Ruth Donnelly

Marshal Calem Ware must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town. Marshal Calem Ware (Randolph Scott) of Medicine Bend is tired and alone. Tired of killing to keep himself from being killed, and alone because of an unspoken past disappointment. The realization that someone in town is paying to have him killed, and the arrival with a show troupe of the special someone from the past, coincide to force more than one type of showdown. —Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

In 1917 during World War I, song-and-dance man Jerry Jones (George Murphy) is drafted into the US Army, where he stages a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank. It is a rousing success, but one night during the show orders are received to leave immediately for France: instead of the finale, the troops march up the aisles through the audience, out the theater's main entrance and into a convoy of waiting trucks. Among the teary, last-minute goodbyes Jones kisses his newlywed bride Ethel (Rosemary DeCamp) farewell. In the trenches of France, several of the soldiers in the production are killed or wounded by shrapnel from a German artillery barrage. Jones is wounded in the leg and must walk with a cane, ending his career as a dancer. Nevertheless, he is resolved to find something useful to do, especially now that he is the father of a son. Sgt. McGee (Alan Hale, Sr.) and Pvt. Eddie Dibble (Charles Butterworth), the troop bugler, also survive. 25 later in present day 1943, World War II is raging in Europe. Jerry's son Johnny (Ronald Reagan) enlists in the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor. He tells his sweetheart Eileen Dibble (Joan Leslie) that they cannot marry until he returns, since he doesn't want to make her a widow. Johnny reluctantly accepts an order to stage another musical, following in his father's footsteps. The drag show goes on tour throughout the United States and eventually plays Washington, D.C., in front of President Roosevelt (Jack Young), and an audience including a boy who is reminded of the soldiers seen "in the newsreels". Note: the bulk of the film features the musical production numbers nearly back-to-back with the backstage drama going on. The musical numbers are listed as in 'Yip Yip Yaphank': "It's Your Country and My Country" "My Sweetie" "Poor Little Me" "We're On Our Way to France" "Goodbye, France" "God Bless America" (sung by Kate Smith) The 'This is the Army' musical numbers are: "What Does He Look Like" "This Is The Army, Mr. Jones" "I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep" "Mandy" "Ladies of the Chorus" "That's What the Well Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear" "How About a Cheer for the Navy" "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen" "With My Head in the Clouds/American Eagles" "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" "This Time" "My British Buddy" (sung personally by Irving Berlin) During the show it is announced that this is the last performance: the soldiers in the production have been ordered back to their combat units. Eileen, who has joined the Red Cross auxiliary, appears backstage. During a break in the show she brings a minister and convinces Johnny that they should marry now - which they do, in the alley behind the theater, with their fathers acting as witnesses.

After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits. Rightly suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee is run out of Little Bend. On the train she meets con man Cuthbert J. Twillie and pretends to marry him for "respectability." Arrived in Greasewood City with his unkissed bride, Twillie is named sheriff by town boss Jeff Badger...with an ulterior motive. Meanwhile, both stars inimitably display their specialties, as Twillie tends bar and plays cards, and Flower Belle tames the town's rowdy schoolboys... —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

A unassuming greeting card poet from a small town in Vermont heads to New York City upon inheriting a massive fortune and is immediately hounded by those who wish to take advantage of him. Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town and leads a small-town kind of life, including playing the tuba in the town band. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow picks up his tuba and moves to the big city, where he becomes an instant target for everyone from the greedy opera committee to the sensationalist daily newspaper. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. Babe is a hot-shot reporter who figures that the best way to get close to Deeds is to pose as a damsel in distress. When small-town boy meets big-city girl, anything can, and does, happen.

Chester Kent struggles against time, romance, and a rival's spy to produce spectacular live "prologues" for movie houses. Chester Kent produces musical comedies on the stage. With the beginning of the talkies era he changes to producing short musical prologues for movies. This is stressful to him, because he always needs new units and his rival is stealing his ideas. He can get an contract with a producer if he is able to stage in three days three new prologues. In spite of great problems, he does it. —Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de> With the introduction of talkies, many theater owners are closing down their live productions in favor of the new format. Even those theaters that had live performances between films are getting rid of them. Producer Chester Kent comes up with an idea: if the live acts could be packaged and sold to theater owners, they should be able to reduce costs and make money. He's not the only one who's come up with the idea however and competition is tough. Kent soon realizes that they should try developing 40 minute prologues, live musical numbers to be shown before the movie. His ideas are continually being leaked to his competition. Throughout, his very capable secretary Nan keeps everything going in the office. —garykmcd Chester Kent, Broadway producer, is out of business because of talking pictures, so he starts producing musical "prologues" for movie theatres. Soon the search for new ideas is driving him crazy; his secretary pines with love for him; another secretary is pursued by his juvenile lead; and things get even worse when a spy sells Kent's ideas to a competitor. With some of Busby Berkeley's biggest dance numbers. —Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>