Customer Reviews

Four Jills in a Jeep [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It happens that I was actually in this film, as the pianist in the Jimmy Dorsey band. At the time it was filmed, back in 1943, I was a brash young kid of 26, and I guess I thought that I was pretty hot stuff. Our band was one of the most popular of the day, and we played at the top spots in the nation.

For most of us, this film was just about out last civilian act prior to going into the service. I had received a couple of deferments because I had a small son, and that enabled me to stay out of uniform until '44. We regarded the movie as some sort of a joke, and few of us took it seriously as a movie. True, it reflected an actual occurrence - the four gals did indeed go on that memorable USO tour and unlike most of the entertainers who went, found themselves in actual fighting zones. That is what makes this film different, although I didn't know that until many years afterward. When I think of those four, Kay, Martha, Carole and Mitzi, exposed to all the dangers of that situation, I now realize, and am happy to acknowledge, that they were truly courageous. They didn't have to go - they weren't subject to the draft. But they gave of themselves in the best way they knew how, and that is a very brave thing to do.

I've revised my opinion. I used to be a bit ashamed of this film, but now, I'm very proud of it and proud of having been in it.

David Mann

I enjoyed this movie for the most part; however, I must say I enjoyed the book version of "Four Jills In A Jeep" (written by Carole Landis) a lot better. My one pet peeve about this film is that there weren't more musical numbers; Dick Haymes has several, but the "Jills" are left with just 1 number each! However it is interesting, and it is a true story. Worth watching!

What sets this movie apart from other "B movies" of the era is that it's based on a true, courageous story of a group of Hollywood female entertainers who risked their lives to bring a moment of happiness to the troops during WWII. Far from the publicity and limelight loving selfish entertainers of today who use the media for their own purposes, these women risked life and limb to simply entertain and take the men away from the horrors of war for a few minutes. They asked nothing in return other than the thanks of the soldiers, and they endured many of the same hardships. A great story line with more substance than others, and worth reflecting against our values of today. If more of us were devoted to service of our fellow man, perhaps our society would be in a better place today. These ladies deserve much attention and thanks for their efforts.

This 1944 film starring Kay Francis,Martha Raye,Mitzi Mayfair and Carole Landis starts off on the slow side but you quickly get caught up in the action and you soon feel like you are sitting in on a real live USO show during WW2!And I think that's just what the producers wanted to convey.
The story is based roughly on the real life USO exploits of its' leading ladies.Phil Silvers does a nice,funny turn as the sergeant that is detailed to escort the ladies from one USO show to the other.The girls start out stateside but eventually get send over to England.Always eager to go that one step further "for the boys" Martha Raye lets it slip to a general that she and the girls desperately want to get to the front lines to entertain the boys.When the transfer actually comes through to North Africa,much to everyone's shock,the girls bravely trod on remembering all the while who it's for.They get to the frontlines and entertain under some spartan circumstances,even enduring a German bombing raid.Through the film Carole Landis and Mitzi Mayfair fall in love.Landis with a flyboy and Mayfair with her ex entertaining partner who is none other than crooner Dick Haymes,who magically crops up at every venue they play(!).Dick had a fantatsic voice and he is seen to great effect here with the three romantic numbers he sings.Besides Dick and the girls singing and dancing,we hear/see a broadcast from Hollywood with master of ceremonies George Jessel.He introduces Betty Grable,Alice Faye and the irrepressable Carmen Miranda,the Brazillian Bombshell.Throughout,the Jimmy Dorsey bigband is on hand to provide the musical kicks.Jimmy shows off his prowess on clarinet and sax(alto and tenor) while his band gives us some reet and sweet notes to savour.Solid senders all.
Like many of Fox's products and re-releases of their 1940s product of late,this one is no exception.They have gone the whole hog and completely restored this film and it is absolutely beautiful to watch.Totally clear and crisp.Included with the film are some bonus features which include a short featurette on the leading ladies,stills gallery,some wonderful deleted scenes with extra numbers by the girls and Carmen Miranda and an isolated audio track of the film.
A film of its' time?....sure is.But if you're like me you will quickly feel you are watching a real WW2 USO show,unravelling right before your very eyes! This one's for the boys!

I saw this movie on tv the other day and absolutely loved it. They were playing it for Memorial Day. The singing is wonderful, the actresses are lovely, and the whole thing was just well done. Martha Raye is hilarious! I wish they'd put this out on DVD...I'd buy it immediately. A great memorial to the USO and the girls who went to entertain the soldiers.

I'm surprised at the luke-warm reception given this DVD by previous reviewers--even to the extent of sniping at the script for being inaccurate in its portrayal of the romantic entanglements in a story based on the four leading actresses' USO tour. I too regret the ending, or rather "post-closure" circumstances, though any criticism of them seems quite beside the point. Carole Landis (the handsome, leggy blonde from Eau Claire, Wisconsin) who sparked the tour (performing tirelessly even when she became infected by malaria) and who was responsible for the semi-biographical book of the same title and year (1944), sadly did not realize her dream of show business stardom in the years immediately following the war. In fact, she committed suicide before her 30th birthday. Similarly, the sprightly and charming Mitzi Mayfair, Dick Haymes' love interest and the "Jill" with a striking resemblance to Judy Garland, appears to have fallen off the map not long after the release of the film.

On a more felicitous note, this is a delightful WW II "B" movie musical with a difference. Thanks to recent, uncommon efforts to "restore" the film (not merely to "transfer" it to digital but to "reconstruct" all of the clarity of the visuals and audio of the master print), the DVD plays like a fresh, pristine representation of the original. It's as though the print were struck yesterday. Dick Haymes not to mention Betty Grable, Jimmy Dorsey, Martha Raye and Phil Silvers (!) all look and sound at their best. Moreover, the DVD comes with special features, including a soundtrack that eliminates all dialog and reproduces only the film score. There are also side-by-side comparisons of the "transferred" digital print with the "restored" print. And for good measure the producers have even included some "out-takes," scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor.

If your sole criterion is a tightly assembled "plot" or an arresting "story" full of Hitchcock surprises or modern-day graphic sensationalism, forget about this one. The story is no more than an "excuse" for some great music (note the purposeful, responsive camera work and cutting during the Dorsey swing number, which is an instrumental jazz number played in full--a rarity in movies of any period), some of the era's most notable performers (including not just the glamorous Grable but the glutzy Raye and the sophisticated Kaye Francis), and one of the period's great songwriters: Jimmy McHugh. Additionally, it's a window into an era whose notion of entertainment was clearly worlds apart from the decades to follow (the viewer can make his own judgments about its substance compared to, say, later Elvis musicals).

Belonging in the "curious": Martha Raye's version of "Mr. Paganini"--is it funny because of her slapstick schtick or because by now some of us are all too aware of Ella Fitzgerald's tour de force version of the song? In any case, it's immediately followed by Dick Haymes doing a romantic ballad that, however undistinguished as a song, serves to demonstrate why vocally he was considered by many the chief rival of Frank Sinatra.

In the category of "things you may not have known": Martha Raye, besides proving a perfect foil for Charlie Chaplin in the latter's controversial talking picture, "Monsieur Verdoux," had not only a big mouth but a talented one. In fact, a few years ago the Smithsonian Institute released a box of the best tunes along with the best performances available among the recordings from tunes belonging to the "Great American Songbook" (primarily the "standards" composed by Berlin, Kern, Gershwin, Arlen, Rodgers, Porter, etc.). For "Body and Soul," the most frequently recorded song of all time (see the website "standardsdotcom," which ranks the top 1000 tunes by number of recorded performances), the recorded performance chosen to represent the song's melody and lyrics was by guess who? (Or don't. If you don't know, you'll never guess right.) The answer: Martha Raye. Given all of the great big band divas to come out of the so-called "Swing Era," it's not all that surprising that Martha chose to follow her comic muse, but truth be told, she was a good musician and had a lovely, vibrant vocal quality.

Memorable scene: Mitzi Mayfair, a talented hoofer with an expressionless but sufficiently charismatic face and ingratiating smile to make you wonder why this was her only film, entranced by a 3rd Dick Haymes' musical valentine while she's smoking a cigarette (think a young Judy Garland in the same situation). She doesn't miss a puff or a pass--maybe a minor Oscar performance at that! (in the immediately ensuing scene she's the helmeted recipient of Haymes' kissing her in a trench with explosives overhead).

They sure don't make 'em like this any more.

This is a nice movie featuring four leading starlets of the day and their experiences entertaining the troops during WWII. They really were entertainers for the War in real life and their at ease with one another shows through. There are lots of song and dance routines throughout the film. As is typical of the era, the singers have really low voices, especially the women. However, there are a lot of clever lines that make one laugh out loud. And the overall feeling is just wholesome fun. It comes with captions too, which is handy if you are watching this film with an older person. And it makes for a lovely evening.

Four Jills in a Jeep tells the true story of how some of America's most talented Hollywood stars risked life and limb to go overseas during Word War Two and entertain the troops. This film is very well done and it works extremely well as a musical. The plot is somewhat thin but of course in a musical it usually is so that's nothing more than a minor quibble. The acting is extremely convincing and the musical numbers came at me so fast and furious that I could never have been bored! The cinematography and the choreography shine and the script was well written, too.

When the action starts, we see a "command performance" radio show being broadcast live to the fighting men overseas. Betty Grable (as herself) sings very well and Kay Francis (also as herself) really shines as the MC for the event. Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra perform wonderfully, too; and that's grand. We also meet the most talented Martha Raye, Carol Landis Mitzi Mayfair, all of whom also play themselves.

Mitzi, Martha and Carol all dream of going overseas to perform in person for the troops; and it isn't long before their leader Kay Francis tells them that they are in fact going! Once there, they are met by their escort Eddie (Phil Silvers, thrown in for some comic relief) and they perform in various places including London and North Africa even though in North Africa they're rather close to the front.

Of course, to round out the picture there's some light-hearted romance that functions as a weak but enjoyable subplot. We see Carol falling in love with Ted Warren (John Harvey); and Mitzi has a mixed result when she accidentally bumps into her old show business partner Lt. Dick Ryan (Dick Haymes).

The plot can go anywhere from here--and I'm not about to spoil it for you! Look also for good, solid performances by Carmen Miranda and Alice Faye (who also appear as themselves) and George Jessel plays himself as the MC of another "command performance" radio show while the ladies are overseas.

The DVD comes with deleted scenes, a restoration comparison, an optional isolated score track and another featurette entitled "The Real Four Jills." Excellent!

Four Jills in a Jeep is one of the best musicals I've ever seen from 20th Century Fox Studios; and the actors in this film give nothing but their best--it's very entertaining and it moves me to know that Hollywood stars gave so much at a very trying time despite the fact that no one ever forced them to travel overseas to where the troops were fighting. I highly recommend this film for fans of the actors in it; and people who enjoy classic movie musicals would do well to add this to their collections.

I absolutely love this movie!!! Carole Landis is my aunt so I would probably enjoy seeing her in anything but I think Four Jills In A Jeep is her best work. First of all she is playing herself AND she wrote the book the film is based on. Carole spent almost four years of her life traveling around the world entertaining the troops. She was a true American hero and on several occasions she almost lost her life. Now I understand that this is Hollywood's version of World War 2 and unfortunately the movie is not always true to life. It's still a treat to see Carole onscreen with her dear friends Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair. The best part of the movie is that we get to be a part of Carole's real life romance with Major Tommy Wallace (played by the very handsome John Harvey). Their whirlwind love affair is the heart of the movie and makes you wish they lived happily ever after in real life too. Carole never looked better than she did in Four Jills In A Jeep. Thank goodness she was back to blonde after several years as brunette. There are a bunch great songs and musical numbers. My fave is Carole's fabulous rendition of Crazy Me. She could really sing. I could watch this movie a million times and never get tired of it :-) :-) :-)

I purchased the DVD 'four Jills in A Jeep" with some trepidation as I hate giving bankcard details on the internet but all is well so far.
The DVD is as promised 'new' and sealed/ I had to alter my 'zone"(?) to play it on my PC but had no difficulty with my DVD player. The quality - despite the years - is very good. Even the sound has 'travelled' better than I had expected. The service from the supplier was excellent and well within the time specified despite the Christmas break. Thank you. Now if only you could find more of the Dick Haymes movies !!! William Bourke