gridoon2018 This all-star package of entertainment from Paramount retains the anarchic, anything-goes spirit of the studio's earlier "Big Broadcast" films, and has the same (intentional) complete disregard for realism, as well (they put on a show like that in a matter of a few hours??). Betty Hutton attacks her role (and her fiancé) voraciously; the first singer in the "Swing Shift" number is very provocatively dressed for 1942 (and has a great body); the "Doin' It For Defense" song has a most unusual slapstick-action visual accompaniment; famous directors Cecil B De Mille and Preston Sturges prove adept at acting; there is an imaginative dance sequence featuring Vera Zorina. But there are also a lot of bad jokes by Bob Hope, a few overextended comedy routines, and a then-uplifting, now-gag-inducing flag-waving (literally) ending. **1/2 out of 4.

edwagreen Paramount produced a cavalcade of stars in this traditional World War 11 patriotic film dealing with the situations that ensue when an attendant at Paramount Studios tries to impress his navy son by claiming that he is a studio mogul.Naturally, this evolves into situations too numerous to speak of here.Victor Moore is the father and Eddie Bracken stars as the son. Bette Hutton is marvelous as Bracken's girlfriend and the ensemble cast at Paramount are terrific when putting on a show for the navy.You have to feel for Walter Abel, a mogul who is victimized in the scheme of Hutton and Moore.Add 1/2* for Bing Crosby's patriotic song ending.

bkoganbing Betty Hutton, one of the nominal stars of Star Spangled Rhythm, was not just doing it for defense as in her number, but the whole studio was doing this All Star flag waver for the defense of the morale of the USA.I can never resist one of these all star spectaculars and there's only one I would ever have given a bad review to, and this isn't the one. Everybody working on the Paramount lot got to do his bit for defense in this film, some bits being longer than others.The nominal plot of this film has Betty Hutton as a switchboard girl at Paramount studios and Victor Moore, a former silent western star, now working as a security guard at the studio trying to convince Eddie Bracken and a bunch of his sailor buddies that Moore is really the head of the studio. For that they have to con and bamboozle Walter Abel who is a real studio executive out of his office and off the lot so they can do their masquerade uninterrupted.Of course Bracken asks the inevitable, pop can you get all these stars down for a big Navy show, and the con has to continue. But all of this nonsense is just an excuse for some musical and comedy numbers by the Paramount players.Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote the score and out of it came two really big standards, That Old Black Magic which was nominated for Best Song that year, but lost to another Paramount film song, White Christmas and Hit the Road to Dreamland.The latter was done as director Preston Sturges was playing himself and screening a musical number from his latest film. As the projector rolls on screen it's Dick Powell and Mary Martin on a Pullman car singing about finally hitting the hay after some romance. The scene is so well done I wish it was included as an integral part of a real film.That Old Black Magic is sung by Johnny Johnson and danced by ballet star Vera Zorina. It was enormous hit that year, recorded by a flock of singers. Oddly enough not by Bing Crosby though he got to sing it in another film, Here Come the Waves. Of course the finale is a wartime flag waving number with Bing Crosby singing Old Glory about the flag and the wonders of the country behind it. The number about the flag probably wouldn't fly today still and that's a pity.It's even more of a pity that these musical extravaganzas are a thing of the past with the decline of the Hollywood studio system. Star Spangled Rhythm is one of the best of its kind.

danpatter2002 A potpourri of star turns lift the charming but silly plot above itself. Worth seeing for the Dick Powell/Mary Martin number alone. I kept backing the tape up and watching this part again and again. Why Martin wasn't a greater Hollywood star is a mystery to me, but H'wood's loss was B'way's gain. Many other nice things to see, but I have a feeling some numbers were cut from the final print. Wonder what they were?