Starlift is een plezierige en interessante terugblik op al die musicalfilms die alle studio's tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog produceerden. Als je sterren als Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae en Randolph Scott in de film hebt en mensen als de Gershwin Brothers, Cole Porter, Jule Styne en Sammy Cahn die de muziek verzorgen, dan is het gemakkelijk om een film te maken. En de plot zit niet eens in de weg.<br />Wat er in de plot zit, zijn twee dienstplichtigen van de luchtmacht, Dick Wesson en Ron Hagerthy, die proberen Janice Rule, de ster van Warner Brothers, te ontmoeten, waarbij ze als gimmick het feit gebruiken dat ze allebei uit Youngstown in Ohio komen en dat de vader van Hagerthy Rule was.' Het plan werkt maar al te goed, want Louella Parsons gebruikt hen al snel als onderwerp in haar column. Ja, Louella speelt ook in de film. Ze moet Warner Brothers of Jack Warner leuker hebben gevonden dan de andere studiobazen, want ze gebruikte deze studio ook om haar radioprogramma voor het Hollywood Hotel te promoten.<br />Maar de rest van de plot ging ook over de werkelijke inspanningen van Ruth Roman om haar studio en anderen zover te krijgen dat ze programma's op de luchtmachtbases gingen maken voor de militairen en vrouwen die naar Korea gingen. 1969, 1970, 1980, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 1999, 2000, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 2019, 20
Starlift is a pleasant and interesting throwback to those all star musical pictures that every studio was putting out during the World War II years. When you've got such stars as Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, and Randolph Scott, etc., in the film and with such people as the Gershwin Brothers, Cole Porter, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn supplying the music, it's an easy to take film. And the plot isn't even in the way.<br /><br />What plot there is involves two Air Force enlisted men, Dick Wesson and Ron Hagerthy, trying to meet Warner Brothers starlet Janice Rule using as a gimmick the fact that both come from Youngstown, Ohio and Hagerthy's father was Rule's dentist as well as half of the town's. The scheme works too well as Louella Parsons is soon putting them as an item in her column. Yes, Louella's in the film as well. She must have liked Warner Brothers or Jack Warner catered to her more than the other studio bosses because she also used this studio to publicize her Hollywood Hotel radio program back in the day.<br /><br />But the rest of the plot also touched on the real life efforts of Ruth Roman also playing herself to get her studio and others to do shows at the Air Force bases for the servicemen and women going to Korea. Some of the names I've mentioned and others sing and perform in a show at Travis Air Force Base where a lot of this film was shot.<br /><br />One specialty number was shot for the talents of Phil Harris who sing/narrates a ballad Look Out Stranger, I'm A Texas Ranger aided and assisted by Virginia Gibson, Frank Lovejoy and Gary Cooper. Yup, Cooper looked like he was having a great old time kidding his image.<br /><br />This is the oldest of clichés when you say they don't make them like this any more, but they really don't because you don't have a studio system that has all this talent under contract. That's one thing about the demise of the old studio system we can mourn.