There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of World War II-era movies out there that deal with the same theme as this one, but there was something special about this one. Having seen snippets of it on TCM, I found it at Wal-Mart in the $1 pile and picked it up. It's long, more than two hours, and a lot of the celebrity performances seem to get in the way of the story, but they're worth it both for their entertainment value and for their historical importance. In fact, one of the reasons I got the DVD was that I wanted to see Kay Kyser in action. The sheer volume of performers showing up washing dishes, dancing with "troops," and so on, is fascinating. And they're so young! I'd never seen some of them with dark hair before. Anyway, the story itself, at first, seems so simple, but for some reason it clicked with me. I think it was the fact that the film allowed these characters to develop around all the entertainment acts. You actually saw Eileen grow from being somewhat self-centered, to achieving a goal for herself, and then realizing that what she truly wanted was something else. And though it was formulaic, you saw Dakota go from the guy who's sworn off women "for the duration" to a romantic. The scene on the rooftop may have been hokey, but the actors pulled it off. They may have been "B" actors, but they got an "A" for this one. You can't live in the past, and the days portrayed in this movie are long gone. And let us remember that the world was at war. But still, maybe someday, after all of us are gone, the world will go back to the kind of entertainment, at least, that this movie represents. It might be considered a step back by some, but I think it just might represent a form of progress.
Review of Stage Door Canteen
