Up in Arms (1944)

Perfect cast and a good story

hyped garbage

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

For his debut film Danny Kaye was given an impressive production for a typical service comedy, a little more than most got during wartime years. Sam Goldwyn was a man who never did anything by halves and Kaye's stardom was assured. Kaye's so funny that you might not notice that the plot was taken and used the following year by MGM for Anchors Aweigh.If you can wrap yourself around the concept that Dana Andrews would want to pal around with hypochondriac Danny Kaye than you'll find this a very funny film. As with so many others the Selective Service didn't find any one of Kaye's thousand or so ailments reason enough to keep him out of World War II.A couple of nurses played by Dinah Shore and Constance Dowling are in the cast. Kaye is absolutely bug eyed over Dowling, but it's Andrews that she likes. In the meantime Dinah Shore who has a couple of good songs to sing can't get Kaye to notice her.Up In Arms got two Oscar nominations for Best Musical Scoring and for Dinah Shore's song Now I Know. Personally I've always liked Tess's Torch Song which you can hear her perform in this film. But the real treat are Kaye's patter numbers done by Max Liebman and Mrs. Danny Kaye Sylvia Fine. The Melody in 4-F is a classic and loved by all of Danny Kaye's fans.This was the start of a great comic career and an impressive start at that.

This recently showed on Turner Classic Movies and I was lucky enough to catch most of it. The film is old and features some cartoonesque lampooning of racial stereotypes (especially the Japanese, but hey it was made in 1944 - do the math), but nothing as offensive as incidental references made in the modern media. Danny Kaye's antics had me in stitches and the ladies are still lovely despite the age of the material - the song-and-dance silly humor is unlike anything you'll find in Hollywood these days but was quite fitting at the time. Overall it was highly entertaining and I would not mind watching it again either alone or with company.

As a general Rule, I hate Hollywood musicals - Certain Musicals. This is just my personal taste and no offense to those who love musicals. Mostly because, and I bet a lot of people will agree with me, the music is just badly written. Always there are exceptions to the rule, and one of those being Danny Kaye (Another being Kay Kaiser).The Technicolor on this is just fantastic and the music and lyrics are of the best of the Danny Kaye films. It is a great comedy on it's own having a pretty hilarious premise and several incidents that have you howling in laughter even after 60 years or so. Danny Kaye is a dailectition of superb talent, and his fake Scottish in this movie is hilarious.Finally, Danny Kaye was a Musical genius, and I do not know any other entertainer who could use his flapper and a musical instrument as well. I have laughed Long Hours due to this guy all through my life, even if I have seen the film several times! Hahaha! Dinah Shore has a real swell number as well- Kind of in the middle of the film. I like Dinah Shore as his "leading lady" - I like how she is dressed, I love the sharp shoulders on her costumes, she was about as odd as he was. And this oddity is what made this film so classic. His most beautiful leading lady was always Virginia Mayo, but Shore is really funny and so it is a good match up.Of course there is the Danny Kaye­™ "Dream Sequence" and this one is fantastic. I love the flaming Women Torches- Goldwyn always made a little mini production out of those sequences. I don't know if Danny himself suggested these, but several of his movies have them and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" Practically consists of them. Wonder Man is another. So of course "Up in Arms" has a couple very good imagination sequences like that, including the ending.But nothing is as good as Kaye standing in front of a full Orchestra, dementing the music. This film has one scene in particular, where you can certainly say, that music, used as a comedy tool, works very well.

This is only the second Danny Kaye film I've had the pleasure of watching, and he certainly didn't disappoint. The scene at the beginning of the film is fantastic, and Kaye's outstanding ability to tongue-twist in a song mixed in a conversation is hilarious! It has a lovely plot and Kaye steals every scene, from his serious romantic side, to his outrageous physical comedy. There are loads of brilliant one liners in there from Kaye, and his character being a hypochondriac just adds to the enjoyment! If you haven't seen this film yet, then what are you waiting for?!