The movie This Is the Army (1943) is a star-filled World War II musical revue that was constructed on the basis of the songs of Irving Berlin, two generations of soldier-entertainers, and a message of patriotism to bolster the American morale in the middle of the war. Nowadays This Is the Army full movie is among the most downloaded free classic films of the times and is commonly regarded as a public domain film on archives and streaming platforms.
Movie Background Table
Movie Cast Table
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| George Murphy | Jerry Jones (WWI dancer/producer) |
| Joan Leslie | Eileen Dibble |
| Ronald Reagan | Cpl. Johnny Jones (Jerry’s son) |
| George Tobias | Maxie Twardofsky |
| Alan Hale Sr. | Sgt. McGee |
| Charles Butterworth | Eddie Dibble, bugler |
| Dolores Costello | Mrs. Davidson |
| Una Merkel | Rose Dibble |
| Stanley Ridges | Maj. / Col. John B. Davidson |
| Rosemary DeCamp | Ethel Jones |
| Ruth Donnelly | Mrs. O’Brien |
| Dorothy Peterson | Mrs. Nelson |
| Gertrude Niesen | WWI vocalist |
| Jack Young | Franklin D. Roosevelt (portrayal/voice) |
| Irving Berlin | Himself (sings “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning”) |
| Frances Langford | Herself |
| Joe Louis | Himself (Sgt. Joe Louis) |
| Kate Smith | Herself (sings “God Bless America”) |
| Ezra Stone | Himself / soldier performer |
Full Plot Summary
The movie begins during the period of the World War I in New York. Jerry Jones is a song-and-dance man in the Broadway and changes his stage garb with a uniform of the army when he is drafted. Ensuring that he takes his talent to use he assists in the production and starring in Yip Yip Yaphank, an all-soldier musical comedy the Army uses to uplift spirits and raise money.
The performance becomes popular among the New York audiences. One night, during a performance, the word comes: the unit is to be transferring at once to France. Rather than the intended ending, the soldiers (dressed in uniform and holding rifles and equipment) march up the theater aisles, past their families and sweethearts, and into trucks waiting in the street. Jerry takes time to kiss his new bride Ethel on his descent to the aisle.
Wartime reality strikes home in the Western Front in France. Yip Yip Yaphank company loses some members killed in action and Jerry himself is seriously injured after he is hit by German artillery shrapnel that breaks his leg. He is spared but cannot use the leg fully after which he walks with the help of a cane, terminating his dancing career. He does not want to become useless, so he resorts to the production and staging of shows, and Sgt. McGee as well as bugler Eddie Dibble also manage to come home alive.
The story jumps forward twenty‑five years. World War II is raging in Europe. Jerry and Ethel now have an adult son, Johnny Jones, who has grown up around theaters and rehearsals as his father’s assistant. After Pearl Harbor, Johnny enlists in the Army. He is deeply in love with Eileen Dibble, Eddie’s daughter, but tells her he won’t marry until the war is over—he can’t bear the idea of leaving behind a young widow.
Johnny expects to serve in a regular combat unit. Instead, Army brass decide that, just as Jerry staged a show in WWI, his son should help stage a new all‑soldier revue for WWII, also written by Irving Berlin: This Is the Army. At first, Johnny resists, feeling that performing is less “real” than fighting. His father and old Yip Yip Yaphank comrades argue that music and laughter are also weapons in wartime, and he reluctantly agrees.
The film then shifts into extended musical‑revue mode, showing large chunks of the on‑stage production. Uniformed soldiers perform comic sketches, patriotic numbers, love songs, specialty dances, and big chorus routines, all linked loosely by Johnny’s work behind the scenes. Irving Berlin himself appears on camera to sing his WWI song “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” recreating his old sergeant persona. There are spoof impressions of stage and film stars, a boxing bit with Joe Louis, and service branch tributes to the Navy and Army Air Corps.
The show tours military camps and theaters across the United States, raising money for Army Emergency Relief and giving homesick soldiers a noisy, colorful taste of Broadway. Eventually, the company reaches Washington, D.C., and performs for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seen in newsreel‑style shots and represented by Jack Young’s voice.
During the Washington performance, an announcement is made: this will be the final night of This Is the Army. Afterward, the soldier‑performers will return to regular combat units and postings. The show continues with full patriotic energy, but everyone understands that the protected world of rehearsals and costumes is about to end.
Meanwhile, Eileen has joined the Red Cross auxiliary and comes to Washington to see Johnny. During a break in the show, she finds him backstage, accompanied by a chaplain. She presses him one last time to marry her now, not after the war, arguing that love is worth the risk and that she does not want to stand forever on the sidelines of his life.
Johnny finally lets go of his fear. In a small, informal ceremony in the alley behind the theater, with Jerry and Eddie as witnesses, a minister quickly marries Johnny and Eileen before Johnny returns to duty. The film ends with the revue’s final numbers—culminating in Kate Smith’s powerful rendition of “God Bless America”—and with the sense that the soldiers’ spirits, and the spirit of the show, will march forward into the larger war.
Genre and Key Themes
This Is the Army is a light comedy-drama frame Technicolor musical-revue set in the middle of a war, which is much unlike a normal plot-driven Hollywood movie.
Key themes include:
Patriotism and morale
The movie itself is the entertainment as a service to the country and songs and sketches are aimed at the integration of the audiences and assistance of troops both at the home and on the front.
Generational echo
The experience that Jerry had in staging Yip Yip Yaphank is reflected in the staging of This Is the Army by Johnny that occurred during the WWII to highlight that continuity exists between the two wars and the notion that one generation has its way.
Responsibility and self-satisfaction.
The fact that Johnny refuses to marry Eileen until after the war is over indicates the emotional problems most couples have during the wartime. That love and commitment can go hand in hand with service and risk is hinted at by his eventual change of heart.
Representation and contradiction.
Cameos by Joe Louis and a sequence shot set in Harlem feature some of the few wartime pictures of Black soldiers playing on a level footing, although other items such as a minstrel sketch resonate with racial attitudes which, although they can be excised in modern printers, feel alien and off-putting to modern audiences.
This Is the Army (1943) Full Movie Watch and Download
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🏛️ See Also
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Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946) – Mickey Rooney Postwar College Romance | Free Public Domain Full Movie
Movie Review
Being a film, This Is the Army 1943 film falls in between a narrative film and a staged performance on the screen. Michael Curtiz makes the huge Technicolor numbers lively and refined with sweeps crane shots, lavish costumes and armies of marching singing troops that provide the film with actual visual effects. Even the size of certain sequences is impressive, as the cast was mostly comprised of real soldiers.
The plot-line- Jerry in WWI, Johnny in WWII, the romance between Johnny and Eileen is a bare, yet good one. George Murphy makes Jerry easy and likable, and a young Ronald Reagan portrays Johnny with a simple straightness. Joan Leslie is kindly Eileen and her scenes with Joan are pleasantly emotional, especially the scene of the backstage argument on marriage.
The real middle though is the music of Irving Berlin. Tunes like this is the army, Mr. Jones, this time, my British buddy, and, above all, god bless America, provide precisely the type of optimism the movie was meant to provide. Berlin’s own cameo singing “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning is a tribute to his wartime experiences during the WWI as well as a rare case of a songwriting legend being screened.
According to the modern critics, the movie may be uneven: long periods of revue scene break the thin narrative, and certain humorous sketches and impersonations are quite of their epoch. Racial caricatures and the minstrel-show portion more so has not been aging well and has resulted into edited versions on television and on home video. Nevertheless, as a historical object, as an account of the collaboration of Hollywood and the Army to unify a nation, it is always intriguing, even touching.
This is the reason why This Is the Army full movie is now considered a public domain movie, and it is available in very large quantities in a wide variety of different transfers, including both poorer TV copies and more professional ones using archived materials. To those who love old school musicals, propaganda during wartime, and Ronald Reagan when he was still young, this free vintage film acts as an exceptionally clear picture of what it was like to be an American citizen in the midst of the World War II.
Movie Tags
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