Irving Berlin’s This Is the Army (1943)
Irving Berlin showed his abiding love for his country with, among other cultural accomplishments, decades of Broadway hits, the unofficial national anthem God Bless America (Veterans Day will mark the 70th Anniversary since the song was first performed and introduced to America and the world on “The Kate Smith Hour” 1938 Armistice Day CBS Radio Show broadcast, and as recreated in the movie version) and this World War II spirit-lifter. Originally conceived as a Broadway musical, the original stage production featured 350 real-life GIs, giving their singing-and-dancing all to raise nearly $2 million (then an astronomical sum) for Army Emergency Relief. At every performance, the highlight of the show was the moment when its composer, Mr. Berlin himself, would take center stage and sing “Oh, How I Hate to get up in the Morning.” The show was such an enormous success that Warner Bros. assembled a film adaptation with lightning speed, in order to spread the show’s unique blend of patriotism and entertainment to audiences everywhere. This Academy AwardŌ-winning screen adaptation stars (future U.S. Senator) George Murphy and (future U.S. President) Ronald Reagan cast as a father and son producing team who put on one stupendous military musical revue before the son marches off to war. Most of the same GIs who earned standing ovations every night on Broadway appear in the film version, along with leading lady Joan Leslie and guest stars Joe Louis, Kate Smith and even Irving Berlin himself. Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), This is the Army was an instant big-screen smash with audiences and critics, and became the top grossing film of 1943. All proceeds from the film were donated by Warner Bros. to Army Emergency Relief, and in 1950, Jack Warner donated the film itself to that organization. Removed from authorized distribution for more than a half century, Warner Home Video is proud to make the original roadshow version of the film available, under exclusive license from Army Emergency Relief and the God Bless America Fund.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
The stars come out to play in the joyous World War II-era Thank Your Lucky Stars. A breezy, behind-the-Hollywood-scenes story about young talents hoping for a big break glitters with specialty numbers featuring Golden Era greats. Virtually every Warner star under contract to the studio braved the opportunity to sing and dance for the good of the nation’s morale, with the result making the film an instant classic. The one Warner star who declined to break character was perhaps the studio’s biggest, but Humphrey Bogart’s appearance in a scene being out-tough-guyed by S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall virtually steals the film. Legendary song and dance man Eddie Cantor takes a leading role in the film’s story, with Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie featured as the romantic leads. The film also provided Dinah Shore with her film debut, taking on several of the film’s great songs by Frank Loesser and Arthur Schwartz. Warner stars best known for more serious roles let their guard down in memorable musical sequences including John Garfield, Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Hattie McDaniel, Olivia de Havilland and Miss Bette Davis, whose witty, wry, jitterbugging rendition of They’re Either Too Young or Too Old is “the cherry on the top” (Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical).

Hollywood Canteen (1944)
The legendary Hollywood Canteen was a massive and glamour-filled nightclub for GIs, located in the heart of tinseltown. Stars from every studio in town sacrificed any extra hours they could to help entertain soldiers who were temporarily in Los Angeles. The Canteen was where Joan Crawford might cook the 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, built around a storyline involving a corporal who wins a date with winsome Joan Leslie. Real-life Canteen co-founders Bette Davis and Garfield plus dozens more luminaries – including The Andrews Sisters, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Barbara Stanwyck and even Roy Rogers with his horse Trigger – dazzle the troops as well as modern fans in “a great big scrambled vaudeville show with enough talent to have made a dozen fine movies” (Howard Barnes, New York Herald Tribune).