This Is the Army (Warner Bros. Restored – Best Version Available

From immigrant lad to All-American success story, Irving Berlin showed his abiding love for his adopted country with, among other cultural accomplishments, decades of Broadway hits, the unofficial national anthem God Bless America and the World War II spirit-lifter This Is the Army. On stage it featured 350 real-life GIs, giving their singing-and- dancing all to raise nearly $2 million (then an astronomical sum) for Army Emergency Relief. This lively screen adaptation features the same GI’s plus George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Joan Leslie and guest stars Joe Louis, Kate Smith, Berlin himself and others in a tale of a father and son who put on one heckuva show before the son marches off to war.