Las novias de la marina

I was working in The Imperial Theatre in Charlotte,NC in 1941 when this movie was shown. It, along with The Fleets In, is the reason I joined the Navy and served 33 years. Jackie Gleason, even though he had few lines, did a good job and exibited what would become his trade mark in the future.

With a ukulele playing in the background, and all those HUGE Hollywood names, how could you NOT have a great time? Haley (The Tin Man!), Ann Sheridan & Jack Carson from SO many great films. Martha Raye, Jackie Gleason. Herb Anderson is in here as the dumb hick; Anderson will be Henry Mitchell, Dennis the Menace's dad in the TV series. Jack Oakie was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Dictator. In our story, Cake (Oakie) and Powerhouse (Haley) set up a gambling scam in a get rich quick scheme aboard a navy ship. This film was released in September 1941, so J-U-S-T a couple months before the big surprise at Pearl Harbor. It definitely still has the upbeat, happy go lucky feeling of fun and adventure in the Navy. Their entire gig depends on Homer (Anderson), but of course it all comes apart at the seams. Sound and picture are excellent. The story moves right along. Jack Carson doesn't have much of a role here, but it all works! I had never seen this one before... hopefully Turner will show it often -- it's fun. There's a slightly dirty song about all the things that happen "In Waikiki"... and of course a drag number with Oakie and Haley. I'm surprised at the lower rating, as of today, only 6.5 stars. Directed by Lloyd Bacon, who had started in the silents. Bacon worked with Lucy on a couple films, and made a truckload of war timers during WW II.

This is a lightweight musical produced by Warners who were lost finding something for Ann Sheridan to do, I am sure that she would not have classed it as one of her better films. Whoever came up with the hog-calling sequences, and that Anderson guy to do them definitely needed to get another job!! It was great to see two such beauties as Kay Aldridge and Marguerite Chapman supporting Ann Sheridan in the "Waikiki" number, which was clearly the highlight of the whole movie. Martha Raye and Jackie Gleason were good and certainly added to the fun, but Jack Oakie's double-take humour definitely wears thin over 90 minutes. Warners trotted out a lot of their stock players for this one, and they were all adequate in what was really a B- Film.

As another review pointed out, shortly after this comic romp set among Navy enlisted men in Hawaii was made, things took a dramatic and deadly turn with the attack on Pearl Harbor. So that fact needs to be overlooked in order to enjoy this silly movie. (The scene in which an air attack is faked is particularly unfortunate).

All that aside, the main problem with this film is that it's basically one joke extended to an absurdly long running time of over 100 minutes. These types of slight comedies more typically ran around 80 minutes, and with good reason. Even though the running time is padded by the many musical numbers, the comedy routines are repetitive and I found myself wanting to start fast forwarding through them, never a good sign.

On the plus side, we have the always lovely and talented Ann Sheridan, who looks great doing a hula routine. She was an amazingly versatile performer of the type that we just don't see to have anymore. There are also some gifted comic actors (Jack Oakie, Jackie Haley, Martha Raye), though the script is so thin it feels like they are working overtime to be funny. A young, relatively slim Jackie Gleason has some good moments, but one of my favorites, Jack Carson, has a thankless straight man role.

My rating of 6 is based on the fact that I can watch Ann Sheridan in anything. (And this comes pretty close to being "anything.") Also, the historical interest of having a nostalgic snapshot of a more innocent time in history, just before the world changed forever.

This is a surprisingly breezy, and brassy, little musical about U.S. Navy sailors in Hawaii. The plot, as is often the case, isn't anything unusual, but the songs are catchy, Ann Sheridan looks great in a hula skirt (and sings and dances surprisingly well), Jack Haley and Jack Oakie make a hilarious team--they should have made more pictures together--and everybody looks like they're having a great time. Also keep your eye on a very young Jackie Gleason. Even though he doesn't have very much of a part, he still stands out and you can see that he was going to be going places. It's not one of the great musicals of all time, but is definitely worth a look.