Customer Reviews

Thank Your Lucky Stars [VHS]

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

 

 

A number of Warner Brothers' top stars get a chance to do something different in this wartime musical. Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, and Eddie Cantor star as ... performers trying to get into an all-star performance that will feature some of the top stars of the day. This plot serves as a link to various numbers performed by actors not usually seen in musical rolls. That's the fun of this film. Errol Flynn's considerable charisma is on display in his bar room Cockney song which also demonstrates his physical agility. Bette Davis puts in a game effort singing "Their Either Too Young Or Too Old", which also includes her being thrown about in a dance number. Alexis Smith also gets tossed around, lifted, and twirled in another dance number. Olivia de Havilland, George Tobias, and Ida Lupino are jitterbugging twits in a number that shows de Havilland's sense of humour and willingness to look silly. Ann Sheridan sings to a group of girls about love, looking very beautiful as she does so. Alan Hale and Jack Carson do a long duet, while a very awkward John Garfield sing-speaks "Blues in the Night." Humphrey Bogart has an amusing bit where the always amusing S.Z. Sakall browbeats the tough guy. Perhaps best of all is a rousing all-black number featuring Hattie McDaniel that is full of energy. Thank Your Lucky Stars isn't a great musical jammed with memorable songs. It's memorable because of the performances of its non-musical cast. The connecting plot is passable and sometimes interferes with what the audience really wants to see, but not enough to be a liability. Fans of film will want to see this one at least once. It's one of a kind.

When Eddie Cantor gets involved in setting up a celebrity wartime revue for troops at home and abroad, the hilarious results are spectacular. See the Warner Brothers roster of all-star talent as you've never seen them before!

Errol Flynn performing "That's What You Jolly Well Get", John Garfield singing "Blues in the Night" and Bette Davis lamenting "They're Either Too Young Or Too Old" are just three of the priceless gems in this delightful collection.

Well, how many fifties stars do you remember or know of? In Thank your lucky stars you should at least recognise one or two of them. The big name line up consists of (but not only) Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn and features a wonderful cameo by Bogey himself, although he isn't quite acting like the seasoned gumshoe that we're used to seeing. The storyline rattles along at quite a pace with the main plot concerning a stage production being put on, and of course the obligatory love interest thrown into the mix as well, but the real reason that this picture is such a little gem are the number of fun bit parts played by some of Hollywood's all time greats, any fan of the genre should sit back and enjoy.

"Thank Your Lucky Stars" was Warner Brothers' version of the all star film which all the studios produced during the war. This is one of the best. Usually using a review format, the films allowed the star roster to perform a song, dance or comedy routine often way out of their range of performing. The pluses here include:

- a very funny screenplay. If you like Eddie Cantor, you will love his dual role. He really sends himself up.
- Joan Leslie as a delightful leading lady showing a flair for comedy and doing a good imitation of Ida Lupino
- stunning Anne Sheridan singing "Love Isn't Born, it's Made" to a group of sorority girls
- Bette Davis supplementing shaky vocals with her dry wit and selling the amusing lament "They're either to young or too old" which became a huge hit
- Alexis Smith, a trained dancer who never got a chance to strut her stuff, showing her ability in a great rhumba.
- Jack Carson and Alan Hale recreating vaudeville in another very amusing number, "Way up North"
- S Z Sakall and Edward Everett Horton neatly teamed as co-producers of the All Star Benefit and never funnier.
- hilarious Ruth Donnelly as a deadpan psychiatric nurse

The duds include most of the songs from Dinah Shore who grinds the film to a halt almost every time she appears, Dennis Morgan as a a stolid boring leading man and a Boogie Woogie number in which Olivia De Havilland mugs while George Tobias looks astonished and Ida Lupino tags along.

The print is in great condition and there is very generous list of extras including a musical short which recycles some numbers from the thirties and an odd patriotic Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs for once is the victim. Trailers for the film and "Watch on the Rhine" are included, as well as a patriotic short, hosted by Jack Carson, on rationing and a newsreel of the Hollywood Canteen minus any soundtrack. There is also an original radio program which promotes the film minus the guest stars which are its main interest.

The DVD is available as part of the Warner's Homefront Collection.

"Thank Your Lucky Stars" is a star-studded movie filled with fun, songs, and multi-talented actors at it's FUN Best! Great nostalgia and never to see the likes of quality stars, again. When Hollywood introduced Classic Entertainment! This is a MUST for true Movie Enthusists and Collectors......Warner Brothers produced this Star Entertainment, and left us with such great memories.

**** For the Star-Studded Stars, in this Film. August 22,2009
Robert Stix (Collinsville)

Here is another wartime film, a light story with plenty of stars and plenty of musical distractions. Eddie Cantor plays two men- himself and a cabby named Joe. Joe hated Eddie Cantor and is miffed to no end that people always tell him he looks like the comedian. However, his appearance comes in handy when his friends get in a jam. Tony (Dennis Morgan) is a singer who can't wait for his big break and Pat (Joan Leslie) is a songwriter who will do anything to have people listen to "Moon Dust." They plan a switcheroo between Cantor and Joe so that Joe can throw his weight around at a big show filled with stars like John Garfield, Dinah Shore, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, etc. and speaking of look-alikes, Spike Jones makes an appearance, and he's a dead-ringer for James Cagney. Further, Leslie does several impressions of stars throughout the film.

Of course, it is sort of annoying how long the film is, but if you enjoy seeing these stars singing and dancing, most of them which are not known for musical talent, this will not be a problem. It is fun enough to hold your attention and if the musical numbers aren't your thing, then you can just fast forward through them; none are essential to the story.

This videotape is stored in an oversized clamshell case. The dub is clean except for about 20 seconds where a black line squiggles in screen center.


THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943) is a war-era musical variety film that's tailored to Eddie Cantor, of all people. Old Banjo Eyes has the most screen time and is part of two different story lines. As himself, Eddie gets in the way of rehearsals of a gala show being held to assist the war effort. As Joe Simpson, he's a Cantor lookalike who hates the physical resemblance.

Tour bus driving Joe lives in a shanty town with other would-be actors. Their homes consist of furnishings previously used in motion pictures. We are shown a veranda swing that Bogart and Lupino sat in, also props from TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934).

Speaking of Bogey, his cameo presages the rough-edged character of Dobbs in John Huston's THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948). Nattily attired but with a week-old beard, Bogey growls out his few lines and exits stage left.

Of the several numbers here, some work, some don't. John Garfield gets the opening spot for good reason. He can't stay on key with a revamped "Blues in the Night." Alan Hale surprises with a lovely tenor and some good footwork in his vaudeville softshoe duet with Jack Carter. Bette Davis's performance of Oscar-nominated "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" is also a pleasure. Harder to take are Dinah Shore's several canti. Errol Flynn delights as a garrulous Aussie/Cockney-accented barfly who cadges drinks from the unsuspecting. He too shows nimble footwork.

Dennis Morgan (as Tommy Randolph in the Joe Simpson story) has an excellent voice; Ann Sheridan, doing "Love Isn't Born (It's Made)," does not. Alexis Smith seductively dances in a diaphonously scandalous skirt. Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland and George Tobias do a really fun choreographed jive number. Hattie McDaniel leads a large scale all-black set piece ("Ice Cold Katy") about a couple who marry just before the groom goes off to war. The City Slickers are in top form with "Hotcha Cornia (Black Eyes)." Last but not least, the great Cantor does his signature "Now's the Time to Fall in Love" plus some other songs and for the finale, a process shot has him as all the members of the pit orchestra!


If you like musical extravaganzas, you're gonna love this movie, guaranteed! Highest recommendation.

I love the 40's movies.. especially musicals. So I really enjoyed "Thank Your Lucky Stars".. A lot of stars one will always remember. It is a very nice movie. It is a collection of stars that sing and dance and a wonderful dance number by Alexis Smith.. Someone I didn't remember did musicals. One will be surprised by routines done by great actors.

I don't own this video yet, but I will. I recently saw this movie on a cable channel and it was spectacular. They never said the title of it, but I managed to find it here on Amazon.com and will be ordering myself a copy of it. It's fantastic! I don't think I've ever seen Bette Davis sing in a movie before. And the "Ice-Cold Katie" number with Hattie McDaniel and other stars is incredible...I don't recall ever seeing an all-black musical number performed on this scale in a movie of this era (1943).

Thank Your Lucky Stars is a fun filled movie with many of the Warner Brothers stars of the 40^s. Lot of fun with Eddie Cantor and a host of stars singing and dancing including Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. If you enjoy good films I highly recommend this DVD.