Honolulú

This B musical (still available only on VHS) has four things in it worth looking at today: the big "Leader Doesn't Like Music" vaudeville number with singing Marx Brothers impersonators and Gracie Allen got up as Mae West; and Powell's three dance numbers. The first shows off Powell's ability to tap while skipping rope. The second, a blackface tribute to Bill Robinson, would be cornball if Powell weren't so good. The third, a long hula in two acts, isn't Powell's best number but it seems better suited to her big athletic style than her dressy nightclub-style numbers. For once she is not dressed like the mailman, and it's possible to see the unbelievable condition she was in at that time as well as the speed and power of her movements. Fred Astaire surely saw this film while the preparations were underway to make "Broadway Melody of 1940", which teamed him with Powell (or rather, the other way around). No wonder he was scared.

Burns&Allen's last film as a team was Honolulu where they supported Robert Young and Eleanor Powell. Gracie did two more guest star appearances in film while George would wait over 30 years to go back in The Sunshine Boys which netted him an Oscar. Oddly enough their characters do not have any scenes together until the very end of the movie, almost as if they were trying their separate wings.

Honolulu was the start of a winding down of a vogue for south seas movies that started over at Paramount with Dorothy Lamour and her sarong and with Bing Crosby's Waikiki Wedding celebrating a trip to Hawaii Bing took in real life. MGM wasn't going to let Paramount get all the tropical box office.

Robert Young plays a dual role as both a movie star and a visiting planter from Hawaii. Young trying to escape the constant demands of his adoring public offers to switch places with his lookalike. But he gets into all kinds of complications on the ship to Hawaii when he meets Eleanor Powell on board. He falls for her, but the planter, now miserably cooped up in his hotel room because he can't get out in public is engaged to Rita Johnson, daughter of another planter Clarence Kolb back on Oahu.

Let's just say that with two Robert Youngs there was enough to go around by the time Honolulu was over with a few bumps along the way.

No memorable songs came out of Honolulu, but Eleanor Powell had some great numbers including a hula tap dance. She seems to have invented her own dance genre because I've never seen anything like it before or since. The production values are also a little skimpy for an MGM musical.

But with Eleanor dancing and George and Gracie doing their thing Honolulu holds up very nicely for over 70 years.

(Spoilers, sort of) Why do I use the word enigma? Because MGM never seemed to know exactly what to do with the great Eleanor Powell. Not unlike the swimming Esther Williams, Powell's films were a kind of specialized musical entertainment where the most uncanny situations had to be dreamed up to show off her tap-dancing skills. And while she was a premier tap dancer- and a better dancer than an actress, she usually danced alone- unlike her male counterparts (Astaire, Kelly, et al) who were usually given dancing partners who doubled as their love interests. In this film, Powell's co-star is the non-dancing Robert Young, who's given a rather foolish subplot in a dual role as a movie star and his double who create havoc when they switch identities. And that's all there is to it. George Burns and Gracie Allen, billed as the second leads, play more apart than they do together. Powell's dance numbers, of course, are sensational: A stair-step routine paying homage to Bill Robinson (while the blackface makeup is startling, the dancing itself is terrific); a shipboard dance with a skipping rope as a prop; and the piece-de-resistance: an all-out grass skirt hula done in two parts: first as a barefoot native dance, then as an ultra-smooth tap sequence done with silver tap shoes. Powell may have been the only woman dancer to dance with her whole body: lots of arm movements, knee bends, splits, high kicks, and puree-speed turns. It's a fun film to watch just for this incredible number.

It's the kind of fluffy production big-budget MGM excelled at. Actor Young gets dual parts, one as a heart-throb celebrity, the other as an average Smith living in Hawaii. To escape pressures, each is anxious to trade places with his look-alike twin. So heart-throb Mason goes to Honolulu while Smith goes to New York. Trouble is this reciprocal move pairs each with his look-alike's girl, so complications ensue.

Actually, the plot line is heavier than usual for a musical. Nonetheless, director Buzzell keeps things moving. As expected, Powell shows off her flying feet, while I especially like that first number on shipboard that's quite beguiling. However, it's Gracie Allen who steals the show with her shrill comic antics. However, she's got only one skit with under-used husband George Burns that comes at movie's end almost like it's an add-on for George's sake. Also. don't look for popular tunes among the musical selections, after all it's the dancing feet here that's central. There's some flavor of tropical Hawaii with two hula-type dance numbers, otherwise there's not much location scenery. Typical of the time period is the racially stereotyped humor from Willie Fung and Rochchester Anderson, who, whatever else, are adept comedians. All in all, the movie's a crisply done, well-mounted showcase for Powell, Allen, and Young, but nothing special.

(In passing- for old movie fans, especially of the noir classic Detour {1947}, look for notorious Hollywood bad boy Tom Neal as an ambulance attendant with one brief line.)

"Honolulu" is a good-natured comedy-musical that is great fun without being a great picture. The tempo is good, the cast is very good and the story is also, before becoming somewhat far-fetched towards the end. The music is not memorable but it is tuneful, and the song-and-dance numbers are lively.

You don't normally think of Robert Young as a funny guy, just a pleasant, presentable leading man, but here he pulls off comedy in fine style. He plays a movie idol and a look-alike business man who switch places as both are looking for a break from their respective routines. Of course, there are the usual comical mistaken identity situations to get through, some with a Hawaiian flavor, as the business man resides in Honolulu.

While Young is fine, Eleanor Powell is more problematic. She joins actor Young on the way to Honolulu, and has several dance numbers in the process. She was a terrific dancer and had a great smile, but her on-screen persona lacked warmth and never seemed to connect with the audience unless she was dancing. Maybe that was why MGM couldn't figure out what to do with her. She gets some help from Gracie Allen as her sidekick, but it was passing strange she and George Burns did not appear in a scene together.

This is a better-than-average 30's musical, a crowd-pleaser that could have used a better musical score. Everything else is there, and I rated it a 7, even though it's hard to tell if it's an A or a B picture. I guess with Eleanor Powell in it, it must be an A.