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Full Movie

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NY Times Review

September 14, 1943 THE SCREEN; 'Thousands Cheer,' Lavish Metro Musical With an All-Star Cast, Makes Its Appearance at War Bond Rally at Astor T.M.P.

Uncle Sam had a good time last night and so did the thousand and more of his nieces and nephews who swelled the Third War Loan Drive by $534,000 at the War Bond première of "Thousands Cheer." The first night audience went away from the Astor completely satisfied; they had done themselves and their country a good deed, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had rewarded them with two solid hours of magnificent entertainment. Turning the evening over to the Treasury Department was as appropriate as it was patriotic, for "Thousands Cheer" is a musical with an Army-camp background, and in Technicolor, even the guard house never looked lovelier.

It's been a long time since Metro spread itself so lavishly as in "Thousands Cheer," and it's been longer than that since the screen provided such a veritable grab-bag of delights. Musically, there is something for all tastes, from José Iturbi to boogie woogie, from Kathryn Grayson and "Semper Libre" to Judy Garland and "The Joint Is Really Jumpin'!" And for extra measure, there is a circus sequence with an aerialist act that is as thrilling as anything ever seen under the big top. Miss Grayson, Gene Kelly, Mary Astor and John Boles are the people who carry out the thread of plot, the climax of which is the big camp show put on by a group of movie stars.

This gives Metro a chance to bring forth some of its big box-office artillery, and that's quite all right, too, for they do brief turns most amusingly, with Mickey Rooney as master of ceremnoies. As is more or less customary with m. c.'s, the Rooney line of patter is not especially a show-stopper, but give the little giant a full measure of applause for a howling take-off on Clark Gable and Lionel Barry-more in "Test Pilot," a Metro product of a few years back. While on the subject of bouquets, toss a couple of deserved ones to Eleanor Powell for a sprightly tap-turn, to Red Skelton for a hilarious skit, highlighted by an impersonation of a bashful young man confronted by a lady clerk in a drug store; to Doctor Frank Morgan's examination of a trio of prospective Waves—Lucille Ball, Ann Sothern and Marsha Hunt—and to Lena Horne for a haunting arrangement of "Honeysuckle Rose."

Add to this the dance team of Don Loper and Maxine Barrat, the dead-pan singing of Virginia O'Brien, the line of M-G-M Dancing Girls, who are very easy on the eyes, and the orchestras of Kay Kyser, Bob Crosby and Benny Carter, and you get a good idea of the talent Metro has poured into "Thousands Cheer." All this, we might say, and Shostakovitch, too, for the Soviet composer's "United Nations Salute" is performed under Mr. Iturbi's baton as the thundering climax. Metro really gave this number the production "works," so to speak, bringing together a chorus of Allied nationals in a spectacular setting.

With this abundance of riches, it would have been easy for Metro's labor to result in a top-heavy production under a less resourceful producer than Joseph Pasternak. His steadying hand is quite evident, and this we say without detracting from the credit due Director George Sidney, who keeps the show moving at a nice pace. Naturally, in an undertaking of the dimensions of "Thousands Cheer" there are bound to be moments that seem to drag a bit, but none of it is ever actually dull.

For plot purposes Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins have provided a romance between the colonel's daughter and a private. While this is not the most original of stories, it has a warmth not usually found in the boy-meets-girl formula, for Kathryn Grayson and Gene Kelly represent romance with just the right degree of bewildered rapture. The Pasternak influence is marked in these sequences as in Miss Grayson's recitals with Mr. Iturbi, for the producer, you may remember, is the same man who guided Deanna Durbin to fame. As the colonel and his wife, John Boles and Mary Astor are adequate to the demands made of them.

Following on the heels of "Best Foot Forward," which was no slouch either. "Thousands Cheer" should be putting Astor audiences in a spirited mood for some time to come.

THOUSANDS CHEER, original screen play and story by Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins; directed by George Sidney; produced by Joseph Pasternak for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; songs by Ferde Grofe and Harold Adamson, Lew Brown, Ralph Freed and Burton Lane, Walter Jurmann and Paul Francis Webster, Earl Brent and E. Y. Harburg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Harold Rome. At the Astor. Kathryn Jones . . . . . Kathryn Grayson Eddy Marsh . . . . . Gene Kelly Hyllary Jones . . . . . Mary Astor Col. William Jones . . . . . John Boles Chuck Polansky . . . . . Ben Blue Marie Corbino . . . . . Frances Rafferty Helen . . . . . Mary Elliott Sergeant Kozlack . . . . . Frank Jenks Alan . . . . . Frank Sully Capt. Fred Avery . . . . . Dick Simmons Private Monks . . . . . Ben Lessy and Mickev Rooney, Judy Garland, Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, Virginia O'Brien, Frank Morgan, Lena Horne, Marsha Hunt, Marilyn Maxwell, Donna Reed, Margaret O'Brien, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, John Conte, Sara Haden, Jose Iturbi, Don Loper and Maxine Barrat, Kay Kyser and his orchestra, Bob Crosby and his orchestra and Benny Carter and his band.

© 2014 The New York Times Company

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Time Magazine Review

Thousands Cheer (M.G.M.) is not to be confused with the crisp, memorable As Thousands Cheer which Irving Berlin and Moss Hart brought to Broadway a decade ago. M.G.M. reportedly paid $25,000 for that show and its bull's-eye title back in 1935, but has taken its own aim from there on. The MGMarksmen ring no resounding bell, but they do bag 1) an average musical wartime romance (Private Gene Kelly v. Colonel's-Daughter Kathryn Grayson), 2) a brisk, hefty variety show featuring a clutch of M.G.M. stars and three bands (Kay Kyser, Bob Crosby, Benny Carter), 3) Pianist José Iturbi in his screen debut.

The romance is a by-product of the cinemilitary career of talented Gene Kelly, who before the Army gets him is a temperamental trapeze star. Private Kelly's yearning to get back in the air (in a plane) and an approaching court-martial for breach of discipline cause him to toy with Kathryn Grayson's affections in hopes that her father, his Colonel (John Boles), will transfer him to the Air Forces. The Colonel wants a less insubordinate son-in-law. Aware that trapeze work involves a certain amount of disciplined cooperation, he asks the young artist's adoptive family, The Flying Corbinos, to needle the boy during the camp's Victory Show. So they discuss teamwork with Trapezist Kelly while the whole troupe is lunging about between heaven and the hard floor. Mr. Kelly, though profoundly disconcerted, gets the idea, drops nobody, comes out of a two-and-a-half somersault with his lesson learned and Miss Grayson's heart somewhere between her throat and the palm of his hand. He is promptly forgiven by the court-martial and goes off to war, while Songstress Grayson (plus an orchestra and some 390 male choristers) gives tongue to United Nations, by Russian Composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

The show is dished out by Master of Ceremonies Mickey Rooney. Kay Kyser's noisy faculty teaches I Dug a Ditch, assisted by comely Georgia Carroll. Bob Crosby's band backs Baby Basilisk Virginia O'Brien in In a Little Spanish Town. Benny Carter cultivates Honeysuckle Rose for elegant Lena Home. Frank Morgan pretends to be a doctor, gets slap-happy in his examination of Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball and Marsha Hunt, who want to be WAVES. Red Skelton is a soda jerker with an allergy for ice cream. Judy Garland makes scat-singing like "Tchai-tchai-tchaikovsky" bearable in Let There Be Music. Senor Iturbi, forced by the curious exigencies of the screen to prove that he is almost anything else but a ranking pianist, trots out some fair boogie-woogie, takes care to play nothing worth hearing in one of the best recordings a screen piano has ever received.

Read more: The New Pictures, Oct. 11, 1943 - TIME

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Pauline Kael Film Review

"An army camp puts on a big show, culminating in "United Nations on the March" - a work by Shostakovich that was specially commissioned by MGM. Gene Kelly tries hard in this all-star extravaganza, Lena Horne sings "Honeysuckle Rose," and Judy Garland tackles "The Joint Is Really Jumpin'," but nothing could save it. Maybe Jose Iturbi put the seal of doom on the venture when he sat down to play boogie-woogie; he hits the notes alright, but his boogie-woogie is (arguably) the most mechanical ever recorded. The dull, dull plot involves Mary Astor, John Boles, and Kathryn Grayson. With Mickey Rooney, June Allyson, Gloria De Haven, Ben Blue, Eleanor Powell, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, and many others, plus the bands of Kay Kyser, Benny Carter, and Bob Crosby. Written by Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins; produced by Joe Pasternak. George Sidney directed."

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Comparison of Thousands Cheer to Stage Door Canteen is inevitable and natural. Both have the same format. Kathryn Grayson is the colonel's (John Boles) daughter who puts on a super-duper camp show ...

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This blog lists every MGM musical. Please click on a title for posters, film clips, trailers and...

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Trailer

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"Let Me Call You Sweetheart"

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"United Nations On the March"

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"I Dug a Ditch"

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"In a Little Spanish Town"

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"Honeysuckle Rose"