Melody Cruise

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.

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.

A rich playboy and his best friend have survived another bender. They set off on a cruise from New York to California where they are pursued by gorgeous ladies.

I really don't care about these characters. I don't care about the guys. I don't care about the giggling sexy girls. I don't care about any of the high jinx. There are little moments of musical interest, but they're not that good. To be fair, I don't know these actors. I may have some residual interest if I actually know someone here. At the core of my problem, I hold no rooting interest in anybody or any relationships. I just don't care.

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.

"Melody Cruise" is a breezy RKO musical made just before the beginning of the Astaire-Rogers series. Directed by Mark Sandrich (who directed five of the Astaire-Rogers films), it is still easy viewing today because of its innovative editing style and its pre-Code sensibility.

I believe this is one of the films that established the use of the playback system for musical numbers, giving filmmakers more freedom for visual creativity. Only one of its songs is presented in a traditional way of having a performer sing while another listens, and even this progresses into a sequence of invention. Other songs are often spoken by various members of the chorus, each saying one line -- at one point, just a single word -- as the musical narrative proceeds. The song, "He's Not the Marrying Kind," perfectly illustrates this.

The musical numbers play energetically with the editing and seem to enjoy their own inventiveness. The opening sequence shows how movies can create an engaging musical number out of such non-musical elements like someone pushing a broom, a man blowing at his hands to keep warm, a shop sign swinging in the wind. Only the ice skating ballet disappoints as a limp Busby Berkeley imitation.

Many transitions are done by using a wipe, a popular editing device of the period. The film editors and effects team seem to have had fun creating wipes that visually comment on the story. (The great Linwood Dunn was one of the special effects artists.) A shot of the cruise ship in rough sea with high waves wipes to a shot of Charles Ruggles feeling seasick in his stateroom by using the visual effect of water washing down the screen. A flower vase falls and "breaks" onto a cymbal in the ship's dance band just as the drummer hits it. A love dialogue between Phil Harris and Helen Mack is protracted over a number of scenic California locations, first through diagonal wipes and then jump cuts.

Naughty pre-Code elements are embodied, literally, in the presence of Vera and Zoe (Shirley Chambers and June Brewster), two party girls who pass out in Ruggles' cabin after the bon voyage party instead of leaving the ship. When told their clothes have been thrown overboard, Vera reminds Zoe: "It's possible, Zoe. You know whenever you get a few drinks in you, you always want to take your clothes off."

The film offers an early version of the driver's license/marriage license scene the ended George Cukor's version of "Born Yesterday".