Thank Your Lucky Stars (film)

Thank Your Lucky Stars is a 1943 American musical comedy film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser, with a slim plot, involving theater producers. The stars donated their salaries to the Hollywood Canteen, which was founded by John Garfield and Bette Davis, who appear in this film.[3] It was directed by David Butler and stars Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S. Z. Sakall.[4][5]

Thank Your Lucky Stars
theatrical poster
Directed byDavid Butler
Produced byMark Hellinger
Screenplay byNorman Panama
Melvin Frank
James V. Kern
Story byEverett Freeman
Arthur Schwartz
StarringEddie Cantor
Joan Leslie
Dennis Morgan
Dinah Shore
Music byHeinz Roemheld
CinematographyArthur Edeson
Edited byIrene Morra
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • September 25, 1943 (1943-09-25)
Running time
127 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,568,000[1]
Box office$3,621,000[1]
$2.8 million (US rentals)[2]

Plot

Theater producers (Horton and Sakall) try to stage a wartime charity extravaganza, “Cavalcade of Stars”, only to have the production taken over by the egotistical “fussbudget” Eddie Cantor. (Cantor has Dinah Shore under contract, and the only way they could get him to agree to her appearance was by making him Chairman of the benefit committee.) Meanwhile, an aspiring singer (Dennis Morgan) and his songwriter girlfriend (Joan Leslie) conspire to get into the charity program by replacing Cantor with their look-alike friend, tour bus driver Joe Simpson (also played by Eddie Cantor).

Many of Warner Brothers's stars performed in musical numbers, including several who were not known as singers. The show features the only screen musical performances by Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ida Lupino.

Cast

Guest Stars

Musical numbers

Some are performed as part of the plot, others are rehearsals for and, in the end, performances at, the benefit.

  • "Thank Your Lucky Stars" sung by Dinah Shore on Eddie Cantor's radio show.
  • ”My Mama Done Tol' Me” (better known as “Blues in the Night”) sung by John Garfield on Cantor's radio show.
  • "Hotcha Cornia” a hot and wild version of Otchi Chernye (Dark Eyes) performed by Spike Jones & His City Slickers for their fellow residents in Gower Gulch[6]
  • "Ridin' for a Fall" sung by Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie (dubbed by Sally Sweetland) with Spike Jones and his band.
  • "We're Staying Home Tonight...Doing the Patriotic Thing” sung by Eddie Cantor to a captive audience of his household staff and the hapless producers of the benefit.
  • "I'm Goin' North" sung and danced by Jack Carson and Alan Hale, Sr. as a couple of old-time vaudevillians meeting in a train station; both are bucking the trend toward all things Southern. After several costume changes, they end up in a blizzard, dripping with icicles.
  • "Love Isn't Born, It's Made" sung by Ann Sheridan with Joyce Reynolds and a chorus of girls, in a sorority bedroom.
  • "No You, No Me" sung by Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie (dubbed by Sally Sweetland) in a cafe, to a number from a table-side jukebox.
  • "The Dreamer" sung by Dinah Shore, as a farm girl singing to her love; she wants to dream “until you're home once more”.
  • "Ice Cold Katie... Won't You Marry the Soldier?” a big production number performed on a Harlem set by Hattie McDaniel, Willie Best, Jess Lee Brooks, Rita Christian and a chorus of singers and dancers.
  • "How Sweet You Are" sung by Dinah Shore, as a girl farewelling her love—in 1861–with a large chorus of waltzing couples.
  • "That's What You Jolly Well Get" sung and danced by Errol Flynn, as a mustachioed Cockney seaman boasting to a pub full of cronies about his battles with the Nazis over the past four years.
  • "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" sung by Bette Davis,[7] in a nightclub set populated by men whose appearances fit the song. A brief and strenuous jitterbug performance by Davis and real-life dance contest winner Conrad Weidel sends her out to her car. At the end of the number, she replaces the last phrase with blowing a kiss to the audience. Written by Frank Loesser and Arthur Schwartz[3]
  • "The Dreamer", a jazzed-up reprise sung by Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino and George Tobias (Olivia de Havilland dubbed by Lynn Martin)[3] singing scat and costumed as jitterbugging teens; Tobias wears a toned-down zoot suit.
  • "Good Night, Good Neighbor", a romantic take of the Good Neighbor Policy, opens with Dennis Morgan escorting Miss Latin America (Lynne Baggett) home to the Pan American Club for Women, singing to her and a chorus of residents. The scene segues to the elegant Club Chiquita where Alexis Smith dances with Igor Dega and Arnold Kent.
  • Final Medley—as the Finale of “Cavalcade of Stars”, on a celestial[8] set—with brief reprises or revisions of:
    • "We're Staying Home Tonight" (Eddie Cantor as Joe Simpson pretending to be Cantor)
    • "How Sweet You Are" (Chorus girls on clouds)
    • “We're Way Up North...” (Jack Carson and Alan Hale, Sr., in a star)
    • "The Dreamer" (Dinah Shore, on stage, dreamily; Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino and George Tobias in a star )
    • "Ridin' For a Fall" (Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie)
    • "Love Isn't Born (It's Made)" (Ann Sheridan, in a star)
    • "That's What You Jolly Well Get", as opera. (Errol Flynn, sans mustache, interrupts to comment: “That voice is so divine, I wish that voice were mine!” and resumes lip-synching in his star.)
    • "Good Night, Good Neighbor" (Dennis Morgan), while Alexis Smith and her partners dance on a cloud in the background.
    • "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" (Bette Davis, in a star)
    • "Ice Cold Katie" (Hattie McDaniel, enthroned on a crescent moon and Eddie Cantor, rowing by on a cloud)
    • "Thank Your Lucky Stars" (ensemble)

Production

Filming for Thank Your Lucky Stars began on October 14, 1942.[9] Producer Mark Hellinger and director David Butler both made cameo appearances in the film.[10] The film utilized sets which had been built for the Warner Bros. films The Green Pastures and Wonder Bar.[10] Thank Your Lucky Stars was the film debut of both Dinah Shore and Spike Jones and his City Slickers.[10] Each of the cast members was paid a $50,000 fee for their appearance which was then donated to the Hollywood Canteen.[11]

Bette Davis recalled Wiedell—who had really won a jitterbug contest—was frightened at the thought of hurting her. "...forget about who I am...let your instincts come to the fore, and just do it!" she said.[12]

Olivia de Havilland said that she added the over-the-top gum chewing to the act in order to help with the lip-synching.[13]

This was Dinah Shore's screen debut, and she was a huge hit with the critics.[12]

The finale was filmed with many of the cast on stage together, but everyone is there when the curtain comes down, thanks to special effects that place five acts— Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Bette Davis, Carson and Hale; and the trio of de Havilland, Lupino and Tobias— over their glitter-covered stars.

Reception

Thank Your Lucky Stars was popular with audiences, and the critic James Agee called it "the loudest and most vulgar of the current musicals. It is also the most fun."[14] Ticket sales combined with the donated salaries of the performers raised more than two million dollars for the Hollywood Canteen.[15]

The film earned $2,503,000 domestically and $1,118,000 foreign.[1]

At the time, Variety described it as a “triumph for Eddie Cantor”.[16] The New York Times' Bosley Crowther, on the other hand, observed that “ the gag that the true Mr. Cantor would, if he could, gum up the show is so realistically repeated that fiction becomes painful fact.” Putting aside the plot device, “you have a conventional all-star show which has the suspicious flavor of an 'amateur night' at the studio. But at least it is lively and genial... For the sake of variety, the Warners might have worked in a little more dance and a little more femininity. Too many people sing. And too few beautiful girls display their talents. It is also too much (two hours) of a show. But, in straight omnibus entertainment that's what you have to expect.”[17]

Leonard Maltin gives the picture three out of four stars, noting: “Very lame plot... frames all-star Warner Bros. show, with Davis singing "They're Either Too Young or Too Old,'' Flynn delightfully performing "That's What You Jolly Well Get,'' other staid stars breaking loose.”[18]

Awards and honors

The song "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" by Arthur Schwartz (music) and Frank Loesser (lyrics) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song, but lost to "You'll Never Know" by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon from the film, Hello, Frisco, Hello. The song was also a number one hit on Your Hit Parade.[3]

References

Notes

  1. Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 25 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  2. "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
  3. Landazuri, Margaret. "Articles: Thank Your Lucky Stars"." Turner Classic Movies (TCM.com). Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  4. Film review: 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'." Variety, August 18, 1943, p. 10.
  5. Film review: 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'." Harrison's Reports , August 21, 1943, p. 136.
  6. In the film, Gower Gulch is a hilltop neighborhood in Los Angeles, where struggling actors and musicians live in caravans and cottages cobbled together from movie sets and gathered around an old house. It is located “only 4 minutes from Vine Street,” according to Tommy Randolph. The Hollywoodland sign blinks in the background on its distant hill. In reality, Gower Gulch was the name given to the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street in Hollywood, near several studios.
  7. "Pop Chronicles 1940s Program #9". 1972.
  8. Using pieces from two Warner Bros. films, Green Pastures (1936) and Wonder Bar (1934) See TCM.com.
  9. The New York Times, August 29, 1942, p. 18.
  10. "Notes: Thank Your Lucky Stars." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  11. Spada 1993, p. 194.
  12. "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  13. "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  14. Ringgold and Quirk 1966, p. 123.
  15. Spada 1993, p. 195.
  16. "Thank Your Lucky Stars". Variety. 1943-01-01. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  17. Crowther, Bosley (1943-10-02). "' Thank Your Lucky Stars,' an Omnibus Entertainment With Warner Actors, at Strand -- 'The Silent Village' at World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  18. "Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2020-03-13.

Bibliography

  • Ringgold, Gene and Quirl, Lawrence J. (1966) The Films of Bette Davis. New York: Cadillac Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-8065-1177-1.
  • Spada, James (1993) More Than a Woman. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-7515-0940-3.
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