Give Me a Sailor

In 1938, when this film was made, Bob Hope was 35 years and while he had been a star in vaudeville and Broadway for 15 years, he had just gotten his first radio show. While he had been in films for a few years, this was the first time he was the real star of a film.

It was also the first time that Martha Raye had star billing in a film. She had co-starred in films with Bing Crosby and Jack Benny before this, but at age 22, she was at the peak of her short film career, which had started just two years before. While she would have top billing in two more films, by 1941, three years later, her film starring career was largely over. She did do a wonderful bit part in Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" in 1947, but for the most part, she starred on television here and there from the 1950's to the 1980's.

Betty Grable was also 22. Although she started her movie career well before Raye, she had done a lot of bit parts and hadn't become famous yet. This supporting actress role was one of her meatier ones. Three years later, just when Raye's film career was spiraling downward, she was becoming a superstar.

The movie is a rather silly screwball comedy with a lot of amusing bits, but nothing memorable or outstanding. Hope is almost the breezy, nervous, sentimental fast talker that he will portray brilliantly for the next 40 years. Raye is frenetic, but can't quite carry the film as the lead. Grable adds a nice sweet touch to the proceedings. She plays well off both Hope and Raye.

Jack Whiting, in apparently his one major role, is pretty awful as Hope's brother. He seems nervous and doesn't have much charm, although both Gable and Raye are supposed to be gaga over him.

Clarence Kolb is the one bit player who stands out. He went on to play Mr. Honeywell, the cantankerous boss in the "My Little Margie" television series in the 1950's.

The movie alternates between flat and mildly amusing dialogue and slapstick bits. It is worth watching just to see Hope and Grable at the beginning of their careers, and Raye at the too short peak of hers.

A few years after Give Me a Sailor was out, Betty Grable finally hit the big time over at 20th Century Fox. Those beautiful legs of her's on which perched the USA's all American girl were her stock and trade. Reportedly Lloyd's of London had them insured in seven figures.

So when part of the plot is Martha Raye winning a radio contest with a picture of her legs, it strains the credulity a lot. Of course the folks at Paramount obviously did not read into the future about Betty Grable's legs being her fortune.

Give Me a Sailor is one of the weaker of Bob Hope's early films. He was co-starred with Martha Raye a lot and note the billing where she's above him in the title and would be that way in all of their joint projects in the late Thirties.

Raye and Grable are sisters, Raye's the plain jane who's the good cook, but with apparently great legs. Grable's the beautiful sister whose gams never got noticed and she can't cook to save her life.

The sisters are being courted by two brothers, Bob Hope and Jack Whiting who are both in the Navy. Well at least both are after Betty with the other maybe doomed to settle for Martha. After a lot of crazy screwball antics which finds them at one point engaged to the wrong girl, all is right in the end. Guess who winds up with who though.

Jack Whiting made very few films, but he was a leading Broadway musical star and had the distinction of being Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s stepdad. Whiting married Anne Sully Fairbanks after her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was finalized. He has a long list of Broadway credits stretching almost 40 years. He had a pleasant enough singing voice, but as a film personality he was bland. Hope, Raye, and Grable just run all over him. I guess Hope needed to wait for Bing Crosby for a singer who could hold his own and more with him on screen.

Raye has some funny moments in the film, especially when she and Hope are stuck out in the woods together. She's the best one in the film by far.

Fans of Rapid Robert will like Give Me a Sailor as certainly will fans of Martha Raye and Betty Grable. If there are any Jack Whiting fans out there, this is one of the few places you'll see your man.

GIVE ME A SAILOR (Paramount, 1938), directed by Elliott Nugent, is a minor comedy with notable casting leads of Martha Raye, Bob Hope and Betty Grable. Based on an play by Anne Nichols, the plot sounds very much like a Cinderella story with Raye playing an ugly ducking competing with her attractive sister (Grable).

The slight plot finds sailor brothers, Jim (Bob Hope) and Walter Brewster (Jack Whiting) going on shore leave in San Francisco where Walter intends on proposing marriage to Nancy Larkin (Betty Grable), his childhood sweetheart, who's quite popular with the other fellas. It so happens that Jim wants to marry Nancy as well. For ten years Jim has plotted schemes with Nancy's unattractive sister, Letty (Martha Raye), by arranging her to marry Walter, whom she has loved since childhood. During the course of the story, Letty sneaks away to be alone with Walter in Paradise Valley by hiding in the trunk of his car, only to have her scheme backfire when Jim becomes the driver instead and ends up alone with him. Due to unexpected circumstances, Letty's accidental photographed legs were submitted by her cousin, Meryl (Emerson Treacy) to a contest that wins, turning Letty from homely household cook to a popular celebrity, much to the chagrin of Nancy, who finds Walter has changed his affections from her to Letty. As Jim's schemes to get Walter married to Letty, Letty begins to have second thoughts. Other members of the cast include: J.C. Nugent (Mr. Larkin); Clarence Kolb (Captain Tallant); Irving Bacon (The Film Processor); Eddie Kane, among others.

On the musical soundtrack by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, songs include: "The U.S.A. and You" (sung by sailors); "What Goes On Here in My Heart?" (sung by Betty Grable and Jack Whiting, followed by a slight dance); "A Little Kiss" (sung by Martha Raye); "A Little Kiss" (reprise by Raye); and "The U.S.A. and You" (instrumentally played by parade band). Though the songs are okay, they are mostly unmemorable and forgotten.

At first, GIVE ME A SAILOR starts off like a nautical musical in the tradition of BORN TO DANCE (MGM, 1936) with singing sailors on board ship. Once the sailor brothers (Hope and Whiting) go on shore leave to be with their gals, they spend much of the story in civilian clothes with little references about their ranks. With both Hope and Grable not major star attractions as of yet, it's most interesting seeing these two together in the same movie. Their previous film, COLLEGE SWING (1938), also with Raye, had the more apart than together. Yet, GIVE ME A SAILOR belongs very much to Martha Raye. Aside from her antics answering telephone calls for her sister, chasing Ethel May Brewster (Bonnie Jean Churchill), a bratty child, around the kitchen, getting her face trapped in a clay pack that hardens, and hiding under the bed to avoid scandal of being found inside the Inn bedroom alone with Jim (Hope), she also gets her very rare moments of sympathy when finding herself rejected, along with later becoming glamorous in fur coats, expensive clothes, jewelry and beauty parlor hairstyle. While Raye's character got much publicity about her legs here, it would be Betty Grable a few years later who would be known for having her "million dollar legs." As much as Raye would have more screen time with Hope than with other members in the cast, they have little opportunity together showing how funny they can be as a team. However, they did have better luck getting some belly laughs in their final film together of NEVER SAY DIE (1939).

Once broadcast regularly on the late show in the seventies before shifting to public television in the 1980s. GIVE ME A SAILOR has become available on both video and DVD formats in later years. One of its known cable television showings to GIVE ME A SAILOR has turned up on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: August 30, 2014). (*** Bells)

A fine example of screwball farce, SAILOR showcases the unique and variegated talents of irrepressible Martha Raye as one of a pair of Larkin sisters, each of whom is after one of a pair of U. S. Navy Brewster brothers, and the question soon arises as to which of the possible pairings will ensue. Paramount, developing a Bob Hope/Raye team, casts Hope in his third feature for the studio as Jim Brewster, with Jack Whiting as brother Walter, each angling for the glamourous one of the Larkins, Nancy (Betty Grable), a competition which began when all four were youngsters. Raye portrays Nancy's sister Letty, who has agreed to assist Jim in garnering her sister's affection in return for his aid in winning the heart of Walter who is ignorant of the machinations about him, none of which is terribly complex for what is, after all, a musical comedy. Raye performs one of the five Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin songs, as does Grable (with Whiting), but it is Letty's gorgeous legs that win for her first prize in a national photo contest, ironic in light of Grable's pinup popularity, due to her own shapely stems, with American fighting men during World War II. Walter eventually notices Letty because of her new celebrity status, and the usually rather rambunctious singing comedienne has an opportunity to show him why he is mistaken in preferring her sister. Of the three films which Raye and Grable made together, this is perhaps the most blithe, and a scene wherein Letty uses overmuch facial masking which hardens to her deliciously acted consternation, draws gales of laughter wherever the picture is shown. Although we find Hope playing second lead to Raye, he plays his part with his normal aplomb and his comedic timing is impeccable as always, although his ad libbing is minimal. Leroy Prinz is responsible for the interesting choreography, and a splendid novelty scene has Grable singing "What Goes On Here In My Heart" while dancing with a collection of eager-to-please partners. Clarence Kolb, as the commanding officer of the Brewsters, is impressive as ever, and Director Elliott Nugent is able to call upon his father J.C. to perform as the Larkins' sire. Consistent with the director's customary panache and rapid pacing, SAILOR offers many treats, musical and otherwise, with the important editing function neatly handled by the generally overlooked William Shea.

Jim (Bob Hope) and Walter (Jack Whiting) are two brother sailors in the United States Navy. Walter plans to marry Nancy Larkin (Betty Grable) as soon as they get home, a problem since Jim is also in love with Nancy. So Jim hatches a plan with Nancy's more "low key" sister, Letty (Raye) to help break Walter and Nancy up. Letty agrees, only under one condition, he help her to win Walter!

And so it unfolds, a series of scattergun dialogue and scenes as Hope and Raye get into all sorts of scrapes whilst trying to alter the trajectory of Cupid's arrow. There's no prizes for guessing where that arrow will land, but in the main there's decent comedy and good comedy performances to take the picture into safe waters. An early picture for Hope, one just before he would make it big and entertain the masses with some distinction, it's actually Raye who owns the picture (she is top billed after all). Raye and Hope were paired together a number of times, their chemistry is set in stone, they worked well as a duo and played off of each other with enjoyable aplomb. As with some other screwball movies, this one comes close to overdoing it, not letting the comedy flow naturally, given over to histrionics instead of genuine character interactions. But it never sinks below average, has some truly funny scenes (Raye trying to hide under a mattress is a great moment) and the outcome puts the smile firmly on the face. 6.5/10