Mademoiselle général

Flirtation Walk was an okay film. It is about a private stationed in Hawaii who gets involved with the general's daughter. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler gave fairly decent performances, but the screenplay is a little slow in places. I thought frank Borzage did an alright job directing this movie. This film back in 1934 was a big hit, mostly because of the popularity at the time of Powell & Keeler, but it's pretty predictable by today's standards. Overall, it has some very nice musical performances, and the photography was well shot, which is reflected by the film being nominated for two academy awards, one for sound and one for best picture. I wouldn't watch it again, and would only recommend to those who favor musicals and romances.

With hindsight,"flirtation walk" appears as a blueprint for "shipmates forever"(and even ,so to speak for "Blue Hawai" in which Elvis played a discharged soldier mind you).Like the 1935 (shall we say "sequel"?)work,it features the same actors and it's the most distressingly mediocre movie by one of the greatest directors of the era."Flirtation walk " pales into insignificance when compared to "no greater glory" "little man what now?" "three comrades" "mortal storm" "young America" "stranded" "big city" .....and I don't even mention the masterpieces of the silent era !Borzage epitomized greatness ,and perhaps are we too demanding ?There is a good idea,the play a la "Hamlet" or how to get a message of love through.

However,Borzage 's touch is nowhere to be seen in this umpteenth version of "I shall become an officer and a gentleman".If you want to see a good patriotic movie by Borzage,do choose " stage door canteen" in which the characters are made of flesh and blood.

Flirtation Walk is a 1934 musical starring Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ross Alexander, Pat O'Brien, John Eldredge, and Henry O'Neill.

Powell plays Dick Darcy, a private stationed in Hawaii. He meets the general's daughter Kit (Keeler). The two fall for one another, but she's engaged to another (Eldredge). They break up.

A few years later, they meet again, this time at West Point. Kit is still engaged, but very happy to see Dick. Feeling used by her, Dick rebuffs her and hurts her feelings.

Dick has to write and appear the annual show, and the other cadets want Kit to play the lead. Dick refuses as women are not allowed, but the cadets appeal to her father, who gives the okay.

I love Dick Powell. I'm not such a fan of Ruby Keeler, who was certainly very pretty and did some good films with Powell. I did not find this a scintillating musical. The music was dull, and the story was flat.

I actually watched this to see if I could do what no one else has been able to - find Tyrone Power, who was a cadet in this film.

The only reason he is listed on IMDb is that he became famous as he was not a featured cadet. He was an extra, probably answering a call for young men to be extras at West Point. He cannot be spotted.

By the way, he and Linda Christian lived directly across the street from Dick Powell and June Allyson on Copa D'Oro in LA.

Dick Powell had such a beautiful voice, but it wasn't used a lot or to great advantage here. In short, this can't hold a candle to "42nd Street" or "Dames," or other musicals of the era.

It's just not worth the hour and a half you have to give up to see this movie. The two leads fall predictably in love within the first 15 minutes and, for reasons unclear, decide to pretend not to love each other until the last 10 minutes.

Not excruciatingly bad, but nowhere near good. Just kinda ambles across the screen and bores everyone in its path. I'm pretty sure it's a comedy, but don't hold me to that.

Flirtation Walk (Frank Borzage, 1934) is an entertaining if disjointed salute to the West Point military academy that flits from romantic comedy to putting-on-a-show musical to sentimental drama. Dick Powell is a happy-go-lucky private who joins officer training when he thinks he's lost the girl he loves (Ruby Keeler). Though the film doesn't really gel, there are some great sequences: Powell and Keeler falling in love in hazily-romantic Hawaii, his speedy rendition of Mr & Mrs Is the Name and the penultimate scene: an emotional encounter between the forlorn Powell and gruff, good-hearted sergeant Scrapper (Pat O'Brien). The rest is comprised of broad comedy, petty squabbling and lots of enthusiastically-choreographed marching. It's a wonder any young girls continued to idolise Powell after seeing him manufacture a quadruple-chin here - then maintain it through an entire montage. Incidentally, the curious, antiquated title comes from a romantic pathway in the film, which has a legend attached.