OVP: Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)

Film: Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)

Stars: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Gloria DeHaven, Jimmy Durante

Director: Richard Thorpe

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on June Allyson: click here to learn more about Ms. Allyson (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

June Allyson's career in Hollywood started rather conventionally.  She was originally a chorus girl on Broadway, getting a spot as an understudy to Betty Hutton in Panama Hattie, and after Hutton got the measles (and Allyson got to go on), she caught the eye of a Broadway director, who put her as the lead in his next show.  From there, she went to Hollywood, where an MGM screen test put her under contract immediately.  Her first real breakthrough role was in today's film, Two Girls and a Sailor, where she was paired off with Van Johnson.  Johnson was known as the "boy next door" at MGM, and got to play these parts regularly, and Allyson was soon after referred to as "the girl next door" on the lot.  The two would make six films together in all (this is the only one I am planning we'll get to this month as Allyson made a lot of movies), most of them quite successful, including today's film, which would make Allyson a leading lady for the next thirteen years.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about two sisters Patsy (Allyson) and Jean (DeHaven) who grew up in a show business family, sometimes performing as children opposite comedian Junior Kipp (Durante).  When they get older, they are a successful singing duo who want to open up a club, but they can't because they don't have the money.  What they do have is a crew of handsome soldiers & sailors following them around (great problem if you can get it), and one of them is John Dyckman Brown III (Johnson), an extremely wealthy man who is also in the Navy.  They don't know that John has been sending Jean flowers, and when they spend a night getting to know each other, he buys them their dream venue, not revealing that he's actually a wealthy heir to a $60 million fortune.  The problems arise when it's clear that Patsy and John are in love, but she thinks he loves her sister (and that he's penniless).  Before the film ends, Jean goes off with one of her other suitors, pushing Patsy & John (whom she now knows is rich) into each others arms.

The film's original screenplay nomination is kind of silly, even if it's a genuinely lovely little movie.  The plot makes no sense if you assume that, during the time that both sisters were smitten with Johnny, they never bothered to ask him his last name or anything about his family.  But this will be a problem for when I get to that chapter of the Oscar Viewing Project later, as otherwise Two Girls and a Sailor is lovely.  The music is really great.  This is one of many MGM musicals in the 1940's that would use big names of the era and singers under star contracts (such as Lena Horne) to add a touch of excitement & glamour to the film.  Horne is wonderful, as is Harry James (who does trumpet with Allyson to the tune "The Young Man with the Horn," which I believe is the first appearance of this song that would become a James staple), and Jimmy Durante.  The funniest number is a skit that Gracie Allen does where she just plays two notes as the star pianist to an otherwise very busy orchestra; though she'd continue to do radio & television with her husband George Burns for another two decades, this would be her final film appearance.

As for our star of the month, I'm instantly enamored.  I've seen a couple of June Allyson movies, but because she isn't an "Oscar-nominated actress" I honestly haven't seen a lot of her.  Watching her here, it's intoxicating to understand why this role, in particular, made her such a big name in Hollywood.  Every scene she owns, and she does it effortlessly, like the camera is drawn to her.  After watching the most recent Hunger Games picture, my friend Cody said of Rachel Zegler (and I agreed), "this (star power) is the kind of special effect that money can't buy"...that's what Allyson is doing here.  There's something in her singing, her husky voice, her warm expression...you want to see it again-and-again.  Allyson oftentimes disparaged her abilities (she once said of herself "My voice is funny, I don't sing like Judy Garland and I don't dance like Cyd Charisse"), but it's easy to see why America disagreed with her.