Sea Racketeers

The Coast Guard standards must have been mighty low to allow Weldon Heyburn and Warren Hymer to enlist. Back in the day it was known as an exclusive outfit, but you could never tell with these two.

These two when they're not chasing women and making fools of themselves are on a case involving smuggling. J. Carrol Naish who operates a gambling boat has a nice sideline in smuggling. Jeanne Madden's dad who is also in the Coast Guard is killed and she is doing her own investigation looking into her father's death. As Naish has a nightclub on board she joins the showgirls one of whom is future Blondie, Penny Singleton.

It's Madden and Singleton who the two Beavis and Butthead wannabes fight over. Their antics do make Sea Racketeers somewhat amusing.

Jeanne Madden gets a job singing on J. Carroll Naish'sgambling ship. It gradually becomes clear that he has a profitable sideline in smuggling.

Sometimes I worry that I've trained myself to see the infelicities in great movies and the small redeeming points in bad movies. Writing as many reviews as I do, straining to find something interesting to say, must distort my take on them. I write this because with Hamilton McFadden as director and the sort of plot that had already been done a hundred times, how good could this be?

Yet Republic Studios was very ambitious in this period, and I enjoyed this movie; not just for the couple of good songs Miss Madden sings, but because the cast is a very good one, and they each of them get to shine for a brief period. There's Warren Hymer and Penny Singleton, Joyce Compton -- she's a favorite of mine -- Bryant Washburn, Christine McIntyre, Dewey Robinson, and Asta the Dog from the Thin Man series (here credited properly as 'Skippy').

This movie won no awards, nor did it deserve to. But there were enough good moments to please me.

"Sea Racketeers" is a very low-budget and silly B-movie from Republic Studios. Considering that it stars Weldon Heyburn and Warren Hymer, you can tell it's not exactly an A picture! The stars are seamen with the US Coast Guard and part of the plot involves their efforts to stop smugglers from sneaking stolen furs into the country. Another involves the guy's dating lives--with Jim romancing a dancing girl as well as a young lady who refers to him as 'Uncle' (now THAT'S weird). The main action consists of the men chasing mobsters on the sea as well as fighting over 'dames'--with lots of singing and dancing tossed in for good measure. Unfortunately, none of it (especially the silly dance numbers*) are particularly good and it's obvious that even for a Republic film, this one is pretty clichéd and silly. It's not exactly terrible...but it sure is close. Bad writing, bad dialog, poor acting and very poor singing don't help.

*The dancing is just stupid. At five minutes into the film, one of the leading ladies dances about with all the grace of a bear on quaaludes. Later, there is an amazingly silly number involving women in swim suits wearing fur coats and cavorting about in the snow--all staged on a ship!

Penny Singleton stole this, and she was billed under her birth name of Dorothy McNulty. The script makes references to her legs, and in fact she was one of the prime singer-dancer performers, not just in movies but all aspects of show business.

In fact, she was eventually president of the American Guild of Variety Artists, and was the first woman president of an AFL-CIO union, leading a strike of Rockettes in 1966.

But she was so eminently watchable, even with this very minor script, very capable as performer, and just delightful to look at and listen to. Later she was the title character when Chic Young's comic strip "Blondie" was turned into a motion picture series.

In my opinion, Syd Saylor was the number two thief. He so often was cast as an at least somewhat bumbling character that seeing him here as such a strong and confident character, even though one of the villains, showed him in a new light. He stole almost every scene he was in with a great performance.

J. Carroll Naish was one of the most talented actors in Hollywood history, being able to play just about every type of role, and almost every nationality, even, as here, a United Statesian.

The two alleged heroes have pretty poor parts, though they do their best. Warren Hymer seldom got the chance to be a leading man but he showed he could do it, even with this script.

Second-billed Jeanne Madden was an excellent singer, and performed more often as a singer than actress, having only three credits listed at IMDb. Probably, with that beautiful smile, she could have done more, but now we'll never know.

Well, it lasts just an hour, and if you don't expect too much, it's a nice hour.

There is also a lesson, since the "crime" is about smuggling: Governments are quite concerned about taxing every possible item, including food. So much of what is called "crime" is really nothing but an effort by someone to keep his own money. Yet the Coast Guard here, and in real life, risks the lives of often innocent people as well as of the sailors themselves, just for government revenue.

But, again, it's a nice hour and there is a fair copy of "Sea Racketeers" at YouTube.