Up in Arms

"Danny" (Danny Kaye) is suffering from draftitis, but Uncle Sam isn't so gullible - even when he claims to have a disease more readily found in fish. Anyway, with uniform beckoning he and best pal "Joe" (Dana Andrews) arrive at the training camp only to find that two of the officers at the base were nurses in his previous pill-popping life. "Mary" (Constance Dowling) is the apple of his eye but she actually prefers his pal. "Virginia" (Dinah Shore) has a bit of crush on "Danny" though, so perhaps - if they all survive the conflict - there might be hope for some romance? Well things don't exactly get off to an auspicious start when three are to be sent to the Pacific theatre of war, but instead of "Mary" being left at home, she ends up inadvertently stowing away aboard their ship. How can they keep her presence a secret from the Colonel (Louis Calhern) whom you feel (as did I) that he'd quite like to put "Danny" up before a firing squad? When they do reach land, there might just be a chance at redemption - if only he can perform some derring-do and impress his boss, his gal and save his own bacon? This is all fairly light and fluffy wartime escapism that gives Kaye and Shore an opportunity to remind us why they were stars in the first place and for her to deliver the memorable "Now I Know" number from Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler as well as her own "Torch Song". The wartime visual effects are the stuff of very obvious green-screen and the denouement with some Japanese soldiers, some mud and a seemingly bottomless hole in the ground does raise a smile in a lightly propagandist fashion befitting the feel-good purpose of the film. Kaye was a charming performer and if you're a fan then you ought not to be disappointed with this limited, but entertaining enough, flag-waver.