It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Wake Up and Dream (1946) – Musical #738

Studio:
20th Century Fox

Director:
Lloyd Bacon

Starring:
John Payne, June Haver, Connie Marshall, Charlotte Greenwood, John Ireland, Clem Bevans, Charles Russell, Irving Bacon, Charles D. Brown, Charles Russell, Charles Smith (uncredited), George Cleveland (uncredited),

Plot:
Set in 1943, Jeff Cairn (Payne) leaves the farm and enlists in the U.S. Navy at the start of World War II, leaving his little sister Nella (Marshall) to live with a cousin. After two years, Nella runs away back home, saying she doesn’t like the cousin, she stays with Jeff’s girl, Jenny (Haver). She is also helped by elderly Henry Pickett (Bevans), who the whole town thinks is crazy because he built a boat while living 300 miles from water. When Jeff is Missing in Action, Jenny, Henry and Nella take the boat on a journey to find Jeff on their “secret island.”

Trivia:
• Based on the novel “Enchanted Voyage” by Robert Nathan. 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to the book in 1936 as a potential vehicle for Shirley Temple.
• Working titles were “Enchanted Voyage” and “Give Me the Simple Life”
• The song “Give Me the Simple Life,” written by Rube Bloom and Harry Ruby, was introduced in this film.
• Lee Patrick is listed in the cast but doesn’t appear in the film.

Highlights:
• The Technicolor cinematography

Notable Songs:
• “Give Me the Simple Life” performed by John Payne
• “I Wish I Could Tell You” performed by June Haver
• “Bell Bottom Trousers” performed by the chorus

My review:
“Wake Up and Dream” (1946) is a bizarre and fanciful story. But at the same time, it’s charming, sentimental and sad.

Though the film was released in 1946 after World War II had ended, the film’s story takes place during 1943. Jeff (Payne) and his younger sister Nella (Marshall) live in rural mid-America on a farm. Despite living far from the ocean, their elderly friend Henry Pickett (Bevans) has built a boat and the whole town thinks he’s crazy. Jeff enlists in the U.S. Navy and Nella goes to stay with his cousin, but Nella runs away back home. She is staying with Jeff’s girl Jenny (Haver) when she shares that Jeff is missing in action. When Henry’s wife is going to sell his boat, the trio get on the boat and set sell, in search of Jeff.

You can see that the plot has elements that feel a bit forced together, but it works.
This is a film I would call a sort-of musical, because there are a few songs but there aren’t any big dance numbers or multiple songs. However, “Give Me the Simple Life” was introduced in the film. I was also surprised that a chorus sang “We’re Off to See the Wizard” from the 1939 MGM film, “Wizard of Oz.” I was surprised MGM allowed them to use it!

I loved to hear John Payne sing, who I feel like is an underrated musical performer. Not knowing if Jeff is alive or dead while missing in action, the boat journey is a way for a child to deal with their grief and the helpless feeling of not knowing what to do or where to go.

John Payne has a fairly small role, though, and June Haver, Clem Bevans, Connie Marshall and John Ireland — still early in his film career — carry much of the film. Ireland is dreamy in the film and it’s fun to see him in a lighter, comedic role that differed from his later film roles. Ireland would have been great in more comedies.

“Wake Up and Dream” is a little odd and I partially wonder how it got made. But it also is sweet and lovely. Portions of the end made me teary. Robert Nathans may not have been pleased with the final product, and I do find it curious that this World War II story was made a year after the war ended, but it still checked all the boxes of the type of film I enjoy.

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