Thousands Cheer
Thousands Cheer
NR | 13 September 1943 (USA)
Thousands Cheer Trailers

Acrobat Eddie Marsh is in the army now. His first act is to become friendly with Kathryn Jones, the colonel's pretty daughter. Their romance hits a few snags, including disapproval from her father. Eddie's also plagued by fear of having an accident during his family's trapeze act in the army variety show, which also features a gallery of MGM stars.

Reviews
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
TheLittleSongbird Thousands Cheer had a lot going for it from the get go, the biggest selling point being the amount of talent involved. While it is not a great film there is still plenty to enjoy and on the most part the cast are well-used.Thousands Cheers' story is very thin and very contrived with the lead in to the film's second half feeling rather abrupt and the script is even thinner with a lot of hokey dialogue and too many moments where it sags in energy. A vast majority of the cast are great and are well-utilised, but Mary Astor is wasted with not very much to do and Red Skelton is more irritating than funny.It is on the other hand very well-made with lavish sets and gorgeous photography while the Oscar nomination for the music score was deserved, it's very characterful and lush. The songs are not exactly memorable, apart from Honeysuckle Rose, but they are very pleasant and don't bog the film down at all, they are also very well-choreographed. Of all the show segments the highlights were Gene Kelly's dance with the mop, Eleanor Powell's tap dance, Lena Horne's beautiful rendition of Honeysuckle Rose and Judy Garland's uproarious The Joint Is Really Jumpin' in Carnegie Hall. You do wish that Gene Kelly had more dancing to do but he is dashing and very watchable and Kathryn Grayson is charm personified and sings beautifully.All in all, not a great film but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. 6/10 Bethany Cox
David Allen Thousands Cheer (1943) starring Gene Kelly was made using the very best of MGM's actor and movie technician talent in color, and is well done in those areas. I never saw Kelly do such a good job acting, and the same is true for his co-star, Katherine Grayson. Other major actors part of the movie all do well, including Mary Astor, Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland. It's a spectacular movie technically, and quite a showcase for good actor movie star work done well and skillfully, a credit to all who appear in front of the camera and worked on the machines behind the screen. But there is no script worth the name, and not a single good song appears in this movie, which is supposed to be (and is) a "musical." Judy Garland does her best at the end of the movie with a mediocre song, even though she's always worth seeing. One of the true saints of world cinema history. The movie is an embarrassment of riches except for the bad (non-existent) script and the lack of a single good, memorable song. And this from the then biggest and richest movie studio in the world, MGM. It's an oddity worth seeing for its display of talent, unconnected as that turns out to be with good writing and good song composition. The color especially is dazzling. It's an upbeat "crowd-pleaser" movie needed and delivered during the World War II years. But the lack of good writing and good songs makes it mediocre.
edwagreen Predictable World War 11 yarn where Gene Kelly falls for Katherine Grayson. He is not too thrilled with the army and her father is his commander.The movie is greatly patriotic which of course was needed during the war years.Grayson's mom is played by Mary Astor who left her father years before because of his devotion to duty. Naturally, Grayson would like to see them reconcile.The second part of the film deals with a cavalcade of MGM stars putting on a show for the troops. The singing is good but the sketches with Frank Morgan, Ann Sothern, Donna Reed, and Marsha Hunt are ridiculous.Of course, the film resolves itself with Kelly going off to war and Grayson singing as beautifully as ever.
silvrdal Well, I'm stumped as to why this film isn't better known. I'd barely heard of it. Kathryn Grayson is at her most adorable in this one. She sings like an angel, she looks like an angel, she wrinkles her nose like an angel. Gene Kelly is charming, but underused.The last hour of the film is a star-studded camp show for the boys, and I'm certain that the film was sent overseas to entertain the troops during the war. The finale is somewhat bizarre and stilted -- Grayson singing with what looks to be 400 middle-aged men from different countries -- and provokes a sort of desperate hope that the world will one day again be at peace.'Thousands Cheer' is an odd hybrid of musical-comedy, review and morality play, but I decidedly enjoyed and appreciated it. See if it doesn't make you misty.