HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN (Warner Bros. 1944) Warner Home Video

Delmer Daves’ Hollywood Canteen (1944) is as much a beloved cornucopia of cherished and iconic bit performances from the Warner stock company as it remains a lovingly produced time capsule from a very special moment in the history of Hollywood. The picture is a sincere attempt to popularize and immortalize Tinsel Town’s contribution to the war effort - that private nightclub, first established by Warner’s very own Bette Davis as an exclusive hot spot where any enlisted solider could mingle with filmdom’s royalty and enjoy a potpourri of their grand entertainments on the house. When Davis tenderly suggests to one of the visiting soldiers, “Wherever you go, our hearts go with you” one can feel the genuine love that the movie-making community then endeavored to disseminate to America’s patriots, fighting for freedom half-way around the world. Even so, the sentiment on this occasion is wholly manufactured. For Robert Hutton – who plays the luckiest G.I. in the company – Cpl. Ed ‘Slim’ Green, is neither an enlisted man nor an A-list Hollywood celebrity. But at least, in tone of reverence, Hutton manages to bottle the blithe spirit of naïveté as a man first to have fallen in love with an image, but then, the real McCoy.

Warner’s grand dame, Bette Davis – playing herself, as the Canteen’s founder and hostess – sheds her usual bank of bravura to reveal meaningful tenderness. When she congratulates Slim on being the millionth man to enter the Canteen, saying “Wherever you go, our hearts go with you” her humility and sense of appreciation for all fighting men, serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, resonates warmth, compassion, and, the milk of human kindness, utterly void of cliché or rank sentimentality. Slim first hears about the Hollywood Canteen from a cook at a local greasy spoon in Los Angeles. After walking his feet off all day with visions of actress, Joan Leslie firmly dictating his heart’s desire, Slim finally arrives at the canteen. In rapid succession he is first greeted by Joe E. Brown and then, Barbara Stanwyck. Confessing his puppy dog’s crush for Joan Leslie to Brown, Slim’s secret is next leaked to canteen co-host, John Garfield, who wastes no time informing Bette Davis of this soldier’s one wish for the evening - to meet Joan Leslie in person.

That wish granted and sealed with an innocent kiss, Leslie is immediately smitten with Slim whom she later introduces to her family. Between the bookends of this implausibly romantic wish fulfillment, Hollywood Canteen trundles out its mesmerizing cornucopia of musical performances, hand-delivered like loving valentines by a healthy sampling of Warner’s stock company players, giving it their all. Joan Crawford dances. The Andrews Sisters get ‘Corns For Their Country.’ Resident menace-makers, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre intimidate an unruly cadet. S.Z. Sakall has his cheeks tweaked, and, Ida Lupino attempts to humor a forward pass in French sent to her by Slim’s pal, Sgt. Nowland (Dane Clark), who has absolutely no luck in convincing Alexis Smith of his primitive inititives – first quantified in a brief conversation with Paul Henreid. Sixty-two stars in all reign over a magical weekend of pure escapism at the canteen. Eddie Cantor serves sandwiches and performs the delightfully smarmy ‘We’re Having A Baby’, Roy Rogers sings ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ astride Trigger, Jimmy Dorsey knocks ‘em dead with the ‘King Porter Stomp’ and Joseph Szigeti enlightens everyone with a highbrow performance of ‘The Bee’ before lampooning a bit with comedian, Jack Benny.

Other standout performances at the canteen come from Dennis Morgan and Joe E. Brown’s rousing and patriotic ‘You Can Always Tell A Yank’; Carmen Cavallaro’s lightning fast fingering on the piano in the exhilarating ‘Voodoo Moon’, some truly electric Flamenco footwork by Rosario and Antonio, and, last but not least; ‘The General Jumped At Dawn’, an impressive swing tune, masterfully carried off by The Golden Gate Quartet. With few exceptions, the action rarely leaves the canteen, the one noteworthy exception, an absolutely riveting performance by Joan McCracken in ‘Ballet in Jive’ – supposedly part of the Warner studio tour won by Slim for being the canteen’s millionth man. At the time of its release, Hollywood Canteen was the most popular pic of the year. Today, it remains a memorable excursion for anyone who simply enjoys witnessing stellar craftsmen and women, delighting so regularly in their chosen profession. In short then, Hollywood Canteen is an inspiration.

The same can be said of Warner Home Video’s DVD transfer. Derived from restored elements, the film’s B&W image looks quite sharp and impressive for the most part. The gray scale exhibits exceptional tonality. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are bright, though never blooming. There are several scenes that exhibit less than perfect image quality, softly focused, with more visible film grain and age-related artifacts. However, these moments are few and far between. The audio has also been cleaned up and is represented at an adequate listening level. This reviewer’s one genuine regret is that with all the ‘Warner Night At the Movies’ extras included on this disc, the studio hasn’t bothered to also include an audio commentary among them. Oh well, minor quibbling I suppose; particularly when there is so much else to admire. Highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

2.5