Afro-Americans could stand on stage with whites, something that Yip! Yip! Yaphank! hadn't been possible yet. It was nothing special for Berlin, but it was in the army, in which racial segregation still prevailed. Although progressive in this regard, Berlin intended to begin the piece with a minstrel show ; Stone was able to convince him, however, that it was impossible to remove 110 actors from Blackface in one act . Berlin rejected the idea and instead wrote a piece in the style of “ Puttin 'on the Ritz ” entitled “That's What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear”.

The new play ran from July 4 to September 26, 1942 on Broadway; Directed by Ezra Stone and choreographed by Corporal Nelson Barclift and Sergeant Robert Sidney. The performance was such a success that it went on a nationwide tour. This ended on February 13, 1943 in San Francisco and by then played $ 2 million (inflation-adjusted $ 29,501,242) for the Army Emergency Relief Fund . The production then went on a worldwide tour, including in England, Italy and Guam.

production

The film has the same title as the stage version of the musical show. It includes a number of cameos by Irving Berlin, Kate Smith , Frances Langford and Joe Louis, among others . If the decision-makers in Washington hadn't liked the idea of ​​an army musical, Berlin would have been prepared to call it This Is the Navy or This Is the Air Corps . Smith's version of Berlin's " God Bless America " is arguably the best-known version of the song recorded on film. Joe Louis appears in a revue number entitled “That's What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear”, which also featured James Cross as lead singer, William Wycroff as drag dancer, Marion Brown as dancer and around twelve voices take part in a comprehensive choir; it is the only sung scene that includes African Americans. Louis also has two other scenes (including a boxing match) in which he does not speak.

One of the highlights of the film is the appearance of Irving Berlin himself, who performed his song “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning ”sings in a scene taken from Yip! Yip! Yaphank! is taken. The film also contains a scene in which various celebrities of the time are imitated, for example the stage stars Jane Cowl , Lynn Fontanne , Alfred Lunt and Ethel Barrymore as well as the film actors Charles Boyer and Herbert Marshall .

The film's revue numbers include acrobatics , comedy numbers, a play in which Alan Hale appears in drag , a minstrel show (which has often been omitted from television and video releases), and pieces dedicated to the Navy and Air Corps . Although these musical numbers represent the heart of the film, they are embedded in a plot that tells, among other things, the love stories of a father and son during the two world wars.

publication

Premiere of This Is the Army

The film premiered on August 12, 1943 at Warner's Earle Theater in Washington. He played a total of $ 9,555,586.44, which corresponds to about $ 140,950,827 as of today; the proceeds were donated to the Army Emergency Relief Fund .

With the end of the war came the end of the worldwide musical tour. A last performance took place on October 22, 1945 on Maui ; Irving Berlin sang “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning ". The film has been in the public domain since the mid-1970s and has been shown several times on television since then.

Both George Murphy and Ronald Reagan aspired to political offices. Murphy was California's representative in the US Senate from 1965 to 1971 ; Reagan was Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and then President of the United States from 1981 to 1989 . They supported each other in their election campaigns. Reagan jokingly referred to Murphy, who entered the political scene a few years before him, as his " John the Baptist ".

Many of the soldiers involved in the show met every five years after the war ended. Their last meeting was in 1992 in the Theater District of New York.

Singing Numbers (Film)

  • "It's Your Country and My Country"
  • "My Sweetie"
  • "Poor Little Me"
  • "We're On Our Way to France"
  • "Goodbye, France"
  • " God Bless America "
  • "What Does He Look Like"
  • "This Is The Army, Mr. Jones"
  • "I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep"
  • "Mandy"
  • "Ladies of the Chorus"
  • "That's What the Well Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear"
  • "How About a Cheer for the Navy"
  • "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen"
  • "With My Head in the Clouds / American Eagles"
  • "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning"
  • "This Time"

“My British Buddy”, which was also sung by Berlin, was cut from the film but released on DVD. It was originally added for the British production of the musical.

Awards

The soundtrack won at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944 in the category " Best Score in a Musical Film ". The film was also nominated in the " Best Sound " ( Nathan Levinson ) category.

Web links

Commons : This Is the Army  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This Is the Army. Turner Classic Movies , accessed December 22, 2017 .
  2. ↑ It May Be “Yip, Yip, Yaphank” Again After Irving Berlin Visits Camp Upton. In: Middle Island Mail. May 28, 1941. Retrieved December 22, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Facial Hair Friday: A Musical Interlude. The National Archives Pieces of History, August 12, 2011, accessed December 22, 2017 .
  4. ↑ This Is the Army in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
  5. ↑ Laurence Bergreen: This Is the Army, Part 2. National Archives and Records Administration , 1996, accessed December 22, 2017 .
  6. ^ Cast and Credits of This Is the Army. listal.com, accessed December 22, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Top Grossers of the Season. In: Variety. January 5, 1944. Retrieved December 22, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Laurence Bergreen: This Is the Army, Part 4. National Archives and Records Administration , 1996, accessed December 22, 2017 .
  9. ^ Burton W. Peretti: The Leading Man. Hollywood and the Presidental Image . Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 2012, ISBN 978-0-8135-5404-4 , pp. 188 .
  10. ^ Academy Awards Database: This Is The Army; Warner Bros. 1943 (16th). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accessed May 19, 2019 .
  11. ^ The 16th Academy Awards (1944) Nominees and Winners . In: oscars.org . Retrieved August 14, 2011.