Stanley Ridges

The spirit of an executed murderer enters the body of a physician, and forces him to do its bidding--namely, murder.

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.

Two innocent men are wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The fiancée of one of them convinces a police detective of their innocence, and together they try to find the real killer before the men's execution date. In Springdale, MA, working class waitress Mary Roberts and cabbie John Tennant - nicknamed Brick - are engaged to be married and are planning what they hope will be a prosperous future, they in the short term having to prioritize their want for Brick to expand business beyond one taxicab against owning a small house in the suburbs. Their short term plan is for Brick to buy that second cab which his friend Joe Linden, with whom he has only recently reconnected, will drive, and that they will move into an apartment in the city while they save their money to buy that suburban house. Their collective lives are thrown into a turmoil on the eve of their wedding when eyewitnesses to the crime finger Brick and Joe as two of the three men who not only robbed the local theater, but shot its watchman dead. Mary knows Brick cannot have committed the crime as he was with her at the time. However in trial when it is her seemingly biased word against the unbiased word of the eyewitnesses, the jury finds both Brick and Joe guilty, they ultimately sentenced to death by the electric chair. Vowing to prove Brick and Joe innocent while finding the real murderers, Mary comes across a small new piece of evidence in at least showing Brick and Joe innocent. However, she is only able to convince one person that matters, Police Lieutenant Everett, who led the investigation into the robbery and murder, of the error in convicting Brick and Joe. As Mary and Lt. Everett go on a search for more evidence, they are in a race against time as once Brick and Joe are executed, any evidence proving their innocence will be somewhat meaningless especially to Brick and Joe.

Immigrant radical Bartolomeo Romagna is falsely condemned and executed for a payroll robbery. Years later, his son Mio sets out to find the truth of the crime and to bring to account the gangster Trock Estrella. Immigrant radical Bartolomeo Romagna is falsely condemned and executed for a payroll robbery. Years later, his son Mio sets out to find the truth of the crime and to bring to account the gangster Trock Estrella. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>