Lechuguilla Well-known performers and film stars entertain, serve food and drink to, and socialize with, young WWII soldiers and sailors, before these guys go off to war. The fictional plot follows three or four young servicemen in particular, and their encounters with attractive young females whose work at the canteen involves being the guys' romantic dates for a couple of hours.Most of the plot takes place at the canteen, a New York City nightclub with dance floor and stage. The atmosphere is intentionally lively and upbeat. For servicemen, it's a momentary escape both from the demands of military duty and the prospect of overseas battle. Yet there's an undercurrent of loneliness and separation, knowing that in war not everyone returns safely to friends and family. Owing to these melancholy and sad themes, I find the token plot more interesting than the appearance of celebrities.Some of the entertainers do nothing more than chitchat for a minute or so with the servicemen. Other entertainers perform on stage. And it is the selection of performers and their musical numbers that I found quite disappointing. Almost all of the selected songs and comedy routines were downright boring. Of course it was a different era then, so judgment needs to be tempered with a sense of historical perspective.B&W lighting is acceptable, but it would have been interesting to see this film in color. The sounds of the performing bands seemed tinny or thin to me; maybe it's just the era technology. Casting and acting are acceptable. The appearance of the celebrities could have been enhanced if they had been wearing name tags, or in some way could have been identified by name."Stage Door Canteen" is a lengthy film, which could have been rendered higher quality with less dialogue and far better stage entertainment. Yet, it's worth watching as a useful window into an era that is long gone, an era of some interesting performers, almost none of whom are with us anymore.

secondtake Stage Door Canteen (1943)This is not a great movie as movies go, but if you stick it out, you'll find an amazing parade of great music from the time, played by the real deals, from Benny Goodman to Count Basie. There are some small moments that are treasures, and they will vary depending on who you are. I know I absolutely get choked up in the short recital of Romeo and Juliet with the great Broadway star Katharine Cornell playing Juliet--behind the lunch counter. And there is Katherine Hepburn (at the end), and Yehudi Menuhin (violin and Schubert) and Ray Bolger (he was the Scarecrow four years earlier). There is a really touching moment with a group of Soviet soldiers including a young woman, whose eyes and story are just super sad...but she says, if she meets a Nazi, her "hand will not tremble."The soldiers are such regular guys, all sweetness and loneliness. It's a sad reminder of the war at its most basic--tearing young men from their innocence--and yet of course this is putting the best tilt to it all. These kinds of "canteens" were benefits of sorts, morale boosters, and this movie is a summation of that best of them. Frank Borzage (the director) was top flight a decade early (he did the famous 1932 "Farewell to Arms"), and the photography by Harry Wild (a studio mainstay) is great.Still, it's a canned affair. After an hour of entertainment there's an interlude out on the streets which is weak, and then they are back for more. There are two parallel stories outside the music--the soldiers who are about to go to war, and they are floating around fishing for company, and the women, back stage and in off hours. It's not bad stuff at all.

MartinHafer This film and "Hollywood Canteen" are interesting little curios from WWII. During the war, actors on Broadway and Hollywood set up clubs for vets awaiting shipment overseas. In the clubs, the soldiers and sailors would be entertained by top acts and the wait staff were all actors. This film concerns the Broadway location and as such features many actors who are mostly famous for stage acting (such as Lunt and Fontaine) though there are quite a few familiar faces of actors who appeared on both coasts. Both films feature plots with fictional characters who all work or attend the Stage Door Canteen--and the actual actors who worked there are in the film as well. In light of this, the film might just have the largest list of acting credits I've ever seen! As for the plot, it's okay but is really just an excuse to feature a bazillion cameos. People like me who recognize many of the faces will no doubt enjoy the film (even if I'm not nearly old enough to have seen this film when it debuted). However, I assume younger folks who are not fans of classic films probably won't be very impressed when they see the likes of George Jessel, Judith Anderson, Ethel Waters and the like--as they'll have no idea who these folks were.I have a few observations of things you might want to look for if you see the film: Franklin Pangborn had an interesting scene with Johnny Weissmuller. Johnny takes off his shirt and Pangborn (who in the early 30s played several gay characters) stares at him admiringly.There were lots of sexual innuendos in this film. While they were all pretty mild, there's no mistaking several of them. I think the reason they were included is that this film was often sent abroad to show the troops--hence the presence of Gypsy Rose Lee! While Count Basie and Ethel Waters appeared to perform, there were very few Blacks in the film apart from them. I wonder if they weren't allowed in the Canteen and perhaps had to go to a "Colored Only" club instead. I assume this is the case, as the military was still not integrated and this would not occur until shortly before the Korean War. Also, in a Jitterbugging scene, the distant shot shows several Black men dancing--but the closeup is only White soldiers! There were lots of allied servicemen in the film (such as Australian, Chinese, Russian and Brits). I wonder if this really happened and assume foreign servicemen at the club was actually very, very rare--after all, what would they be doing in the US? Except in a few very rare cases, you think that they'd be in their own countries or at least somewhere in Europe or the Pacific.I would love to see this film on DVD where you could turn on and off credits that appeared DURING the film to tell you who all the famous folks were. My wife got pretty annoyed with me when I pointed them all out--and, oddly, whenever she seemed to ask who someone was, I didn't know! Ha! Overall, I really enjoyed this film. The plot, for what it was, was pretty entertaining but what I really liked were the many, many cameos and performances. A nice little window into yesterday.

jmar1978 As a film, this is almost tissue-paper thin. The leading characters are almost stereotypes, the plot is tediously predictable, and the work's values are conventionally true-blue.And yet: this, I think, is a valuable film for what it captures about the mood and values of the nation in 1943. Katherine Hepburn's speech near the end to the young lass whose fiancé missed their wedding due to deployment orders, I think, grasps the essence of what the U.S. was dealing with in the troubling year of 1943 (remember, the air campaign over Europe had been dealt setback after setback, in the Pacific U.S. forces were still slogging up the Solomons and New Guinea, and the 1st ID had just been handed its helmet at Kasserine Pass).There's an air of both uncertainty and hope in this film -- the sense that a lot of these lads were going over and never coming back, combined with a sense of resolve: it was a dark hour, but we're going to prevail. And we're going to do what we can for the troops as they embark and return.So I have a world of respect for the performers who make cameos in this film: Goodman, Basie, Kyser, Bellamy, Bergen, Hepburn -- the list is immense. They probably got paid for it, but they still invested their clout, their personality, their franchise, for an unabashed paean to U.S. soldiers. I know it was a simpler times and the issues were more clear, but I doubt you'd see a comparable lineup today honoring U.S. troops in Afghanistan, etc.