Joan of Ozark (1942) User Reviews (3)

No "To Be or Not to Be", but still fun war nonsense.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 24 August 2018]

"Ridicule your biggest enemy!" must have been the motto for many screenwriters and producers back during World War II, making fun of the evil Adolf Hitler from the moment he took power nearly a decade before America got involved in the fight against fascism. Here, just by chance, country bumpkin Judy Canova shoots down a Nazi carrier pigeon and becomes a national hero, and a target for Fifth Columnists who have infiltrated every aspect of American society in order to get information on America's defense plans. She somehow ends up a nightclub singer in the swank cafe run by Nazi spy Jerome Cowan, and somehow becomes involved with Joe E. Brown who is naive about the whole Nazi set-up yet somehow used to bring Canova into contact with Cowan's band of Nazi thugs just so they can kill her. Circumstances lead to the popular Canova christening a new U.S. bomber with a champagne bottle loaded with explosives, and thus leading the film to a very funny chase sequence in the air.

Absolutely ridiculous nonsense? Of course. This farcical musical is about as realistic as most movie serials, yet it is hysterical to imagine Canova, Brown and Brown's sidekick (Eddie Foy Jr.) as war heroes, even if they become war heroes strictly by accident. The casting directors wisely cast American character actors as the Nazi's with absolutely no German accent, reminding Americans at the time that the Fifth Columnists were very wise in their ways to get information. The songs are adequate, with "The Lady From Lockheed" being the standout. This ain't a piece of artwork, that's for sure, but a reminder of how film producers helped civilians escape the realities of the war. Films like this helped influence Mel Brooks later on when he wrote his classic farce, "The Producers". Look for a very young Anne Jeffreys as a very lovely vixen, while laughing at Canova's attempts to pass herself off as a seductive Latina senorita. The final sequence, set 10 years after this takes place, is quite funny.

Judy and Joe E. take on the Nasty Nazis.

[horn-5 · 24 November 2005]

Ozark thrush Judy Hull (Judy Canova) inadvertently shoots a pigeon carrying a message from a secret Nazi spy nest in the United States, and becomes a national heroine. Philip Munson (Jerome Cowan),head of the spy ring with headquarters in a secret room at the "Club 76", which he operates, receives orders from the Gestapo to immediately liquidate her as an object lesson to all Americans who might try to emulate her.

When theatrical agents Cliff Little (Joe E. Brown) and Eddie McCabe (Eddie Foy, Jr.)come to Munson's office with Marie Lamont (Anne Jeffreys), a dancer they are trying to promote, Munson conceives a scheme whereby Judy will be brought to him, rather than him going to the Ozarks to liquidate her. He tells Little and McCabe that if they will produce the now-famous Judy Hull as an entertainer at his club, he might be interested in making a deal to employ their client.

Judy balks at capitalizing on the service she has done for her country, and Little tells her he is really a G-Man and wants to sign her as a G-Woman to ferret out spies which he claims lurk in the "Club 76" (not knowing, of course, that the club actually is the headquarters of a Nazi spy ring.) Under these circumstances, Judy agrees to go to the city as "Agent H2-0" and masquerade as a singer at the club as a front for her spying activities.

An attempt by Yamatako (Paul Fung) to kill Judy fails, as she is better at jiu-jitsu than the Japanese henchman is , and Munson orders Henchman Otto (Otto Reichow)to kill her. But, the publicity about Judy's appearance at the club, serves to see the Mayor, the Daughters of the American Revolution and various other patriotic groups flood the club with reservations, and Munson decides she will be of more use alive than dead, as her presence will be a cloak for the Club's real activities. But, Otto got his orders before Munson make his executive decision, and Munson has to stop Otto...so he tips the G-Men off about his employee Otto being a Nazi spy.

Joe E. Brown gets to do his Adolph Hitler, the Schicklegruber act along the way.

Strictly From The Piney Woods

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 18 February 2011]

It is still fascinating at just how much America's movie going public apparently wanted to believe that we were facing idiots during World War II. There can be no other explanation for Joan Of Ozark, especially coming out in early 1942 when major studios let alone B picture studios like Republic were rushing out with propaganda films of very dubious quality.

What's sad to me was that Joe E. Brown and Judy Canova were a good team with their popularity in the red states. It's too bad they didn't get better material.

Joan Of Ozark finds Judy in her hillbilly persona accidentally shooting down a carrier pigeon that is carrying secret coded messages from a Nazi spy headquarters in The Ozarks. Immediately she's proclaimed a national heroine, but in Berlin she's the deepest darkest kind of villain impeding the Nazi war machine. Orders straight from Himmler come to get Judy Canova and make her an example lest more John Q. Citizens interfere.

How to do it though? The head of the spy ring Jerome Cowan comes up with a brilliant idea. Cowan also doubles as a nightclub owner and he gets gullible agents Joe E. Brown and Eddie Foy, Jr., to stop trying to sell their client Anne Jeffreys and go to the Ozarks and fetch Judy as a club attraction, the better for the Nazis to get access.

Of course Joe and Judy in their guileless ways manage to foil the villains of course. You expected something else?

As an example of wartime propaganda of the worst kind you'd have to go some to find something worse than Joan Of Ozark. All the cast members do deserve some kind of commendation for managing to keep a straight face through all this drivel.