The West Coast's answer to Broadway's Stage Door Canteen, the Hollywood Canteen was created as a GI morale-booster by film stars
Bette Davis and
John Garfield. The Canteen was established so that Our Boys on leave in Tinseltown could have a good time with good food and good dancing -- and, as a bonus, rub shoulders with their favorite movie personalities, who functioned as waiters, chefs, busboys and dancing partners. Since the 1944 all-star flick Hollywood Canteen was produced by Warner Bros., it was only to be expected that the celebrities seen herein would consist mostly of Warner Bros. contract players. The frail plot concerns a soldier on medical leave (played by
Robert Hutton) who falls in love with lovely leading lady
Joan Leslie (played by
Joan Leslie) while visiting the Canteen.
Bette Davis and
John Garfield are on hand to emcee the Canteen's variety acts, and to act as cupids for the Hutton/Leslie romance. The "supporting cast" includes the likes of The Andrews Sisters,
Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown,
Eddie Cantor, Sidney Greenstreet,
Paul Henreid,
Peter Lorre,
Ida Lupino,
Dennis Morgan,
Roy Rogers, S.Z. Sakall,
Barbara Stanwyck, and the
Jimmy Dorsey and
Carmen Cavallaro musical aggregations. Virtually everyone involved donated their salaries to the Canteen fund--even
Jack Benny. As with most of these patriotic wartime star rallies, the results are a mixed bag: the best sequences include Benny's violin "duel" with Joseph Szigeti and
Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers introducing
Cole Porter's Don't Fence Me In. Hollywood Canteen won three Oscar nominations, more for its good intentions than its inherent excellence. Still, don't pass up the opportunity when this "movie star salad" shows up on cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide