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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0085391188247
Feature: HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN The Hollywood Canteen was a club for GIs where Joan Crawford might over- easy you some eggs and John Garfield might scrub out the frying pan. The movie Hollywood Canteen is a snappy, starry salute to that World War II landmark. Dazzle the troops and modern fans in ?a great big scrambled vaudeville show with enough talent to have made a dozen fine movies.?THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS Be
Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 1.0EnglishSubtitledFrenchSubtitled
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
MPN: 1000027308
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Running Time: 376 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Features:- HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN The Hollywood Canteen was a club for GIs where Joan Crawford might over- easy you some eggs and John Garfield might scrub out the frying pan. The movie Hollywood Canteen is a snappy, starry salute to that World War II landmark. Dazzle the troops and modern fans in ?a great big scrambled vaudeville show with enough talent to have made a dozen fine movies.?THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS Be
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008
Amazon.com:
"War is pretty grim business," an officer states in This is the Army, one of three (literally) star-spangled World War II-era musicals included in this rousing set. "Sometimes a song or a smile is just as vital to an army as food." It was also essential to those on the homefront, and Warner Bros. obliged with these proudly patriotic extravaganzas in which the studios' A-list talents sing, dance, poke fun at themselves, and most important, offer their heartfelt support of the soldiers fighting overseas. Boy, as the ads for That's Entertainment once proclaimed, do we need it now. "Wherever you go, our hearts go with you," Bette Davis movingly states at the end of Hollywood Canteen (1944), a salute to the famed club she co-founded where soldiers mingle with the movies' best and brightest, who entertain and serve as the wait staff. Robert Hutton stars as a wide-eyed soldier with a mad crush on Joan Leslie. At the club, a "Reaganized" Jane Wyman shows him the ropes, Barbara Stanwyck serves him food, and Paul Henreid dispenses romantic advice to his lovelorn buddy, while onstage the likes of Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Roy Rogers and Trigger, and others perform. Cantor gets the good sport medal for Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), in which he portrays himself as an egomaniacal ham as well as an aspiring entertainer whose resemblance to the real Cantor has stymied his career. The heart of the film is a benefit show. If you've always wanted to see Bette Davis or Errol Flynn sing and dance, then "That's What You Jolly Well Get" (just one of the showstopping numbers). Great comic character actors abound, including Edward Everett Horton and chubby cheeked S.Z. Sakall, who, in one cute bit, intimidates tough guy Humphrey Bogart. Michael Curtiz's This is the Army, the top-grossing film of 1943, is a class act all the way, with an Oscar-winning score and great Irving Berlin tunes, including Kate Smith's defining performance of "God Bless America" (Berlin himself makes a rare screen appearance to sing, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning"). George Murphy and Ronald Reagan front the cast as father and son soldiers, who, in World Wars I and II, respectively, mount morale-building stage shows. Each disc replicates an old fashioned night at the movies, complete with coming attraction, newsreel, vintage short subjects, and classic cartoons. The This is the Army disc contains a 45-min. documentary about Warner Bros.' war effort narrated by Steven Spielberg, and delightful, all-too-brief commentary by Joan Leslie, who is in all three films (the bulk of the detailed and incisive commentary is by U.S.C. professor Dr. Drew Casper). Whether as tribute to "the Greatest Generation" or as nostalgia for vintage movie buffs, this collection is a (Yankee doodle) dandy! --Donald Liebenson
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
These movies are great quality and a great representation of america in the 40's! I recommend them!
Rating: -
I had already seen all three films before ordering this package. If you love the forties films and music, this is for you. If you find that style quaint, you may be bored.
The lovely Joan Leslie is in all three films and is briefly interviewed by a film historian as an extra feature on the This is the Army DVD. The wholesome Miss Leslie really makes us believe that such a pretty glamour girl could fall for a little guy who did the right thing by protecting America and Americas women in Hollywood Canteen. A real life attraction for servicemen where Hollywoods brightest stars showed gratitude to the men who made their success possible. This film is a testament to Miss Leslies natural sincerity and innocence. These films are even more timely as a new generation is called to save the world yet again.
This is the Army is a revue played by real servicemen. It starts with a silly disclaimer over a short minstral act in the film. It's also the only one in color. Ronald Reagan plays Miss Leslies boyfriend in the movie while serving on active duty.
Thank your lucky stars is the most disjointed with a somewhat thin plot but still very enjoyable with some great songs.
These films help remind us of what our fathers did for us. And for what Hollywood did for them. An important reminder when a new enemy is casting their covetious eyes on our nations borders and our women.
Rating: -
Regardless of the source material, and despite the fact that this might be computer enhanced in color and in sound, and even if this DVD is not mastered from the original nitrate 3-strip Technicolor camera negatives, and whatever else people find to gripe about --- the fact remains that this is the BEST version of the film on DVD to date. Period. Okay, so the color is a bit over saturated. The purists are offended, feel betrayed and a bit irritated. Get over it! Either accept what you're given as a product, or take it back for a refund. Or sell it on Amazon as "like new"!
Me? I'm happy with WHV's efforts, even if these efforts are not the norm. Granted, they should fess up and admit what it took to bring this title to DVD. But in the end, we still have the best offering of this movie that we have ever had for the DVD format. Who cares if it has been tweeked and computer enhanced. What DVD isn't anymore? There is no such thing as purity in celuloid anymore.
I plan to watch this WHV release again and again. Thanks, Warner for doing your best.
Rating: -
There has been complaints that the newly restored "Irving Berlin's: This Is The Army" currently only available in the Warner Homefront Collection, isn't up to their usual quality. First, a little background is in order...
This is Warner's very first use of the 3-strip Technicolor process for a musical. Color stock was hard to get and discouraged during WWII. The film was made solely for the purpose of raising funds for the war effort and in 1950, the studio gave the film over to Army Emergency Relief then it fell into public domain in the 1970s. Original negative elements are most likely lost forever.
In 1991 the cable movie network AMC along with UCLA Film and Television Archive did a restoration of the film but the results ended up not so well with flickering and color shifts. All other copies available were so faded that they had a sepia tone color to them and it was one of these that Warner obviously worked from. The "saturation" of colors upon close inspection on a 1080p television shows that the film was "colorized" and there are times with details where you have glow and odd color edge enhancements due to register shifts giving a 3-D effect (without the glasses) on some background objects and people. Take a look at the mass of soldiers in one skit.. all of the faces are exactly identical in color and look like they cut and pasted 300 copies onto the frame. The only skit that looked fairly natural was the Harlem number where the African Americans skin tones were varied because they didn't have to colorize the sepia for their faces and uniforms like with the pinkish white actor faces. Grass, shrubs, clothing, even eye colors and hair all look "solid" and pop out unnaturally at times from the overlay of color and of course metal tones were off.
All said, this is the best this film will look unless they find the original 3 strip negative elements and being such a specialized movie doubt it will be revisited. Warner should have made this known up front of the movie but the only disclaimers were the P.C. ones but did give us more extras on this disc than the others as an apology of sorts. Watch this movie with an open mind that it looks colorized and then enjoy.
Eric S. Huffstutler
Richmond, VA
Rating: -
Briefly issued individually,Warners has brought together three war time classic musicals and put them into one set called "Warner Brothers and the Homefront Collection";"This is The Army","Thank Your Lucky Stars" and "Hollywood Canteen".And you can thank your lucky stars too,as these movies belong in everyone's collections.
"This is the Army",my favourite among the three,raised more than nine million dollars for the Army Emergency relief fund in its' day,while its' stage counterpart of the previous year raised around a cool two million.One heck of a take and with good reason.Irving Berlin's original shows "Yip,Yip Yaphank" back in WW1 and "This is the Army" for WW2 were extraordinarily successful because they struck a chord not only with servicemen but for the families of servicemen also.Both sides of the "fence" so to speak, could relate to the material being performed before their appreciative eyes.Thus the movie,an amalgam of both Berlin show's, brings that same spirit to the screen and audiences ate every patriotic moment of it up,showing their appreciation at the box office in spades.The story revolves around George Murphy,a dancer by profession, who puts on "Yip,Yip Yaphank" during WW1.When the show ends for the cast the troupe all march off to war.Murphy comes home with an injured leg and is unable to dance again.When WW2 rears its ugly head Murphy gets the idea of putting on another show for the boys but with an updated theme.By this time his son,played by Ronald Reagan,is also in the service and agrees to help his father out.Ron has a girl but refuses to marry her saying that he wants to get the war out of the way first.It's a back and forth tug until eventually Ronald relents later in the film.In the meantime the show goes on with a special number inserted for the original cast members of "Yip,Yip Yaphank",but the members blind side George who is watching from the audience.During the number,which is a close army"drill",he is called by name and rank to go onstage and take over.It's a tender moment for Murphy's character and for us.Near the end of the show legendary Irving Berlin takes to the stage himself to sing"How I hate to get up in the Morning".It's an unforgettable moment in motion picture history.
Through the entire picture we are entertained by some of the best Warner Brothers/First National could muster like Kate Smith doing her penultimate song"God Bless America",Alan Hale(real life father of Alan Hale Jr.,skipper from Gilligan's Island),George Tobias,Joan Leslie,Charles Butterworth,Sgt.Joe Louis(now enlisted boxing champion)and many more all backed by over 300 actual GIs.As I say it is my favourite of the three and it still stirs the soul whenever I watch it.The DVD includes "Warner at War",a new documentary narrated by Steven Spielberg,added commentary by Joan Leslie and Dr Drew Casper,a (deleted from American prints)scene for British audiences,the original overture and exit music re-inserted,a vintage newsreel,cartoon,a musical short and trailers.
"Thank Your Lucky Stars" involves the story of two producers SZ Sakall(one of my favourite all time character actors) and the incomparable Edward Everett Horton wanting to put on a Hollywood Cavalcade show.A concurrent plot involves a wanna be actor Joe Simpson played by legendary Eddie Cantor who befriends Joan Leslie,an aspiring song writer and Dennis Morgan,an aspiring singer.Now Joe just"happens" to look like Eddie Cantor and Eddie(Cantor plays himself also) holds the contract for Dinah Shore whom Sakall and Horton want for their show.Through alot of plot twists and funny turns,the show goes on successfully.Cantor is absolutely wonderful in this film playing a believable dual role.Musical numbers abound of course in this film as the likes of Spike Jones(Hotcha Corn-ya),Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best doing a duet "Ice Cold Katie"(watch for Best at the end getting a mouthful of confetti!),Betty Davis singing"They're always too Young or too Old",Errol Flynn talking/singing "That's what they Jolly well Get",Dinah Shore in numerous lovely numbers,Anne Sheridan,Jack Carson and Alan Hale in an hilarious "Goin' North" routine,Dennis Morgan and Eddie Cantor, sing and strut their stuff in grand style.There is a fantasy number sung by Dennis Morgan called "Good Night,Good Neighbour" which features Alexis Smith in it.Dennis is seeing home and serenading a latin American beauty.This a nod,firstly,to the "good neighbour policy",specifically to our neighbours in South America.Secondly as you watch you are immediately struck by the fact that though well executed,the ideal person for the number should have been Carmen Miranda.But unfortunately Carmen was very busy lady over at 20th Century Fox.
This film is also famous for Sakall out-bullying Humphrey Bogart;it IS a funny moment with Bogart hoping his "...fans don't hear about this".The DVD includes a vintage newsreel,two musical shorts,a patriotic short,a vintage Bugs cartoon,trailers ... Read More
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