Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)

Very best movie i ever watch

To me, this movie is perfection.

hyped garbage

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

When macho Fred MacMurray learns he's been declared "4-F" for military service (reduced to working in a metal recycling plant), his ego is greatly damaged, especially when the girl he loves (Joan Leslie) keeps turning him down for dates with men on active duty. With the help of a mischievous genie (Gene Sheldon) he locates in an antique bottle, he gets into the line of active duty: As a crew member on one of Christopher Columbus's ships, as a soldier at Valley Forge, and as a spy trying to get information from the German army for none other than George Washington himself. Sheldon's time travel device keeps him going further back in time from the Revolutionary War times to Manhattan Island when it was New Amsterdam. Scenes of the Native American dominated New York City are filled with "Airplane!" style humor, previously popularized in "Hellzapoppin'!" which includes deer stopping for traffic lights, a forest which has cross-streets posted for 42nd and Broadway, and natives who sell him Manhattan then set off in search of a fool dumb enough to buy Brooklyn.It is this fluffy, fun attitude which makes this an absolute crowd-pleaser, and while you won't go home singing songs about Columbus's crew insisting that the world is flat, you won't hold your nose at them either. That production number is done in almost opera style with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin who contribute different styles of music for each era that the film explores. Alan Mowbray is imperiously funny as George Washington (being warned by MacMurray about his companion, Benedict Arnold), and Anthony Quinn makes a cameo as a Native American who bamboozles MacMurray into buying property which he will utilize centuries later in order to keep girlfriend Leslie's look-alike from marrying someone she doesn't love. Leslie and June Haver (MacMurray's real-life wife) show up as several different characters, throwing confusion into MacMurray's way, but delight for the audience.

First saw this half a lifetime ago on a black-and-white TV in a small Samoan village and thought it was hilarious. Now, having seen it for the second time, so much later, I don't find it hilarious. I don't find ANYTHING hilarious anymore. But this is a witty and light-hearted comedy that moves along quickly without stumbling and I thoroughly enjoyed it.It's 1945 and Fred MacMurray is a 4F who's dying to get into one of the armed forces. He rubs a lamp in the scrapyard he's managing and a genie appears to grant him a few wishes. (Ho hum, right? But though the introduction is no more than okay, the fantasies are pretty lively.) MacMurray tells the genie that he wants to be in the army. Poof, and he is marching along with Washington's soldiers into a particularly warm and inviting USO where June Haver and Joan Leslie are wearing lots of lace doilies or whatever they are, and lavender wigs. Washington sends MacMurray to spy on the enemy -- red-coating, German-speaking Hessians, not Brits. The Hessians are jammed into a Bierstube and singing a very amusing drinking song extolling the virtues of the Vaterland, "where the white wine is winier/ and the Rhine water's Rhinier/ and the bratwurst is mellower/ and the yellow hair is yellower/ and the Frauleins are jucier/ and the goose steps are goosier." Something like that. The characterizations are fabulous, as good as Sig Rumann's best. Otto Preminger is the suspicious and sinister Hessian general. "You know, Heidelberg, vee are 241 to 1 against you -- but vee are not afraid." I can't go on too long with these fantasies but they're all quite funny, and so are the lyrics. When he wishes he were in the Navy, MacMurray winds up with Columbus and the fantasy is presented as grand opera. "Don't you know that sailing west meant/ a terrifically expensive investment?/ And who do you suppose provides the means/ but Isabella, Queen of Queens." When they sight the New World, someone remarks that it looks great. "I don't care what it looks like," mutters Columbus, "but that place is going to be called Columbusland."Anyway, everything is finally straightened out, though the genie by this time is quite drunk, and MacMurray winds up in the Marine Corps with the right girl.I've made it sound too cute, maybe, but it IS cute. The kids will enjoy the puffs of smoke and the magic and the corny love story. The adults will get a kick out of the more challenging elements of the story (who are the Hessians?) unless they happen to be college graduates, in which case they might want to stick with the legerdemain and say, "Wow! Awesome!"

If you haven't seen this obscure little charmer, you should seek it out. It is the story of a bumbling, wartime Sad Sack (Fred MacMurray) who is listed 4-F each time he attempts to join any branch of the military. He finds a magic lamp which of course contains a genie (Gene Sheldon), but the genie is even more bumbling than MacMurray is, sending him across time to serve in all the wrong times and places than the one he wants. It is cute, cheerful, and pure fluff, and you can't help but like it. The plots is much like a Disney film, particularly since the two stars (MacMurray and Sheldon) both made numerous Disney films in the 50's and 60's, although not together. Needless to say, it all ends well for everyone, and the viewer goes away feeling pretty good.

This film is from 1945, in gorgeous (but a little too dark in the night-time scenes) Technicolor, with songs by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin! It's a war-time pageant and everyone wants to get in the army, and a genie appears to help Fred MacMurray do a "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" entry into various times of American history. Anthony Quinn is funny as a street-smart Indian, and I never realized how gorgeous June Haver and Joan Leslie were. So-so songs and a terrible title explain how unknown this goofy film is. Gregory Ratoff was evidentially a better actor (Symphony for Six Million) than a director, but at 77 minutes this film is worth your time, especially if you like musicals. Nice to look at, and the choreography is pretty amusing.