writers_reign For Swing fans there are six good reasons to watch this movie and they are the half dozen platters spun by DJ Beverly Ross (Ann Miller) which include The Mills Brothers, Count Basie, Bob Crosby, Duke Ellington, Freddy Slack/Ella Mae Morse and Frank Sinatra. The plot is very secondary to the talent on display albeit the gimmick - Miller loads a platter onto the turntable, sets it spinning, lowers the stylus and we 'dissolve' to that actual artist performing the respective number in full. There is also another act, The Radio Rogues, a trio of impressionists active from 1935 who featured in several Columbia shorts who offer ho hum carbons of Clark Gable, Amos n' Andy, Lum and Abner, Ben Bernie, Kate Smith et al. Essentially it's a nostalgia trip for Senior citizens but none the worse for it.

dougdoepke Rather subdued war-time musical, not as sparkling as other Miller vehicles, but still entertaining with some of the top musical acts of the time-- Duke Ellington's Take the A-Train, Bob Crosby's Big Noise from Winnetka, Frank Sinatra's Night and Day, along with The Mills Brothers, Count Basie, and my favorite, Ella Mae Morse's styling of Cow-Cow Boogie. The music is there, but somehow there's not the flair nor the energy that would normally be expected of these headliners. Miller gets a final production number and a belated chance to tap dance her way into our proverbial hearts, but the staging comes across on the skimpy side. I suspect the flaming "V" (rather too close to the stage curtain) at number's end was an attempt to compensate.Naturally, in a musical not much is expected from the story. Miller's yo-yoing between the radio station and the music store is somewhat amusing, as is her competition with the incomparably fussy Franklin Pangborn whose cartoonish eyebrows appear ready to jump off the screen. Irene Ryan (later, Granny, on the Beverly Hillbillies) has the best bits as the scatterbrained secretary. The romantic subplot is lame, to say the least, at the same time, leading man William Wright seems oddly to disappear from the movie's last half. In fact, the screenplay as a whole appears uncertain what to do with Wright and buddy Purcell once they're introduced into the plot.A couple of noteworthy sidelights. Good to see the presence of a backyard Victory garden, that staple of civilian support for the war effort. Then too, if food prices keep going up in 2008, we may see them returned and renamed Survival gardens. Note also how class differences between Wright and his chauffeur are symbolically eliminated in support of the common war effort. Finally, note the rather surprising downbeat ending with the boys marching off to war, leaving Miller looking unkissed and forlorn. Perhaps the rather subdued mood of the musical as a whole has to do with it being 1943 and a lot of boys and their girls having to face a very uncertain future. Though not the best Miller musical, there are compensations.

bkoganbing Reveille With Beverly is one of Columbia Pictures all star war time contributions for the boys in the service. But not having a really big studio with a lot of contract players like MGM or Paramount, what was Harry Cohn to do.The answer is take your stars from that other medium, that of swing music. Ann Miller plays a young lady named Beverly who works the telephone switchboard at an easy listening radio station. She'd like to break into radio on the air, but the boss Tim Ryan won't give her a break. Besides he's not into current musical tastes.But the resourceful Beverly gets her chance when she gets the hypochondriacal Franklin Pangborn who plays classical music in the wee small hours around dawn into thinking he's down with something terrible. She subs for him and plays the current swing bands and the rest is history. The new draftees at a nearby army base like her music so much the program is dubbed Reveille with Beverly.Of course there's a silly subplot involving a pair of draftees who used to be millionaire and chauffeur who are rivals for Ann Miller. These two parts are played by William Wright and Dick Purcell in a plot situation that is totally ripped off from Abbott&Costello's Buck Privates. They are a bit friendlier than Lee Bowman and Alan Curtis from the Universal classic.But all of this is just so we can get to hear such bands as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Bob Crosby and Freddie Slack's respective orchestras. The Mills Brothers are also on hand. And a young singer who had just left the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra sings Night and Day with an all girl band. Frank Sinatra and the rest of the acts were brought into the film by Ann Miller as she introduces the record and it starts spinning and the screen dissolves into a performance by the performers.So other than a toe tapping finale by Ann Miller this certainly was doing one of those all star extravaganzas on the cheap. Ann's number was clumsily introduced into the proceedings since at no time during the film was it mentioned she had any dancing talent. But Ann's fans bought tickets to see her dance so I guess it was understood there would be a dance number.Reveille with Beverly is a great piece of World War II nostalgia and definitely for fans of swing music.

mkawagoye Just took another trip down memory lane by watching the 1943 movie, "Reveille With Beverly". A few of the details had been forgotten over the 64 years since the original viewing but the music was remembered! The reprise of the records which were so popular at that time and which kept wearing out turntable needles was a joy to the ears. The Mills Bros. (with John Sr instead of the original John Jr) were a soothing sound. Count Basie was a must with his 'One O'Clock Jump'. Bob Crosby with bassist Bob Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc gave us "Big Noise From Winnetka". Then Duke Ellington and his great organization gave us his theme song, 'Take the A Train'. Frank Sinatra gave us a production staged rendition of ' Night and Day'. That is to say, it featured many violinists and pianists of gowned femininity. But the arrangement was the record which was so popular on a 78. Ella Mae Morse with the backing of Freddie Slack and his orchestra gave us the 'Cow Cow Boogie' in her own inimitable way. Finally the Radio Rogues were brought in to give us a smorgasbord of various popular radio performers of the time and of the past. There were the usual imitations of 'Lum and Abner'; 'Amos and Andy'; Kate Smith; Ben Bernie; Red Skelton; etc. Ann Miller finished up with a production number which was strapped by budget. If you like swing and remember WWII, this is a delight.