Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)

It's easy to say that "they don't make them like this anymore", but that is more true of some movies than others; this one really exists in its own timewarp, but is none the less appealing for it.  This is a second-tier MGM musical, not from the opulent Arthur Freed stable, a black-and-white movie spotlighting some of the studio's B-list performers -- but gosh it was good to see them all again.  The storyline has two young show business-raised sisters played by the ever-wonderful June Allyson and Gloria DeHaven (who? you ask, although she had a long career on TV) starting a canteen for servicemen on furlough; the dough for this comes anonymously via factotum (the always delightful) Donald Meek who is acting on behalf of the sailor they both fancy, played by Van Johnson.  (As is often the case in movies of this period, the plain guy is actually the heir to millions.)   Apart from leaving the viewer to guess which of the two sisters will eventually hook the big lunk, the whole point of the film is to host a slew of musical acts including two big bands -- Harry James and Xavier Cugat, the nonsense shtick of Jimmy Durante, the poker-faced scat of Virginia O'Brien, the crazy dancing of Ben Blue, the hightone piano performance of Jose Iturbi and his sister, the positively gorgeous Lena Horne given a speciality slot as the only black in the house, and even Gracie Allen (without George Burns here) who I usually only tolerate is quite amusing in her slot.  If many of these names don't mean much to you, more's the pity, since the whole concoction results in one of the pleasanter ways of passing two hours amongst talents from the past.