bette midler prove that she can single handedly make a film worth watch in for the boy and an overlong but reward comedy drama with music which chronicle the relationship between singer dixie leonard and comic eddie spark ( james caan ) and a character clearly pattern after bob hope and which begin during a wwii uso tour and concludes in the present where the glamorously aging couple be be reunite for a television special . bette receive her second best actress oscar nomination for her commanding performance here and she light up the screen whether dixie be upstage eddie in front of thousand of troop during wwii and curse out sponsor during her and eddie television show and or tear eddie a new one when she think he be try to steal her son away from her . a expect and she make the most of her musical moment in the film with stuff like that there and come rain or come shine a standouts . caan work hard in the role of eddie spark and manage to make a pretty despicable character rather likable for the majority of the story . the only big mistake here be director mark rydell casting of his real life son and christopher in the pivotal role of dixie adult son . rydell lifeless performance be a major detriment to an important part of the film and but for the most part and for the boy be grand entertainment and thanks to the divine miss m .