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1. #Ken darby singers the battle cry of freedom full#
2. #Ken darby singers the battle cry of freedom professional#

But the back and forth between Fred and Bing is wonderful with Walter Abel as the agent lending great comic support. Marjorie Reynolds just did not impress me, but it's not like she is awful either. More importantly cue the Irving Berlin songs and the great singing and dancing. Let the rather predictable romantic triangle that at times becomes a rectangle begin. Ted is the sophisticated type, Jim is the homebody type.

But then up pops Ted, and Jim is worried that history will repeat itself and Ted will steal his new girl. An unknown girl comes out to the inn (Marjorie Reynolds as Linda) looking for a career in entertainment and a job, and she and Jim begin to fall for each other. Put down your adding machines and forget trying to figure out the financial feasibility of this. After a year of this, Jim decides to convert the inn into a nightclub that is open only for holidays - 15 days a year. Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) have a song and dance act that Jim retires from to go start an inn in Connecticut.

#Ken darby singers the battle cry of freedom full#

It is pure escapist entertainment, which the homefront desperately needed in this first full year of wartime. So what more is there to say, but sit back and enjoy the fun. Bing sings The Song of Freedom, reminiscent of James Cagney's Grand Old Flag number from Yankee Doodle Dandy also out in 1942 and Song of Freedom is also reminiscent of what Paramount could have given Bing in the 1930s had they hired someone like Busby Berkeley to give Bing some of the production numbers that Dick Powell had at Warner Brothers. He "improvises" Firecrackers and anyone who knows anything about Astaire knows how hard he worked to get that spontaneous feeling in his dancing. Reynolds is kept from the show by Bing's machinations and Astaire has to "improvise" something. The Fourth of July yields a number for each. He does a nice comic turn with I Can't Tell a Lie, the Washington's birthday number where Crosby keeps changing the tempo to upset him and Reynolds. I don't want to ignore Fred Astaire's contribution here. The newer version which most people hear has as it's flipside God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. The original 78 had White Christmas with the flipside of Let's Start the New Year Right also from Holiday Inn. So in 1945, Decca got Bing, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter to re-record it almost note for note. In fact White Christmas's initial success was so great that Decca wore out the original master putting out records to meet the demand. Just think, along around Columbus Day, record companies even now reissue his Christmas stuff every year and his totals as largest selling recording artist in history grow once again. After this he started doing the holiday music in serious. White Christmas became the first Yule song he was identified with although he had recorded some Christmas material before that. If he's known and appreciated for anything with today's audience, it's for that. I don't know if Bing Crosby ever set out to become the voice of Christmas, but if he did he was a marketing genius. In fact everyone's number one item on vinyl. It netted Irving Berlin his one and only Academy Award and for Bing Crosby his number one item on vinyl. But the success of White Christmas was exponentially phenomenal. The hit song in this was supposed to be Be Careful It's My Heart, the Valentine's Day song, sung by Crosby and danced to by Astaire and Reynolds. Just listen to this and just about any other film Berlin is associated with. Not one note of non-Berlin music is ever heard in a score he writes. By that time Berlin had extracted an agreement which became standard for all the films he wrote for. Irving Berlin writes a majority of new songs to supplement a couple from his vast trunk of songs mostly about our holidays. Now since this was Crosby's home studio and he's first billed, just who do you think gets Reynolds in the end? As maid Louise Beavers put it, don't sit and mope because some slicker stole your gal. Astaire wants her for his act after his other girl partner Virginia Dale runs off with a millionaire. He wants Reynolds to help with the shows there. Crosby dreams up the idea of a nightclub/hotel called Holiday Inn where they only work on holidays. They both get interested in the same girl who in this film is Marjorie Reynolds. Small wonder that their double act broke up. Crosby is the talented, but lazy partner who just wants a life of ease and comfort and not to work more than he has to.

#Ken darby singers the battle cry of freedom professional#

Astaire is the elegant and charming show business professional who's ambitious for success. In the first of two films Astaire and Crosby did together the characters are remarkably the same. The budget went to hire such outside talent as Fred Astaire and Irving Berlin. Finally Paramount gave Crosby a big budget musical and didn't rely on his charm and personality to carry the film.