Sweet and Lovely 1944. At this point, the Second World War is in full swing. And at the same time in Hollywood (definitely to maintain the morale of the soldiers) released one after another musicals, which had a military character - often all told any romantic story with a lot of songs and dances, and as a rule, the girl was in love with officer / sailor / infantryman>>>>>
Richard Thorpe's musical Two Girls and a Sailor (1944) is one of these. The plot of the film tells about the sisters-singers Patsy (June Allison) and Jean (Gloria DeHaven) Daio, performing since childhood on the stage. In 1943, the girls performed in a nightclub and dreamed of opening an institution for soldiers (a clear hint of the then existing Hollywood Canteen - a dining room where soldiers were served by movie stars).
But in the absence of sufficient funds to carry out their venture, they invite the military to their home and arrange a similar institution in their home (for what money, however, remains unclear). Jean, meanwhile, constantly sends flowers to a certain (most likely in love with her) anonymous, signing as "someone" who fulfills the dream of the girls.
But Patsy, who is worried about her frivolous sister and suspects something wrong, wants to find out who this "someone" really is. She is assisted by Billy Kipp (Jimmy Durante), a former vaudeville artist who left the stage after divorcing her wife and has not seen her son since. And the girls at the same time meet two pretty guys - sailor John (Van Johnson) and officer Frank (Tom Drake). . .
Well, here's a movie that's pitched as a musical, but in reality, it's more like a concert. The plot component is not particularly original and not very interesting, despite the fact that here sometimes there are still bright dialogues (nomination for "Oscar" for the best original script leave on the conscience of film academics).
The main value of the picture are musical numbers, but their trouble is that they are not very organically integrated into the plot - sometimes the film resembles something like the well-known to our viewer "Old songs about the main thing", where any outsiders who are not related to the main plot can start singing at any time.
In fact, it's not such a bad idea to make such a film - and this formula in the cinema quite successfully worked earlier - for example, very successful in this regard came the film David Butler "Thank Fate" (1943). Unfortunately, other directors for some reason lacked the talent to develop this formula to the level of the above picture - and Richard Thorpe did not have the talent for this either.
If we go to the song-dance part of the film, then musical numbers in the film are different - fun, sad, incendiary, boring - it all depends on the taste of the viewer. Personally, I can single out for myself in the film 'Sweet and Lovely', 'A Love Like Ours' (both performed by Allison and DeHaven), 'My Mother Told Me' (singings solo by DeHaven), 'In a Moment of Madness' (performed by Helen Forrest - singer of the Harry James Orchestra), The Man's Doll> with Horb> (Jamis/ib)
And a few words about actors. June Allison and Gloria DeHaven are artistic and fervent in the roles of sisters, perfectly sing and dance, although Allison in the film is still more interesting. Van Johnson and Tom Drake as their boyfriends are just nice guys - but no more. Jimmy Durante as a former actor vividly complemented the film. A small appearance of Grace Allen (her last film role), performing with the symphony orchestra "Concerto for the index finger" was very funny.
As a result, we have a musical , which, alas, does not become a single film - but remains just a set of numbers , seasoned with a trivial plot. A good selection of actors does not particularly save the situation. In addition, the film is too long - after 60th minute to watch what is happening becomes almost not interesting - except for some songs or dances. So, to watch the film can be recommended or fans of the work of the actors, who played here or immutable lovers of musicals. Thank you very much.
6 out of 10