Filles des îles

The story isn't much but Grable has lively song and dance numbers at the beginning and end with a big chorus line of hula girls in grass skirts (beginning) and cellophane skirts (end). Hermes Pan directed the dances. Hilo Hattie appears in a few songs, mainly "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai" where she's entertaining if a bit overly excited. She was a popular entertainer in the 40s and onward and I was lucky to work at the Halekulani Hotel in the mid 70s when she was part of a show of old-time Hawaiian entertainers. Betty Grable is beautiful and a very energetic actor and dancer. Lightweight entertainment for sure.

Great 1940s World War II Pacific island fantasy movie. The colors are so bright they almost can't be real. Victor Mature and Jack Oakie head to an island where Betty Grable lives in tropic splendor with her father (Thomas Mitchell - Gerald O'Hara from "Gone With The Wind", same Irish accent too by the way...). The music is just fantastic, Harry Owens and his orchestra are incredible, the classic Hula Comedienne Hilo Hattie is on hand as Palola to provide comic relief in her attempts to land Jack Oakie (Jack is afraid of Palola's Cannibal uncle however...). Gloriously non-politically correct in the way that only classic movies can be. Betty Grable in a grass skirt, (wow!) no wonder all the G. I. s you speak to from that time were crazy about her!

I kinda liked this movie. The plot is not much to write off and is questionable if it will have any appeal to adults because it involves full grown men and women acting like ten year olds. Set on the Hawaii Islands it has something to do with some millionaire rancher's son who falls for a enjoy-life goodnik loafer on the Islands. Romance, fighting, with some will they or will they not get together? That is a typical Betty Grable picture. Gable who couldn't really act but was always charming with a nice smile and is always fun to watch because the woman approached all her roles with gusto. It didn't matter the role; she played as if it were Scarlett O'Hara. Poor Victor Mature suffered in being cast in light tripe like this where he practiced how to take pratfalls and sound dopey and goofy before better things and dramatic roles elevated out of this parts. The popular radio star Jack Oakie provides much needed support and has many scenes where his sub plot line dominates the movies. This I have to mention because this is sorely missing in Hollywood movies, today. Let's take a recent hit like "Hitch", Kevin James gets no scene without Will Smith on the phone and in the background and it's a credit to him that he still finds a way to steal the movie. Gable too was not a very good dancer but again you forgive because she lights into it with so much pep and determination and that can be said for the whole movie. It is poorly written, obvious with no surprises but everybody plays it to the utmost fullest that makes you enjoy the whole silly farce for what it's what.

I never thought that this was one of the better Grable pictures and as I am taking a break from re-watching it for the first time in a decade I still hold to that original opinion.

The film has, if possible, too many character actors - Thomas Mitchell, George Barbier, Jack Oakie, Billy Gilbert, Hilo Hattie. And there is too much bickering.

OTOH, most of the songs are very tuneful, though undistinguished and the Technicolor is, as always, eye-popping.

The high points in the film are almost all Grable. If the film had been destroyed after the first reel, it likely would not have mattered because Grable's absolutely gorgeous entry into the film on a small outrigger just off shore of a tropical is breathtaking as is her brilliantly pretty face and figure.

And what a figure! All curves and plenty of them, looking delicious in clingy island dresses and hula girl out-fits. What a bundle! 5'4" (As I thought when looking at her while danced barefoot) and she measured in at 34 1/2-24-36 (self-described 1940).

She is singing "Sing Me a Song of the Islands" as she heads towards shore with her blonde hair blowing gently in the breeze as she softly offers the song in that vastly under-rated melodious and well modulated beguiling voice of hers. She's radiant with gleaming white teeth and big eyes as she sings the entire song in 90 seconds with the big Technicolor camera slowly zooms in from a medium shot to what becomes a near full lose up if her expressive face, never once breaking away...all in one shot.

I had a customer in my video store about 15 years ago who had not seen Song of the Islands since its original release in 1942 and all he remembered all those years was that opening shot of Betty Grable, her hair blowing in the tropical breeze and singing "Sing Me a Song of the Islands". Movie magic!

Victor Mature is in the film, too. He looks fine.

Hilo Hattie is the Hawaiian version of Charlotte Greenwood in the film; man hungry and doing her eccentric dances and songs.

As mention, it is not one of the 'great Grables' of the era, in spite of having the talented Walter Lang, who had directed some of Grable's best films in the 1940.

Unfortunately, what ever momentum the film has fairly comes to a halt about 50 minutes into the picture at which time there is little question (if there was ever any) about how the film will wrap up. The pictures weakest tunes are trotted out and Grable's last dance sequence is far from memorable.

Jack Oakie, playing Mature's sidekick (and only 39 years old at the time) manages to squeeze in a song and a romance for himself with a pretty island girl even younger than Grable and he and Hilo Hattie have the last laugh in the film. (Oakie frequently seems to get a special moment at the end of the films he is in. He had a big following and was extremely popular with everyone.) All in all...very lightweight stuff. Nice try by all involved. There's better Grables out there.

Now I'll go back and rewind the tape and watch that opening island sequence one more time. It's a freeze-framers delight!

Nice light-hearted musical set in beautiful Hawaii with Betty Grable playing Eileen O'Brien, the daughter of an Irishman played by Thomas Mitchell and Victor Mature playing her love interest. The film is full of enjoyable songs although sadly one of them, "Blue shadows and white gardenias", sang by Mature (dubbed byBen Gage) to Grable was cut from the movie (probably from the scene both share on a boat at night). Also cut -but slightly watchable in the trailer- is Betty Grable being transported on a throne chair as the queen of the luau party. From the bright start with all the natives preparing a lunch while Harry Owens's version of Hawaiian war chant Kaua i ka Huahua'i (Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai) plays as background music the film is pure escapist delight. Miss Grable delightfully sings Sing me a song of the islands when arriving to the island on a boat and then the luau party, with Hilo Hattie and Betty Grable singing funny Down on Ami Ami Oni Oni Isle -each one in her own style. Then the movie tends to go down a bit -too much Jack Oakie routines although still has its moments, specially in the grand finale with Hillo Hattie singing Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai and Betty Grable singing and dancing O'Brien Has Gone Hawaiian (a Hawaiian-Irish-tap dance mix-mach) although I have much preferred miss Grable doing a Hawaiian style routine with Hawaiian music and dancing only. Hermes Pan, usually a brilliant choreographer, is not at his top here, mixing too many styles in one dance. The combination of Hawaiian style with Irish and tap dance is a bit too much of a mélange. Although could have been improved with some minor changes (i.e, there is a sequence at the beginning of the film where miss Grable brings a bathtub to the island that could have been used with her having a bath while singing a song like Deanna Durbin did in Can't help singing) it is still a beautiful, entertaining and recommended movie to watch.