Melody Cruise

This is an goofy little film! Despite the liability of Phil Harris as a man seemingly irresistible to women, the clever use of sound, the rest of the cast, and a lot of beautiful girls, make this entertaining viewing. Harris plays a millionaire with a penchant for rapid romance. Despite high billing, Greta Nissen has a small part as the woman he's been chasing around the world and has followed her to this cruise. Harris doesn't have chemistry with either Nissen or Helen Mack, and he looks like a trout when he sings.

The visuals are the best part. Scene wipes are all clever, such as seeing a storm at sea. The wipe comes in the form of water flowing down the screen, revealing Charlie Ruggles reeling from seasickness. There's not a lot of song and dance so you can't really call this a musical. But there is a lot of rhythmic dialogue, and a generally jaunty feel.

This was director Mark Sandwich's first talking feature film. Sandwich only did 17 in his short 10 year feature directing career, but they included 5 of the 10 Astaire-Rogers films including "Top Hat" arguably their best, 3 excellent Jack Benny films, 2 of Wheeler/Woolsey's best, and the classic "Holiday Inn." His future talents as a director are on display here, as clever editing enhance and sweep along good performances by all the lead actors.

Charlie Ruggles, who stars, was all over television from 1960 to 1966 when I started serious watching. He was in his 70s then, but still was delightful in everything he was in. I didn't know that he had starring roles 30 years earlier. He was always humorously nervous in his television roles, and that is how he is here, trying to stop his wife from finding out about his numerous past flirtations.

Like Director Sandwich, Helen Mack had a short career, that ended about the same time as Sanwich's, 1945. (he died at age 44, but she lived 40 more years). She also did some notable great films - "Son of Kong," "She," The Milky Way," and a short, but great role as Mollie Malloy in "His Girl Friday." She was excellent as the innocent and vulnerable object of co-star Phil Harris' (band leader from the Jack Benny radio show) affection. She is very earnest in this film. I am going to have to binge watch her other films as well as Charlie Ruggles now.

If you're depressed about the world, this movie will definitely cheer you up and bring a big smile to your face. Its a definite watch if you enjoy Astaire-Rogers.

The plot, characters, and acting in this movie are undistinguished and easily forgettable.

What I found different and interesting was the editing in some of the (few) musical numbers. In particular the opening of the movie, which cuts from one example to the next of people dealing with the cold in New York City. In a minor way, it was reminiscent of the opening Song of Paris number in Rouben Mamoulian's very clever Maurice Chevalier/Jeanette MacDonald movie *Love Me Tonight*, which had been released the year before by Paramount.

There is also a love duet, of sorts, on the ocean liner that cuts from Phil Harris singing (sort of) the melody to German and Italian immigrants singing (much better) the same tune to different words.

In between those few moments, there's a lot of clichéd drivel. The fact that it is a pre-code movie only means that we get to see two women in their lingerie more often than in dresses. Not much to titillate you, I'm afraid.

Phil Harris doesn't sing well in this movie - you'd never guess this was the voice of Balou in The Jungle Book - and doesn't make a convincing leading man.

In short, a mostly forgettable movie with some interesting editing.

What a joy it is for a movie collector like me to find a movie I've never seen before that is so darn good. It's hard to describe this movie because it's so many things at the same time. It's a comedy, it's a musical, it's sexy, groundbreaking and different.

Most of the dialogue is spoken rhythmically, a device that might have been tiresome in lesser hands. Zoe and Vera, are two interesting characters in this film. They are "party-goers", stranded in a stateroom. To keep the women safely in his cabin, Pete bribes steward Hickey to steal their clothes. They escape anyway.

The most fun elements of the film are both technical and sub-story-wise. The technical are the creative dissolves from scene to scene. They don't just fade; they are patterned in truly artistic ways. The film contains many highly entertaining special effects created by Vern Walker and Lyn Dunn. Decorated with lots of pretty girls, punctuated with melodic interludes, its strong points are a very pretty ice-skating ballet and the work of Charles Ruggles.

Melody Cruise is mixture of nonsense and music which makes for an excellent show. It's not the singing or the clowning that makes this a smart piece of work, but the imaginative direction of Mark Sandrich, who is alert in seizing ANY opportunity for cinematic stunts. From the viewpoint of direction this production is quite an achievement. I'm very happy to have this excellent film in my 3,000 DVD/Blu-ray collection.

This is a musical comedy with hardly any songs, but is still interesting to watch because of its style. Outside of Phil Harris, none of the other 'leads' sing a note. Many of the songs are 'talked' by uncredited performers, and parts of the film are spoken in verse. The use of sound effects(train whistles, telegraph keys) are cleverly incorporated into the songs, creating an interesting approach to music-making. Helen Mack is very appealing as the female lead, with Charlie Ruggles fun to watch as he bumbles his way through the film. Fans of Phil Harris from his Disney cartoon voices('The Jungle Book', 'Robin Hood') will find him an attractive leading man. All in all, an oddity in the musical-comedy vein, but worth a viewing.