Navy Blues

After the success of the silent film SPEEDWAY in 1929, William Haines made his starring talkie debut in NAVY BLUES with Anita Page, who was fresh from her success in THE Broadway MELODY.

Haines plays a sailor on leave on who Page at a local dance. They have a whirlwind romance but his brash personality alienates her family and she is thrown out of the house. Haines takes her to a boarding house; she expects him to marry her but he abandons her and goes back to sea. After a few months he gets leave and goes looking for her, knowing he made a huge mistake. She's working as a dance hall girl (read prostitute), but he finds her and rescues her. Happy ending.

Haines is terrific here, a natural comic with his silly-billy antics. He loses none of his charm transferring from silents to talkies. And when the moment calls for dramatics, he's ready. Haines was a huge star in his day and NAVY BLUES was a solid hit for him.

Co-stars include Karl Dane in one of his best talkies roles, Edythe Chapman, J.C. Nugent, Jack Pennick, Wade Boteler, and Richard Tucker.

On shore leave, sailor William Haines (as Jack Kelly) meets pretty blonde Anita Page (as Alice Brown) at a dance. The pair fall in love, but her possessive parents consider Mr. Haines to be "a common, ordinary sailor," and throw Ms. Page out in the streets. With reluctant help from pal Karl Dane (as Sven "Swede" Swanson), Haines tries to straighten out his irresponsible life, and settle down with Page. This was the first "talkie" for box office star Haines, who helped keep the sound of cash registers ringing for MGM.

In hindsight, "Navy Blues" is an average Haines formula film. It was also the first time many filmgoers heard Mr. Dane, a popular supporting actor who had less of a Swedish accent than he had in silent films ("Yumping Yimminey!). The men had just released another film with Page ("Speedway"), who was considered one of the biggest new stars of the year. It is fun to watch how much attention Haines pays to Page's pretty legs in this film - his inability to keep his hands to himself undoubtedly appealed to many.

***** Navy Blues (12/13/29) Clarence Brown ~ William Haines, Anita Page, Karl Dane, Edythe Chapman

A silly, irresponsible sailor gives his new girlfriend a bad case of the NAVY BLUES when he loves her & leaves her, instead of offering marriage.

Carrying on the Silly Billy antics he perfected in silent pictures, William Haines made his talkie feature debut in this piece of cinematic fluff, released 5 days before Christmas, 1929. He would play variations of this character throughout the rest of his screen career. Just as important, in NAVY BLUES he showed himself well capable of being a talkie star. Although he acts like a complete cad, he does so with a certain amount of boyish charm, and that's what made money for the studios. And the very next year, 1930, Haines would be Hollywood's male box office champ.

The plot doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. Haines' wild & flamboyant behavior, quite frankly, would make him a good candidate for a 'don't ask - don't tell' policy, and a frequent inhabitant of the brig. His eventual rehabilitation seems suspiciously superficial. Anita Page, as his disappointed sweetheart, seems a bit too easily pushed into prostitution. Karl Dane, as a hulking Swede seaman, is given little to do except act exceedingly simple-minded.

Still, in the final accounting this is William Haines' film, and although his character is slightly repellent, Haines is never less than amusing.

As a happy-go-lucky sailor who woos, leaves, and returns to sweet, low-class Anita Page, William Haines plays what he always plays, and it hasn't worn well. What may have been charming and cheeky in 1929 now comes across as self-centered and smug, with Haines' character making unfunny jokes, hitting up his Navy pal (the equally unwatchable Karl Dane) for loans he doesn't intend to pay back, avoiding responsibility, and playing a love'-em-and-leave-'em cad. Despite what we now know about Haines, he's a convincing ladies' man--just not very appealing. Clarence Brown directs with a more mobile camera than most 1929 talkies boasted, and the Navy footage is interesting historically. And Page, with an emotional scene or two, acquits herself nicely. But all these characters just seem kind of simpleminded, and we're not particularly rooting for these two to end up together, whatever the screenplay is telling us.

The writers were now starting to see how far they could stretch the censorship rules. Besides a few saucy jokes, the plot itself is quite racy although on closer examination it highlights what a horribly sexist society we used to be part of.

The plot - a loud and obnoxious sailor forcing his sexual attention on a pretty but naïve girl feels quite uncomfortable to watch these days. If today you personally saw his first encounter with Anita Page you would call the police. Breaking into a house then grabbing and kissing a frightened and unconsenting teenage girl isn't really considered a sweet way of romancing someone...but in 1929 it clearly was quite alright!

MGM waited until the other studios had ironed out the teething troubles associated with changing from silent to sound. This exhibits none of those infamous issues with early talkies. It's not one of those awful things where people just stand still on a set and slowly read their lines. No, this looks good, it sounds good and it's acted fairly naturally. It's full of action, sweeping overhead shots and very authentic sounding script. If you didn't know, you'd guess this was made many years later.

There's no attempt however to disguise the differences in acting abilities. Mr Haines is actually a good actor. He's got that charisma and naturalness that can turn his unsavoury character into a genuine, believable almost likeable person. Unfortunately his scenes with Anita Page highlight how stagey, stilted and static her performance was. Unlike in her first talkie, she's inexplicably bad in this. In 1929 however that she was so utterly unconvincing didn't seem to matter. The actors had roles to fulfil and they all did what was required: Haines was doing the acting, Anita was simply doing what was expected of her in 1929 - looking like a gorgeous Hollywood star. Also, being made in dear old 1929, Miss Page gives us the obligatory striptease - but only down to respectable, sensible MGM-friendly undies not the saucy, skimpy types you get in Warner Brothers pictures!)

This was a real surprise - a pleasant surprise. It gives a fabulous insight into how we thought nearly a hundred years ago and is also a genuinely enjoyable, well written story that you can engage with. Definitely worth a watch if you like films from this period.

Two interesting observations: - 1. What a very antiquated alternative to having a zip in men's trousers the US Navy had.

2. Swedes, for some reason were considered comical and needed to be made fun of.