1h 33min | Musical, Romance | 24 January 1942
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Stars: Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Eddie Bracken
Jack Donohue ... dances stager
Watched online, good print for small screen.
In the Tap! Appendix for Cass Daley, Betty Hutton, but I didn't notice any tapping. And since this was online, the tiny little preview window doesn't help me locate a small (single/duo) dance number, and no ffwd. I also didn't notice anything needing a dances stager; only the annoying comic duo named below.
William Holden is too handsome to be cast as a shy sailor, unless he's actually not interested in women, if you get my meaning. The back-and-forth of the DL/WH plot, especially with EB & BH as the loud, over-active "friends", was tedious at best.
DL plays the aloof singer, and BH is her man-hungry roommate, who also performs at the nightclub. So does Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra, with Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell on vocals. We get a comic dance specialty from Lorraine and Rognan, and comic singing from Cass Daley. Both Lorraine and Daley made me squint to see if each was actually Martha Raye.
This is Schertzinger's last film (death by heart attack 26 Oct '41), and the launch pad of his 2 most popular songs (he composed the music): Tangerine and I Remember You. IRY was introduced by DL in a calm, sentimental way, but then was used instrumentally as the background for L&R's comic dance; maybe I would've like them better if the music leaned into the comedy. These are beautiful tunes, and similar enough to suggest their common author.
Very strange to see sailors in a comedy only 7 weeks after Pearl Harbor. One song, praising the Navy, says the feds should go ahead and raise taxes some more, and "charge it to production", whatever that means (no useful Google hits for that phrase).
Paramount, dir. Schertzinger; 6
