Something for the Boys

1944

This Technicolor musical released the year-before-the-last-year of World War II has a cheery disposition and features the military heavily ("There's a war on" gets repeated a lot), but it somehow doesn't touch upon World War II at all. Something for the Boys could just as easily been a film that came out before Pearl Harbor, like, for example, Buck Privates, it has a comedy story (and a lot of tunes) built around war-practice ("War Games") between two opposing sides operating a bit like football teams and men derived from the local Army base. Unlike that Abbott and Costello pre-war gem, though, this film doesn't spend any time trying to sell the necessity of global conflict or patriotism upon an American audience, instead it quickly slides sideways into the more pleasant problems of romance, trouble with money, crossed-up relationships with authority figures, old girlfriends, and the problem of how to put on a proper variety show.

Front and center, though, in the cast are two singers and a comedian: Carmen Miranda as Chiquita Hart, Vivian Blaine as Blossom Hart, and Phil Silvers as Harry Hart - that's right, the three are related, cousins who've each inherited a share of a dilapidated Southern Mansion from an uncle. Each of these cousins are struggling professional entertainers and in desperate need of funds, and the immediate idea of selling off the inheritance seems like the first order of business. But when a Sergeant from the local army base (Michael O'Shea as Ronald 'Rocky' Fulton) comes around wanting to make a deal in which he and his fellow servicemen will fix the place up in exchange for making it into a Inn where the men's wives can live, cooperation abounds, and that it also, after repair, look like a Southern Gothic Night Club comes in very handy.

For our four main stars, each gets showcase moments, and the Technicolor work is first class with carefully lighted scenes, especially for Carmen Miranda who engages the camera so directly it's as if she's running for national office. A developing love story between O'Shea and Blaine is made complicated (and a bit goofy) when old girlfriend (Sheila Ryan as Melanie Walker) shows up with an arrogant attitude that's begging for comeuppance, just not right away, but it will come around a bit later. Meanwhile, Phil Silvers talks fast and talks a lot, and gets beaten in poker and is shown being hung upside down as the army men try to get the money owed them from his empty pockets.

The pleasant problems of a comedy make up most of this film, but there is a slightly raised level of tension during the war games section of the movie toward the end. This envelopes the main set of the mansion and the stars' characters, and this is as close as we get to any real feeling that outside of this colorful bubble of laughter, tunes and romance there's a galloping international conflict that is racking up a high body count.

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Original Page Sept 2013 | Updated July 11, 2025