joelfl9

This is a cheery movie with actual performances by famous bands and singers of the 1940's. It is a time capsule depicting aspects of the home front during World War II. It is very upbeat throughout the entire movie. There is one interesting goof. In the scene where Duke Ellington and his band plays "Take the A Train" there are scenes of a Chicago and Northwestern RR diesel powered streamlined train of the 1940's. The set on which the Ellington Band is playing recreates the interior of a streamlined train of the early 1940s. The "A Train" in the title refers to a New York City subway route that ran from Brooklyn to Harlem to Northern Manhattan. This mistake adds some fun to the movie. I watch for it each time I see it.

The wedding scenes and dances are pure gems. As both a disabled Vietnam Veteran and growing up in a New Jersey factory town with many people of Eastern European origins, the scenes were like a return home for me. These people were very patriotic and anti-communist. I was a student at Rutgers New Brunswick, NJ campus when anti-Vietnam War students clashed with the large anti-communist Hungarian population. Some of these people arrived after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. In the first hour the film depicts the the type of people that went to Vietnam, working class and in some cases patriotic.

In the final scene where Axel leads the group in singing "God Bless America" the patriotism of these working class people is reaffirmed in spite of the tragic consequences of their friends service in Vietnam.

Train buffs should not miss this movie. There are rare shots of Southern Pacific's streamlined train The Sunbeam arriving at College Station. There are also rare shots of the College Station, Texas Depot torn down in 1966. The former site has an official State of Texas Historical Marker. The scenes of life in the Corps of Cadets and the A&M mascot Reveille are precious. The locomotive that appeared in the movie was Southern Pacific Pacific type locomotive No. 620, the streamlined Pacifics were probably not available during filming. Film used to be shown on Texas TV stations before Texas A&M-University of Texas football games.