Youth on Parade (DVD)

Cotchatootamee College holds a competition for "Outstanding Student of the Year," run by psychology professor Gerald Payne. The coeds, resenting restrictions on curfew and dating, decide to play a prank on Payne by inventing a fictitious student too good to be true. They hire a loudmouthed actress from New York to play the part of freshman "Patty Flynn." Remarkably, Payne falls head over heels for "Patty" and tries to date her. When the dean finds out how Payne's been played for a fool, he fires the professor in disgust. The kids then put on an all-singing, all-dancing stage show to convince the faculty to reinstate the beleaguered Payne.

This rarely-seen, relatively big-budget (for Republic Pictures) musical features a plethora of obscure B-movie actors. John Hubbard played Dick Foran's son in The Mummy's Tomb (1942). Ruth Terry was a Republic contract player and appeared in westerns with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Robert Livingston. Statuesque blonde Martha O'Driscoll played Daisy Mae in Lil' Abner (1940) and was menaced by the Universal Monsters in House of Dracula (1945). Chick Chandler is best remembered as a journeyman supporting actor with strong performances in the "B" films Leave It To Blondie (1945) and Lost Continent (1951) as well as the TV series Soldiers of Fortune (1955-1957). Also making uncredited appearances (as members of the student body) are a twenty-year-old Yvonne De Carlo and Adventures of Captain Marvel's Frank Coghlan Jr. As World War II was just underway, characters periodically stop and speak directly to the audience about buying war bonds and stamps. The toe-tapping number "It Seems I've Heard That Song Before" was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1943 Academy Awards.

• musical