511 - In the Navy, United States, 1941. Dir. Arthur Lubin.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

511 - In the Navy, United States, 1941.  Dir. Arthur Lubin.

Dick Powell was a song-and-dance man in the movies going back to 1932.  He worked a lot.

Here is a list of the musicals in which he starred in a 12-year period.  He sings and dances in each of them.  Look at how many movies he would make in a given year.

Blessed Event (1932), 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), Wonder Bar (1934), Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934), Dames (1934), Happiness Ahead (1934), Flirtation Walk (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Broadway Gondolier (1935), Shipmates Forever (1935), A Midsummer Night's Dream (musical) (1935), Thanks a Million (1935), Colleen (1936), Hearts Divided (1936), Stage Struck (1936), Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), On the Avenue (1937), The Singing Marine (1937), Varsity Show (1937), Hollywood Hotel (1937), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), Hard to Get (1938), Going Places (1938), Naughty but Nice (1939), Christmas in July (1940), In the Navy (1941), Star-Spangled Rhythm (1942), Happy Go Lucky (1943), Riding High (1943), True to Life (1943), Meet the People (1944).

In 1944 he shifted gears and spent the next ten years as a dramatic actor and the next five as a director before passing away early in 1963 at age 58.  During the mid-to-late-40s he starred in eight film-noir crime dramas, and for my money he was out of his league, yet several of them still became classics in the genre.  Check out my blog of the film Ride the Pink Horse (1947) for a discussion of his (Murder, My Sweet (1944)) and Robert Montgomery's performances as Philip Marlowe, as well as a list, at the end, of actors who have played Philip Marlowe.

Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/11/329-ride-pink-horse-united-states-1947.html

Dick Powell begins this movie as America's favorite crooner, Russ Raymond.  He sings live on the radio; the radio hall is filled with adoring women in the audience; and the fans storm him when he attempts to exit the back door after the show.

It is time for him to join the Navy, so what does he do?  He disappears.

Russ Raymond is the stage name for Thomas Halstead.  That is Tommy to you.

Tommy Halstead gives up a $100,000-a-year celebrity income to become a $21-a month sailor.

Because he loves his country.

And wants to serve.

Attitudes were different in 1941.

Meanwhile, Smokey Adams and Pomeroy Watson have joined the Navy.  They are dumped off by a dump truck.  They cause a traffic jam trying to jaywalk.  Pomeroy gets a ticket from the officer.

"My first ticket, and I wasn't even driving a car."

Dorothy Roberts is a rising journalist.  And she is on to Tommy Halstead.  Somehow she knows he is Russ Raymond.  And throughout the film she finds ways to sneak into his hotel and on to his naval base to take secret pictures of him to break the story.  Her boss, the editor, wants the scope.  It is worth at least $100,000 to his newspaper if she gets it.  A celebrity's annual salary in one story.

Dorothy is resourceful.  She keeps a string attached to the shutter-release button in order to depress it from a distance.  She has a camera built into her purse and a camera built into her shoe.  She dresses as a sailor and stows away aboard the battleship.

The U.S.S. Alabama.

En voyage to Hawaii.

Pomeroy finds her and stows her.  He finds her to be a cute tomato.  He stows her with the potatoes in the potato locker.

A tomato in the potato locker.

But Halstead finds her and exposes her.  And exposes her film in another locker.  In Davy Jones's locker.

The Andrews Sisters are aboard.  And Pomeroy (the short, squat Bud Costello) tries to woo Patty Andrews.  He writes her letters describing his tall, slim physique.  Then she meets him.

Shemp Howard (Moe and Curly's brother from The Three Stooges) plays Dizzy the Chef.  He also played the chef in yesterday's military movie, Buck Privates (1940).

The Alabama makes it to Hawaii, but will Halstead make it without Dorothy getting his picture?  And will Pomeroy ever make it with Patty?

In the Navy picks up where Buck Privates leaves off, promoting patriotism in the dawn of the War, while mingling site gags, slapstick, wordplay, romance, song, and dance.

Who knew sailors wore tap shoes?

They do here.

And they all know all the routines.