This is the Army (1943)

(On Cable TV, May 2020) It’s sometimes amazing to measure what has endured from a specific era versus what was popular at the time. World War II-era movies are a useful case in point, as most of the production was geared toward outright propaganda meant to motivate the home front. This is the Army is an odd collection of musical numbers loosely connected by a threadbare story, but it did top the 1943 American box office… yet is only remembered these days by film buffs. If you research the film a bit, you’ll realize that it’s largely a filmed adaptation of a WW1-era travelling musical show, updated to WW2 standards and cinema choreography. It becomes a collection of inspirational, patriotic, propagandist musical numbers and comic sketches loosely connected by bits and pieces of wartime melodrama. Clearly belonging to the WW2 propagandist school, it’s clearly meant to whip the audiences into fighting spirit. A young Ronald Reagan shows up, the credits specifically include military ranks, and the film does look rather good in colour. It has been (mostly) forgotten for a reason, though: The musical numbers are pomp and propaganda, not particularly refined or timeless. (It’s very much in one tone—stage-bound choruses of men singing about the merits of their service branch in a theatrical setting. Under those constraints, it does have some good staging.) Other aspects reflect the times of its production: there are explicit impressions of people now forgotten, there’s a minstrel blackface number (oh boy), and quite a bit more crossdressing than you’d expect—despite understanding the limitations of all-male troupes at the time, you can file that one under “things that haven’t aged well.” This being said, what works against the film now may just be the things that increase its interest as a period piece: While This is the Army may be only mildly interesting by itself, it (like many WW2 propaganda movies) remains a fascinating look at another time.