She's a Sweetheart (1944)
In this musical drama, a woman turns her mansion into a boarding house for soldiers on furlough, providing them with room, board, and musical entertainment.
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So much average
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Soldiers and sailors on leave during World War II must have had it pretty good according to the movies while on leave. People either invited them over for Sunday dinner, offered them a room for a night or two, and offered mom and pop style advice to give them the courage to go on so they'd have home and hearth to come home to. Oscar winning Jane Darwell does just that as a lovable lady whose own obvious loneliness has opened her heart to become a surrogate mom to all those who need one, opening her huge home to them and creating a canteen to keep them entertained. When young soldier Larry Parks falls in love with canteen singer Jane Frazee, Darwell expresses her worry that Frazee isn't the committing kind. You get the sense that she hopes she's wrong, but somehow she just isn't sure.Bright, breezy musical has some decent musical numbers and gives hope to the lonely serviceman, but I wonder if this was false hope considering much of the struggles these boys, returning as men, would find after the war ended. This isn't as comical as the usual B musical, featuring a rather sad, second story between Parks' pal, the shy Ross Hunter (yes, the future producer!) and sad Nina Foch. This would make a great double-bill with another Columbia B drama from the same year, "She's a Soldier, Too!" in which two old ladies found themselves the reluctant hostesses for working factory girls. If only America today had half the hospitality that films like this showed, what a wonderful world we could share with those who need a reminder of what home really means.