Seven Days' Leave

Glamorous WW2 comedy is an RKO fest of musical talent with believe it or not, those contract singing and dancing stars Lucille Ball and (yikes!) Victor Mature! He even sings with someone else's baritone too! It is like seeing GlennClose and Sylvester Stallone in a remake of HIGH SOCIETY...or maybe even Jungle Jim and Betty Grable in an imitation PHILADELPHIA STORY. It is an assembled musical with familiar but oddly placed actors and sets: RKO musicals of the 40s had MGM production values but with Republic talent. They have superb art direction and music but somehow out of place actors. HIGHER AND HIGHER is like this: lavish mansions with beautiful furniture and chandeliers, big orchestras, patios, modern nightclubs etc.....and then all these un-together actors placed in roles you might feel better if MGM or Paramount stars were there instead. Lucy is exceptionally beautiful in this film and dressed to impress. Marcie Gray, that teenage Shirley Temple of hep and jive is along for the dancing and comedy as well...so it looks totally like out-takes or a rehearsal for HIGHER AND HIGHER even more so. Good music and fun and quite expensive looking, SEVEN DAYS LEAVE is a patriotic musical of its day...but with Lucy and Victor? It all works in spite of itself.

"Seven Days' Leave" is a piece of wartime propaganda fluff--pure and simple. Much of it consists of lots of soldiers singing and dancing and putting flowers in their hats--and it makes you wonder HOW the US managed to win the war if these guys are like the soldiers they fielded during WWII! After a whole lot of singing and dancing, the plot FINALLY is introduced. Johnny Grey (Victor Mature) will inherit a fortune. He's thrilled and plans on marrying his girlfriend. HOWEVER, he soon learns that there is a stupid codicil to the will. He MUST marry a descendant of General Allen. It seems, in a VERY contrived plot twist, that Johnny's grandfather, General Grey, fought against General Allen during the Civil War. And, the will wants a descendant of Allen to marry a descendant of Grey to heal up these old wounds. And, this woman is NOT the lady he plans on marrying but Terry Allen (Lucille Ball)--a woman who HATES the Greys.

So, you've got a VERY contrived plot, lots of silly and superfluous singing and Victor Mature doing comedy. All in all, it sounds pretty bad...and it is. Even worse is when a fourth-rate guy does imitations of various celebrities. They announce each one before he begins--and you really need to be told who they are supposed to be because you really cannot tell by listening to him! A silly and forgettable film.

By the way, there is a very strange character in the film. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) is the lawyer who handles the estate, right? Well, this same character (and actor) played Gildersleeve in quite a few other films. Plus, Gildersleeve was a very popular radio character who appeared regularly on "Fibber McGee and Molly" and later had his own spin off radio show starring, who else, Peary!

Bouncy little musical programmer. For Lucy fans, there's little of her slap-stick comedic talents. Instead Ball gets to parade around statuesque style in high fashions of the day. And what a gorgeous young woman she was. Plot-wise, there's the usual romantic mix-ups this type musical trades on-- plus, token numbers from the bands including luscious songbird Ginny Simms, and a couple of forgettable novelty acts. Comedy's supplied by the inimitable Arnold Stang (before Milton Berle drafted him), an impish Marcy McGuire, and a gravel-voice Harold Peary soon to get his own Gildersleeve series. But get a load of Victor Mature. He's looser than I've ever seen him, mugging it up in hammy style, and a long long way from his later noir persona. The movie's pretty typical of war escapism, lots of winsome girls and brave servicemen to lighten the load. Nothing special, but a good chance to view Ball in a different kind of role, along with a goofy Victor Mature, of all things.

Can't really put my finger on it, but I really enjoyed this movie. The plot is completely implausible and corny, but that is beside the point. Lucille Ball is gorgeous, and seeing Victor Mature being charming and having fun is a treat. I also truly enjoyed the songs and dancing which came out of left field, but all brought a smile to my face. A very pleasant diversion on a Sunday afternoon, and I can't say that about a lot of movies. Enjoy.

Victor Mature's company is about to be shipped out for parts unknown. First, though they get Seven Day's Leave. Having be informed that he is to inherit $100,000 from his grandfather, he further learns from Harold Peavey -- playing the Great Gildersleeves -- that he has to marry either Lucille Ball or her underage sister, Marcy McGuire. Miss Ball, alas, is engaged to stockbroker Walter Reed. Can Mature romance Miss Ball into marrying him? And to satisfy the tender feelings of the audience, can he actually fall in love with her?

I don't think I'll spoil anyone's enjoyment of this movie by answering "Yes" to all those questions. This antique plot is used as an excuse for some Jimmy McHugh-Frank Loesser songs, a couple of major bands, including Freddy Martin and Les Brown, a comic dance trio, and a brief traipse through a radio staple or two of the era. Director Tim Whelan pushes the movie at a crackling pace, the specialty acts are pretty good for the era, and mature and Miss Ball perform appropriately. It's what light wartime entertainment is meant to be. With Ginny Sims, Arnold Stang (in his first credited role), and the usual assortment of familiar faces.