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Thanks for the memories!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

When I saw that Vincente Minnelli was the director here, I thought, well Skelton at least got a little more support here with Eleanor Powell and a lot of staging. While there is a story, it not only was done before, but the film still does not make a comfortable fit for Red. Skelton would not hit his stride until television.This is a war time production, obvious from the themes. Amazing to me is the unlisted cameos. For example, Butterfly McQueen is in this one, along with a fairly large group of unaccredited folks. Butterfly walks a poodle near Skelton when he is sitting defeated in a park.The plot has Skelton chasing a show girl, as a pants presser chasing her by going to every one of her live shows. Meanwhile, a member of the cast of the show is planning to blow up the theater. The plot is not as important as the music and dancing it turns out with Red doing some comic relief.You gotta love Powell and Lena Horne who are great. This is Vincente Minnelli working with a mixed race cast before the war is over. This same year he is directing an all black cast in "Cabin In The Sky" and it appears he literally borrows some of the cast from that picture to make cameos lat in this picture.As a fan of Red, am glad I finally caught this one. So far, the scripts for Red in his films are lacking and this one is not an exception. At least here, he got an A-List Director and cast along with Jimmy Dorseys Orchestra.

Just saw this on TCM, and I enjoyed it very much. Red Skelton was a hoot, and Eleanor Powell - even my 26-year-old son thought her dance numbers were 'impressive.' Our favorite of these dance numbers was the first one at the beginning of the movie, a cowboy production where Eleanor Powell danced with lariat-wielding cowhands, then roped a post several times in a row, showing admirable skill. The rest of the movie contains some drama, intrigue, romance, and even a bit of derring-do. And, of course, more dancing and music, including appearances by Jimmy Dorsey. If you like musical comedies of the thirties and forties, this is one of the best!

If you adore Red Skelton... If you adore Eleanor Powell... If you adore Swing music and ballads... If you enjoy just kicking back and letting the experience take hold...,This is a terrific movie to enjoy with a bowl of popcorn. It's especially good when it's on TCM because there are no nasty cuts or commercials.It's fluff, make no mistake. No Tarantino gore, no Stone conspiracies, no angst... just pure fun watching some of the best talent Hollywood ever had.Lena Horne, Hazel Scott, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Eberly, Helen O'Connell for the music. Eleanor Powell's magnificent dancing, Red Skelton's brilliant slapstick and his heart-felt sweetness. Then there's the rest of the cast - Thurston Hall, Sam Levene, John Hodiak, and Richard Ainley as Larry West, for whom this would be his last picture.The plot has its nuttier moments, none of it meant to be taken seriously. It has plenty of eye-appeal in the costumes (magnificent gowns) created by Irene Sharaff, inarguably one of the greats in the history of design. There are jewels to glitter and shine and, if they were fakes, they were great fakes.The plot gives Red Skelton plenty of opportunity to do what he did best. Just check out the "beard" scene - you'll know what I mean.OK, so it ain't "Gone With The Wind," or "Of Human Bondage," but it's not supposed to be, even with the Civil War play going on.One of the funniest parts for me was the sound effects guy doing the "hoofbeats" with the coconut shells, even though YOU know that the sound was being made by a Foley guy in post production. But it's a sound made within a picture by someone outside a picture... ahhh, now I'm confusing myself, and probably you, poor reader.Leave your troubles behind. Tune out the kids, the phone, the interruptions, the beds can be made later. Have fun!

No one seems to point out that his film is a remake of an earlier film Buster Keaton made for MGM titled "Spite Marriage", with many of the visual gags pulled directly from that earlier film with almost no changes. So as well as Red Skelton did in this, an earlier genius had done it first. Many of the best sight gags were lifted note-for-note from Keaton. The two films differ greatly in their sub-plots, but the core premise is the same. If you liked this movie, you should seek out the earlier film; a lot of it is genuinely funny. Although not Keaton at his peak (he was hampered by the MGM-imposed studio system), any Keaton is worth seeing.