June Allyson and Gloria Dehaven were born in a trunk, and now they do a sister act. It being wartime, every night after the show, they gather all the servicemen they can find and take them to their apartment for a party, and dream about converting the decrepit warehouse across the alley into a club for boys in uniform. What should happen after they rope in sergeant Tom Drake and sailor Van Johnson -- in his first starring role -- but that they are given the property anonymously.
It's produced by Joe Pasternak, so it's not a Freed unit musical, but a kitchen sink musical, in which all the musical and variety talent under contract to MGM is gathered up and given starring turns amidst the featherweight plot; the list includes Jimmy Durante, Jose Iturbi, Gracie Allen, Lena Horne, Harry James, Xavier Cugat... a variety show connected by a story, and Pasternak's standard for this period. With direction by Richard Thorpe, the shot must have been efficiently run, and it was apparently another money-spinner for MGM.
It's produced by Joe Pasternak, so it's not a Freed unit musical, but a kitchen sink musical, in which all the musical and variety talent under contract to MGM is gathered up and given starring turns amidst the featherweight plot; the list includes Jimmy Durante, Jose Iturbi, Gracie Allen, Lena Horne, Harry James, Xavier Cugat... a variety show connected by a story, and Pasternak's standard for this period. With direction by Richard Thorpe, the shot must have been efficiently run, and it was apparently another money-spinner for MGM.