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.

See all of your favorite 1940s Warner Bros. stars as you've never seen them before!This star-studded WWII morale-booster is not unlike similar star-studded WWII morale-boosters put out by other studios, featuring the big names in brief cameos sprinkled throughout a thin "let's put on a benefit" plot. Here the WB stars perform little vaudeville sketches, singing and dancing, as part of a charity show. And we're talking some big names here: Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Jack Carson, etc.The real star, however, is Eddie Cantor. Much of the movie is about how annoying and overbearing Cantor is, with Cantor in a dual role as both a parody of himself and his resentful look-alike. In an exhibit of good-humored self-deprecation, Cantor allows his name to be dragged through the mud by critics of his corny jokes and swollen ego (his alternate character among them). As one character or the other Cantor moves the screwy plot along.This movie is simply a star-studded, feel-good musical. And it is a lot of fun. The stars who really shine in this are John Garfield, Bette Davis, and Cantor. Dinah Shore is featured prominently in her first screen appearance and we even get to see Spike Jones and His City Slickers in action. Errol Flynn has a nice number and Alexis Smith shows off her dancing background. S.Z. Sakall is hilarious as always and the young romantic couple (Joan Leslie and Dennis Morgan) make sure to plug recent WB successes. (Leslie lets go with impressions of Lupino and James Cagney.)It's interesting, in the scene where Olivia de Havilland and Ida Lupino dance on either side of George Tobias (in a slightly awkward jive routine), to note the contrast in the actresses' performances. Both de Havilland and Lupino are in the frame, basically playing clones of each other. But it seems like de Havilland just put so much more into her performance, particularly with her facial expressions. It's a treat to see all of these stars in one movie and it's a treat to see them do something fun and different. The songs won't always blow you away, but they're pleasant enough. The finale is a medley of all the songs we've heard, with the welcome return of the stars we've seen. It's a fitting cap to the viewer's journey, and should leave everyone in a good mood. I think I liked the music more after hearing it all reprised in the finale.Top-billed Humphrey Bogart has about a minute of screen time and, though he leaves an impression, he doesn't do any singing or dancing.

If you're a classic Hollywood buff, then it's a treat to see so many famous faces doing things they normally weren't busy with like song and dance numbers. Unfortunately, the BIGGEST NO TALENT face among them, EDDIE CANTOR, is tightly interspersed throughout as some kind of unifying thread. How this man ever got a career is beyond legend. He must've slept with somebody big or had some dope on somebody up there because he is always an audition by a ham. I think he was a closet case as well because he does the most fey things imaginable which can occasionally be amusing but I'm sure this wasn't intentional. Can't sing, can't dance, can't act, can't tell a joke--not for nothing Cantor's films aren't rerun on TV often. The joy is in seeing a very young Dinah Shore, Bette Davis vocalizing, and Errol Flynn and Lupino/DeHavilland out of character. Enjoy and when Cantor comes on use it as a commercial break to go get some chips and dip in the kitchen.

World War Two was a time when the studios and it's stars, all bought war bond's, all 'backed the attack' and urged everyone else in the free world to do the same.Paramount seemed to be the headliner in this sort of all-star musical fayre, with films such as Star Spangled Rhythm etc, but that is not to say the other studios didn't play their part either.Thank Your Lucky Stars is Warner Bros' effort. A chance for Lieutenant Colonel Jack L.Warner, Head of the Studio and commander of the U.S.A.A.F 'S First Motion Picture Unit, to lift the roof from his studio and let the wealth of talent flood out.Eddie Cantor shows off what a great sport he was, by playing two parts. He plays an overly 'hammed' up and unpopular version of himself, a role with so much substance and screen time that it seems to fill the entire picture. Indeed he gives so much to this role that I find it amazing that he had the time or the energy to portray his second role as Joe the one-time dramatic actor who's career was cut short by his likeness to Cantor, who, now long forgotten, eeks out a living as a tour bus driver in Hollywood.Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie are the two showbiz wannabes trying to break into the big time using Joes likeness to Cantor to land a radio spot for his voice and her song.All of this rather uninspired action takes place however around a Cavalcade of Stars benefit for the war effort where several notable movie stars of the day, have pledged to appear.So from here on in you can forget the rather scratchy, boring and predictable plot and just enjoy the cameos and musical numbers, by some of the Warner Brother's Elite.The famous 'scene-stealer' Alan Hale and funny man Jack Carson do a wonderful vaudeville sketch. John Garfield thoroughly lampoons his gangster/tough guy image as he struggles his way delightfully though 'Blues in the Night.' And George Tobias, Ida Lupino and Olivia De Havilland (Yum Yum) play for laughs doing a Beebop number.Dinar Shaw is given plenty of screen time to give us three lovely numbers, and even has time to grace us with a comic turn as she sparks off beautifully with Cantor.However, the real high points of this movie are Bette Davies and Errol Flynn. Davies, in true Deitrich style, talks and groans through 'They're either too Young or too Old,' a song which became a huge hit thanks to her rendition in this picture. Her obvious lack of singing talent seemed not to matter as her true screen radiance seems to overshadow everything else. A classic number, wonderfully delivered.Flynn in my opinion, is the best 'cameo' performance of the film. Sporting a large almost handle bar moustache he sings and dances through a comic number as a cockney man who's tales of daring do and bravado are only out sized by his apparent love of ale and is inability to pay for it. Each verse is a story of heroics which is obviously untrue, as he dances between the locals who are trying to kick him out....great! He seemed to perform his musical turn extremely well..a bit too well if you ask me. Maybe he should have made more musical appearances.However some of the star turns fail quite badly..Ann Sheriden is pants but pretty, Humphrey Bogart is given so little chance that he might have well stayed at home in bed, and Hattie MacDaniel gives us a Harlem number which isn't too good to say the least. Hattie sings brilliantly but the material she has to deal with is awful.Another interesting point is the politically correct nod to South America, who were still neutral but could have sided with the axis at the drop of a hat. 'Goodnight, Good Neighbour' sung by Dennis Morgan and danced superbly by the wonderful Alexis Smith, was political ass licking in musical form, an attempt to strengthen the bond between North and South and an attempt to influence their decision on who's side they should eventually fall if and when.Still, if its Hollywood wartime nostalgia you want then watch Thank Your Lucky Stars. Hollywood Wartime nostalgia you'll get.