For the Boys
With the help of the singer and dancer Dixie Leonhard US-Entertainer Eddie Sparks wants to bring some fun to the soldiers during World War II…
- Director: Mark Rydell
- Genre:Comedy / Drama / Music
- Runtime:139 minutes
Cast
Bette Midler : Dixie Leonard
James Caan : Eddie Sparks
George Segal : Art Silver
Patrick O’Neal : Shephard
Christopher Rydell : Danny Leonard
In the early 1990s, retired entertainer Dixie Leonard (Midler) has a commitment to attend a Hollywood ceremony being televised live to honor her and longtime show-biz partner Eddie Sparks (Caan).
When a young man from the TV show comes to pick her up, Dixie balks. She explains what brought Eddie and her together and drove them apart. The bulk of the film is an extended flashback.
Dixie tells the story of how during World War II, she received an offer to go overseas and become a part of Eddie’s act in entertaining the troops. Dixie is an immediate hit with the boys in uniform, but Eddie wants her gone, obstensibly because he finds her kind of humor too coarse, but really because she topped his jokes and stole the show. Dixie doesn’t care for him much either, but fellow entertainers and her joke-writer uncle (Segal) convince her to stay.
Eddie wins her over, particularly by reuniting Dixie with her soldier husband on stage. Later in the war, however, Dixie’s husband is killed in action.
Despite her distaste for Eddie, she continues working with him back in the U.S. to support herself and her son. Eddie is married with daughters, but treats Dixie’s son as if he were his own.
The two bickering performers go overseas twice more to entertain the troops in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. They endure the horrors of combat, the sin of temptation where they appeared to have slept together after seeing a soldier killed in action, the taint of McCarthyism and, ultimately, the death of Dixie’s son in Vietnam.
Dixie has not forgiven Eddie for his part in all this. But, at the last minute, because he speaks of their joined loss in Vietnam, she consents to join him on stage for one last song and dance, before appearing to accept their mutual love for one another. Read more
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