Evening star., 1943-08-13

judicial of critics have sung It's prals
latives with sheer abandon and gre
of Irving Berlin and George M.
Cohan combined.
There never was anything like 1t,
they made their typewriters shout,
until the noise was heard above the
booming of the guns, the scream OF
the bombs, the confusion of the
bureaucratS and the groanS OF the
opposition.
Today, this typewriter joins the
cacaphony, clatters out its confirma-
ton OF everything that has been
said
This Is the Army" is more than
entertainment. 1t is moving pic
ture of the spirit of democracy, a
force clad in khaki. thing of song,
and strength and laughter 1t over
whelms the person who would apply
the usual critical standards, oy
which it would be possible to OBJ
iect to several of its aspects. Its
appeal is straight to the heart, the
appeal of 100000 Americans with
guns in their hands, who want to
sing and joke and dance and feel
sentimental or ribald on their way
TO where the guns are pointing, 1t
never gives you a chance not to like
it even when a small voice is saying
the story is loose, haf-baked and
another one is whispering that 1t
has been ballooned far beyond the
proportions of the original produc-
tion. Those voices never have
chance against those of the several
hundred soldiers booming out Irving
Berlin's martial, sentimental, and
jocular melodies.
This Is the Army" simply has to
be great and that is that. 1t is a
great Army, you see, and the pro-
ducers saw to the greatness of their
show when they christened it that
day at Camp Upton. The inspira-
tion of that has not run out in spite
of the distance between Camp Up
ton and Hollywood.
In keeping This Is the Army" a
lively affair despite its expansion to
include a number of Hollywood
name people and a story tie-in with
the First World War, Warner Bros.
accomplished something entirely
praiseworthy. 1t takes courage to
tamper with an original held in such
deep and universal affection. Warn
ers' tampering turned out very we'll,
however, and when they added tech
nicolor-actually drenched it with
the stuff-the thing acquired a Wis
ual beauty beyond that of mere
khaki.
Director Michael Curtiz keeps his
show moving at the pace Of mech
anized division. Once in a while the
story intrudes its somewhat silly
little head into the proceedings, but
it is almost Immediately hoped into
oblivion by song, kicked aside by
a tempestuous tap dance, or laughed
off by comedy sequence. Screen
writer's Casey Robinson and Capt.
Claude Binyon can forget any crit
icism of their story, however, for
they have added number of laugh
lines to the script which contribute
greatly to the pictures levity. When
they dispose of the sergeant subject
by having young soldier remark OF
tough, old one, He wasn't born,
he was issued" they rock the thea
ter. They miss no openings of that
kind throughout the picture.
Xxx * *
The essence of the revue-which
the original production was-is re-
fected in the retention of all the
original specialties and the addition
of several new ones.
Sergt Earl Oxford still tears
pleasantly at the heart with Il Left
My Heart at the Stage Door Can
teen; S. Sergt. James Burrell does
the same thing with the prettily
staged, I'm Getting Tired so l Can
Sleep; the Mandy" number is a
hilarious bit with Sergt. Richard
Irving as it's centerpiece: the Allon
acrobatic trio proves the wisdom of
selective service IN declaring aero
bats non n-deferrable Tor are they to-