Wartime patriotism and escapism blend together in this amiable, but unspectacular musical. MacMurray is a towering, ostensibly-hearty man who is graded 4-F by the government and thus cannot enter the Armed Forces during WWII. He wants nothing more than to join up and beat the "Japs" (with the possible exception of wooing Leslie.) One evening, while helping an old woman with some scrap metal, he resurrects a genie who, in gratitude, grants him several wishes. His primary wish, to be in the service, sends him reeling back in time to the Revolutionary War, where he is serving under George Washington! This sort of thing continues as he finds himself on Columbus's flagship, on the island of Manhattan back when it was Indian territory and in Puritanical times. (Interestingly, the Civil War is left out.) In all the time frames, he sees various incarnations of the two ladies (Leslie and Haver) he has flirtations with in 1945. Finally, the genie assists him back to the 20th century where he hopes to somehow enlist in the Army. MacMurray is a friendly, easy-going presence and has a nice enough, if not amazing, singing voice. The ladies are attractive and sing well, but are not particularly distinctive. The best singing in the film comes from the rich-toned Ramirez who threatens mutiny on Columbus in a mini-operetta. The humor is light and simple-minded. The film never aspires to be anything other than morale-building froth, which is what the country needed at the time. Though most of the music is pretty enough and the costumes and sets are colorful, there isn't really anything overly memorable or striking about the film. Apart from the Columbus section, the only really zippy part is a number in a canteen with all the branches of service and Leslie daringly dancing on barstools. Still, it's an easy, appealing movie that has variety, if nothing else. MacMurray infiltrates a German beer hall (which is presented as rather charming in spite of the fact that the US was at war with Germany at the time!) and imitates Adolph Hitler at one point. Quinn shows up as a "Me Indian Chief" sort of Native American character (while Leslie dons what had to be an eye-opening, for 1945, two-piece costume.) The film has some fairly innovative opening credits and some fairly decent (for the time) special effects. Coincidentally, MacMurray later married Haver in real-life (after her short-lived stint in the convent) though here he is more after Leslie. Ironically, Haver and MacMurray adopted twins while Leslie had a set of her own naturally.
One note: The first poster seems to have mistaken "uncredited" for "scenes deleted". While a section featuring Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes was cut, that was basically it. Most of the performers listed after were just actors whose names failed to appear in the credits. They didn't have particular sequences that were cut.
One note: The first poster seems to have mistaken "uncredited" for "scenes deleted". While a section featuring Roy Rogers and Gabby Hayes was cut, that was basically it. Most of the performers listed after were just actors whose names failed to appear in the credits. They didn't have particular sequences that were cut.