Marinai a terra

All Ashore is this light musical from Columbia Pictures that I think was made to give Catalina Island tourism a big push. I wouldn't be surprised if Harry Cohn didn't have some business interests there.

The male leads were two guys on the downward slope of their careers, Dick Haymes and Ray McDonald, and Mickey Rooney who was trying to transition to adult star and shed his Andy Hardy image. The female leads are Barbara Bates, Jody Laurence, and in her final film Peggy Ryan.

The sailors on leave musical is something that has been done and redone into several incarnations. Off the top of my head I can think of such films as Follow the Fleet, Hit the Deck, Anchors Aweigh, and On the Town, all of which are better than All Ashore. Then again these musicals had scores written by such folks as Vincent Youmans, Irving Berlin, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, and Leonard Bernstein. The score here by Fred Karger and Robert Wells is singularly unmemorable.

The performers all have done better material themselves. Mickey Rooney had a role written for him that made him like Lou Costello constantly being taken advantage of by a pair of Abbotts in McDonald and Haymes. What was great for Costello doesn't quite work for the Mick.

All Ashore is all right, but hardly a nautical treasure.

All Ashore! Love Peggy Ryan & Ray McDonald! What a fantastic dance team! The Best! I could cut out their scenes and watch them dance over and over again! I bought a 16mm print of this picture a few years ago, because they were in it! The other thing I loved about this picture is when Dick Haymes sings to Jody Lawrance "Who Are We To Say" what a beautiful ballad! I grew up in the 1960's and 70's listening to big band 78rpm records so I am a little bias because while my contemporaries all listened to the rock 'n roll trash like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, I only loved classical and jazz! To this day I think popular recorded music after 1960 all sucks! Back to the flick! OKAY Mickey Rooney is a very annoying human! He was talented for sure, but he was a right wing wack job who thought Bill Clinton was a Marxist? Give me a break Mick he signed NAFTA and GATT along with Rooney's Republican buddies which helped to destroy the American work force! Barbara Bates was a doll! Too bad she had to go and knock herself off! Jody Lawrance was another cute chick who also died too young! And who don't love Jean Willes, loved her in the Three Stooges shorts! The dream sequence "I Lay Down My Arms" was stupid, but boy oh boy didn't Barbara Bates look hot! Some of the music was dumb! But I have forgiven Columbia Pictures! Oh yea the scenes of Catalina! WOW! When adults ruled the world, not a bunch of dumb teenage idiots! So because I hate the world now, and all of the crummy trash for movies since the 1970's, I give this picture ten stars, who cares if it's not that good, it's way better than pictures now! Oh, I think I left my Covid-19 mask down stairs! Damn it!

When I was a kid in bombed out London in the '50's I went to the local picture house to get away from the wreckage of not only the bomb-sites, but also my rowing drunken parents. This movie got me away - double. Loved the three guys, especially a scene in a bar where one of the sailors dances with a girl. It was magic. Also Micky Rooney sitting on a swing and singing a song. He was lonely and feeling a mug. That's just the way I felt at that time. Not a mug, I was 12 and no kid is a mug. You got to be 21 - at least. But I was loney and I associated with these 3 guys. Since, I have danced and known beautiful girls. I would like to find this film again. Yet it has never been played on TV. Perhaps it is lost, crumbled in some archive and never to be returned to our life again. Pity. Great little musical.

This 50's musical is not on video and so is very hard to find. You'll have to search the schedules of AMC or TCM to try to locate it. Starring mellow, unassuming Dick Haymes, this film is surprisingly tuneful (original music by Morris Stoloff). Okay, the story is the hardly-original story of 3 gobs on leave, but you get the beautiful backdrop of Catalina, rather than over-used New York. Blake Edwards has a writing credit.

This is the second Columbia service comedy produced by the combined efforts of Richard Quine, Blake Edwards and Mickey Rooney. In their first service comedy, "Sound Off", Rooney is his familiar cocky self, but is somewhat restrained. This time around, Rooney is made the patsy, having Dick Haymes and Ray McDonald as his con artist buddies. Sailor films featuring three sailors became the rage with the success on "On the Town", both on Broadway and on the screen. But there is no point in having three sailors here. The only difference between the Haymes and McDonald characters is that Haymes is a singer (his dancing is laughable) and McDonald is a dancer (who can carry a melody). Their characters have no depth or likability. Rooney's character is sympathetic and well written, but it's not for Rooney. He's out of his element. Usually, Rooney is the confident con man who has to defeat the obstacles. This would have been better played by Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Donald O'Connor or even Arnold Stang. As always, Rooney handles the physical comedy beautifully, and he is permitted to overact. Quine's direction of Rooney is an improvement over "Sound Off". The writing by Qunie and Edwards is also an improvement, with broader situations. Fred Karger's songs are pleasant and an improvement over the songs in "Sound Off". However, the script and the direction kill off a great pay-off gag to end the film. I saw it coming, Quine hints at it, but then softens the finish. Had they continued to work together, the Quine-Edwards-Rooney team might have come up with some comic winners. They all have the skills and their two films have much potential. The first film misses the mark, but this one has much more going for it, with the exception of Rooney's characterization.