THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS

US, 1943, 127 minutes, Black and white.
Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton, S. Z. Sakall, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Carson, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Alan Hale, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, George Tobias, Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Willie Best, Hattie Mc Daniel.
Directed by David Butler.

Thank Your Lucky Stars is an entertaining Warner Bros. musical of the early '40s - part of the war effort. other studios made similar films like Paramount's Star Spangled Rhythm and Thousands Cheer.

The thin plot focuses on Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie and Eddie Cantor as the tour bus driver. Dennis Morgan has ambitions to be on the Eddie Cantor Show - and has an opportunity to sing several songs. Joan Leslie is a songwriter - who also attractively sings and dances. However, the film is Eddie Cantor's - in two roles: as himself, egotistical, controlling things and interfering, doing his entertaining song and dance routines; bespectacled as the bus driver, the reverse of his ego role. He carries both off particularly well.

A show has to be put on and the producers are Edward Everett Horton and S. Z. Sakall - indulging in their familiar screen personas, very entertainingly. (Director David Butler – veteran of many Warner Bros. musicals -and producer Mark Hellinger also make appearances.)

However, the important thing is the number of star turns with the Warner Bros stars, Dinah Shore, in one of her earliest films, has several numbers. John Garfield sends up his own tough image and sings a version of 'Blues in the Night'. Humphrey Bogart appears as an unshaven tough guy only to be talked down and hurriedly leaving the theatre frightened of what the fans of his tough guy image. Jack Carson and Alan Hale have a humorous song about going north. Ann Sheridan sings a sultry song, 'Love Isn't Born, It's Made'. However, some of the surprise elements are George Tobias singing a jitterbug number with Olivia de Havilland and Ida Lupino; Errol Flynn sings, very well, a Cockney action song; Alexis Smith dances quite expertly; and Bette Davis has the star turn with the Oscar-nominated 'They're Either Too Young Or Too Old'.

The film is a good example of Warner Bros. '40s entertainment - and is still quite pleasing.