The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Sometimes one viewing is all it takes, I'm moving this title immediately to my list of best films no one's ever heard of. Not so much for the story itself, but for the dialog and terrific nighttime street scenes of downtown Cat-tail with all those great marquees. I'll get to them in a minute. There's also some great era touches that you have to pay attention for, and if you do you'll be rewarded with a hefty dose of reality on how things were during a time gone by.One of those took place early in the story. Did you catch the gas station guy lamenting the fact of all those vehicles passing him by to get to Cat-tail, stopping only if they needed a bit of fuel to make it the rest of the way? One of the customers bought a PINT of gas for 6 CENTS!!! Even con-girl Skeeter (Betty Brewer) filled up her gas can for a wallet busting twelve cents so her folks could make it the rest of the way. Usually we don't see the good old days portrayed this way.Staying another minute at that gas station - how about Danny's response to Lola (Ann Sheridan) when she turns down his offer to wash the car - he's willing then to touch up her bumpers! You've got to wonder how the film makers got that one past the Code enforcers.Well there's a whole bunch of stuff like this going on, so much so it took me almost twice as long to watch the movie compared to it's hour and a half run time, what with all the re-winds and stopping to take notes for this review. There's one scene I actually had to replay four times to see if I got it right. It's toward the end of the picture when Steve Talbot (Ronald Reagan) tucks in the drunken Nick Garcos (George Tobias) for the night. After leaving the room and locking the door, Nick calls Steve's name, and when Steve turns to answer, they're in the same room together again! Check it out.Oh yeah, about the main drag in Cat-tail. Seeing as how they put this together, someone was pretty creative in naming the joints up and down the strip. You had places going by The Goons, Little Zombie, Jook Alley, Shook Shack, Muckeye's and Horsies Hot Shot. Sheridan's character did her 'juke girl' gig at Muckeye's, where it looked like a fair number of fellas were willing to touch up her bumpers. The fact that future President Reagan got to close out the story in a smooch with the 'oomph' girl shouldn't have come as a surprise considering all that went before.It surprises me then that the film doesn't score a bit higher on this board. Okay, it is a bit formulaic, and if presented as a Western it would probably classify as run of the mill. But with all the cool stuff going on, I guess it just struck me in a way that a lot of films coming out of the era fail to do. Or maybe it had to do with one of those good luck Jo-Mo's Willie Best was peddling. It sure did the trick for me.

Ann Sheridan is usually in more Comedy films. This is a rare one where she is doing drama and romance with Reagan. The main plot of the movie is about the struggle farmers were having getting enough for their produce from middle men. The tension leads to undesirable results.The film tries to paint the middle man as being way to lean on the amount he is paying the farmers. In the meantime Alan Hale Sr. as Yippee gets too confrontational with Henry Madden (Gene Lockhart). Steve Talbot (Reagan) befriends Yippee and tries to control his wild behavior and tries to be a peace make with all the conflict going. Of course things go awry and Yippee gets murdered. Reagan gets accused of it and Sheridan (Lola Mars) gets accused with him.All of this spirals out of control with Henry creating a mob problem that is much like a Western, only this one is set in a more modern day (1942) setting. Actually it is a fair film though the ending is a bit muddled. It does not measure up to King's Row, but it is good enough for a viewing as the support cast here is really good, and Reagan and Sheridan act very well together. Reagan is happily married to Jane Wyman at this point and it seems like there is a little spark between him and Sheridan, but it also feels like it is an arms length type of thing too.

Steve (Ronald Reagan) and Danny (Richard Whorf) are friends who are out of work. When they arrive at a crappy town in Florida, both move in different directions. Danny turns out to be a rather amoral guy and sees that his best bet is working for the local strong-man, Madden (Gene Lockhart). Steve doesn't understand this, as Madden is underhanded and treats the local farmers like dirt. One farmer in particular, Nick (George Tobias), has gotten on Madden's bad side and Madden has decided to ruin him. Can nice-guy Nick manage to defeat Madden and his forces of evil? And, can Steve manage to win the heart of a local juke-girl (a lady who works in a bar and whose job it is to dance with customers and get them to drink)?This is an interesting film because in many ways it's like a 1940s western...yes, western. While there are no cowboys, the idea of a local boss-man ruining people and using his gang of thugs is very, very common in westerns. It's also interesting to see Reagan playing such a populist sort of role, though it was very much in line with the Reagan of the 1940s (a union man through and through).So is it any good? Well, for the first 90% of the film, I'd say yes. However, the ending has quite a few problems. Seeing the town inexplicably turn into a lynch mob made little sense--especially when one of Madden's goons is clearly egging them to action. Additionally, Madden's behavior at the very end made little sense--he was evil through all the film--so why would he suddenly do the right thing?! All I know is that it's frustrating to see a good film that folds up at the end of the movie. Worth seeing but it should have been better.

It's funny how one's opinion of a film can change over time. I remember seeing and liking "Escape in the Desert" many years ago, perhaps in the 60s. When I saw it again recently I was really disappointed.Just the opposite is true of "Juke Girl," which my wife and I just watched this evening on TCM (March, 2009). I had seen the film quite a while back and didn't think much of it. This time, however, I found the film to be quite enjoyable; no prize winner, but interesting from several standpoints. Here are some quite thoughts: * The acting: As other reviewers have pointed out, it is quite good. The film features the Warner Brothers stock company that appeared in so many films in the late 30s and throughout the 40s. I refer to the likes of Alan Hale, George Tobias, Donald MacBride, etc. Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan are good in the leads.* Photography: I second the feeling of another reviewer who commented on the film's cinematography. That is especially true of the outdoor scenes, which make up a fair amount of the running time; so many movies from the same year were shot almost entirely on sound stages. It's nice to see what Southern California looked like in the early 1940s (I feel certain that somewhere such as the San Fernando Valley stood in for Florida.)* Politics: This story almost seems like a second tier version of the "Grapes of Wrath," with its mean, unscrupulous packing house owner and its poor but honest farmers and field workers. It's laid on a bit thick in my view, but it makes for an intriguing storyline.* One quibble regarding plot: When the mob storms the jail, the sheriff and his deputies, who have threatened to shoot, just stand there and allow themselves to be overcome. Well, I suspect that any self-respecting lawman and his men would have blasted away at that point in their own self-defense if nothing else. I have no doubt that some will, incorrectly, call this a B movie. Well, with Ann Sheridan as the top billed player, that is of course nonsense. It is indeed an A production, though a bit too predictable in terms of the plot to be considered first-rate. However, if you are a fan of 1940s style Warner Brothers melodramas (and I don't use that term pejoratively), you might indeed enjoy "Juke Girl."