Moonlight in Hawaii

Interesting timing--1941.

Trio is like the ritz brothers.

The timing for "Moonlight in Hawaii" is interesting, as it came out just before the Japanese attack on Pearly Harbor. However, as you'd suspect, it actually was just filmed in California.

The story is very slight. A quartet of guys and their girlfriends all want to be on the radio, as they are talented singers. One of them happens to have a father who is rich and could put them on the air, but Walter Spencer (Leon Errol) has had an argument (one of MANY) with his friend, J. B. (Richard Carle), and the deal is off. So, they need to get these two friends to talk again and make up...but it won't be easy.

The quartet really has a leader (Johnny Downs) and the other three really act much like a poor man's Ritz Brothers...though less annoying and better singers. As for the plot, there really isn't much and the whole thing is just an excuse for MANY musical numbers. While I usually hate this sort of thing, their music was catchy and the whole thing results in a decent little time-passer.

Released just a few weeks before the attack at Pearl Harbor, this has everything you'd want in a Universal pre- WW2 swing-musical. With a "in the groove" plot, this has the best elements that made these B musicals fun. Jane Frazee and Johnny Downs exemplify what you want in leads, comedy with Leon Errol, one of the era's best singing group[s, The Merry Macs, singing the songs of Universal's house swing writing team of Raye & DePaul, some fine swing dancing and Mischa Auer, perfectly cast. (The only things missing are Shemp Howard and the Jivin' Jacks and Jills) Solid photography by Stanley Cortez and direction by Charles Lamont, one of the best B directors of the 1930s, who went on to helm Abbott & Costello . As long as it moves, plot doesn't matter much. Yesiree, this is Universal swing at it's B best! Just imagine seing this on a double bill with a Universal mystery or horror film such as Man Made Monster, released a few months later.

Johnny Downs and his musical cohort, the Merry Macs, wind up in Hawaii. There, Jane Frazee gets them a deal to sing on a radio show that her father, Leon Errol will sponsor, promoting his cannery's pineapple juice. However, when Errol feuds with his pineapple supplier, Richard Carle, all the younger people come up with schemes to either get Errol a source of pineapples, or Carle a cannery. Those, however, take money that neither man has -- especially after Errol smashes all of Carle's Ming pottery and Michelangelo sculptures -- so they set up a competition to marry rich Marjorie Gateson.

Miss Frazee gets top billing, so it's a musical, of course, although most of the tunes are carried by the Merry Macs. There's a lot of decent but forgettable music written by Don Raye and Gene De Paul. The highlight for me was a swing version of "Hawaiian War Chant" sung by the Merry Macs. Under the direction of Charles Lamont the comedy is more well-timed frenzy than funny. Still, it's short, fast-moving and musically ok. The music is swing boogie with Hawaiian guitars, lots of ukuleles and good orchestration.