Thank Your Lucky Stars

During WWII, Hollywood came up with the notion that all-star revues would be just the thing to revive the audience's flagging spirits, and soon these extravaganzas started rolling out of the backlot like dreadnoughts down a slipway. Paramount turned out Star Spangled Rhythm, followed a year later by this Warners offering, which gave the studio's contract players a rare opportunity to strut their stuff in a musical context. The plot's the usual puttin'-on-a-show concoction, but the excessive length is worth it for Bette Davis' showstopping 'They're Either Too Young or Too Old' and Errol Flynn (that's right, all-singing all-dancing) offering the worst Cockernee accent this side of Dick Van Dyke in his party piece, 'That's What You Jolly Well Get'.