User Reviews

I probably wouldn't have stuck around for this short following today's presentation of "The Big Wheel" on TCM, but seeing Ronald Reagan's name in the credits prompted me to give it a go. Apparently filmed as a promotional vehicle for the USO, the story ends with a request for donations to help fund the cause. I was actually taken aback somewhat by a reference to the anger soldiers felt with the boredom of stateside life, as if the horrors of war might have offered a better alternative.

Reagan fans might be surprised to see the future President providing a beefcake tease in a scene where he gets to take a much desired hot shower. Striking in a military uniform, he also gets to mix it up in mid-air against Japanese kamikaze pilots, taking out three Zero's in the process. That scene would have been the filmmaker's response to repeated references about December 7th, 1941, a day 'marked for black vengeance' by U.S. fighting forces.

The picture left me wondering how Reagan ever consented to portraying a character named Gardenia, reinforced by a couple of home town scenes with Ma and Pa Jones and sweetheart Joanne (Laraine Day) huddled around a gardenia plant in bloom. The bigger surprise for me though was how this short managed to get nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. Though generally OK given the nature of it's message, I can't imagine what the competition might have been like.