The new 5-disc Doris Day DVD collection that debuts on April 7th doesn’t offer a particularly enticing quintet, but the inclusion of the rarely seen STARLIFT is of great interest.  Well, until you see it, that is.  Warner Brothers obviously thought that it could do for the Korean War what it had done for WWII, without taking into account the passage of time, or the fact that this was a different kind of war.  WB had given us THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943) and HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN (1944), two big entertain-the-troops musicals filled with major stars playing themselves and doing their bit for the war effort.  STARLIFT is the 1950s version of that formula and it’s a dud.  

STARLIFT’s brand of romanticized corn feels more like 1944 than 1951, with Janice Rule (as a fictional star) and Ron Hagerthy (as a corporal who looks 12) falling for each other.  Their happy ending is clinched when she proves that she knows how to make a chocolate malt just the way he likes it.  This isn’t charming and sweet; it’s coy and sickening.  But who remembers that Rule could dance?  There she is kicking up her legs in two big dance numbers opposite the terrific Gene Nelson. 

Doris Day and Gordon MacRae share a bland duet, but Day does better with standards like “You Do Something to Me.”  She is sporting that dreadful early 1950s haircut of hers, too.  Day also has a brief scene with Jimmy Cagney, making this their second of three film appearances together, after THE WEST POINT STORY (1950) but before LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955).  MacRae and Nelson share the screen briefly as well, a reminder of their big success together in the forthcoming OKLAHOMA! (1955).

Perhaps the oddest musical number is a western spoof, set in a saloon, sung by an unfunny Phil Harris, with a speaking role for Gary Cooper!  But the picture is mostly about Hollywood stars telling us how selfless they are.  In a roomful of bedridden soldiers, Ruth Roman deigns to drop her mink coat to give a soldier a shave.  What a gal!