This is a rather typical romantic, musical comedy with a good number of Paramount's stars, established or on the ascend -- Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, William Holden. The plot barely merits description, a bit of froth like those of the Astaire-Rogers musicals.
Okay. The fleet arrives in San Francisco. Bets are made on whether a shy Quartermaster, Holden, can get the notorious Ice Princess who sings at Swingland, Lamour, to kiss him. Arrangements are made for them to meet and they fall in love, but every time Holden tries to take the relationship a step farther, somebody tells her more about the details of the bet and she misunderstands Holden's intentions.
Holden is boyishly handsome. Lamour is a glamorous and sexy mezzo-soprano. Betty Hutton is on afterburners throughout and provides much in the way of barbaric humor, but not nearly as silly as some of the vaudeville numbers we witness. Maybe the most amusing performance comes from the ordinarily irritable and fustian Leif Erickson trying to be happy-go-lucky. Every time he laughs and make a wisecrack I expect him to shatter and fall to the floor like a broken ice sculpture.
What raises this musical effort above the average is the introduction of two tunes that were to enter the Great American Songbook, both with tunes written by the director and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. "Tangerine" is memorable as a puncturing of female vanity. "I Remember You" is a wistful love song that reappears from time to time. Mercer was a talented guy with a face that, with only a few daubs of make up, could easily have been turned into a clown's. Memorable tunes seem to turn up in unlikely venues. "I'll Remember April" is from an Abbott and Costello movie, "Star Eyes" from a Red Skelton comedy.
I didn't find the plot so enthralling but, as with Astaire and Rogers, it must be taken lightly, I guess. Just let your mind drift. It's only a movie.
Okay. The fleet arrives in San Francisco. Bets are made on whether a shy Quartermaster, Holden, can get the notorious Ice Princess who sings at Swingland, Lamour, to kiss him. Arrangements are made for them to meet and they fall in love, but every time Holden tries to take the relationship a step farther, somebody tells her more about the details of the bet and she misunderstands Holden's intentions.
Holden is boyishly handsome. Lamour is a glamorous and sexy mezzo-soprano. Betty Hutton is on afterburners throughout and provides much in the way of barbaric humor, but not nearly as silly as some of the vaudeville numbers we witness. Maybe the most amusing performance comes from the ordinarily irritable and fustian Leif Erickson trying to be happy-go-lucky. Every time he laughs and make a wisecrack I expect him to shatter and fall to the floor like a broken ice sculpture.
What raises this musical effort above the average is the introduction of two tunes that were to enter the Great American Songbook, both with tunes written by the director and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. "Tangerine" is memorable as a puncturing of female vanity. "I Remember You" is a wistful love song that reappears from time to time. Mercer was a talented guy with a face that, with only a few daubs of make up, could easily have been turned into a clown's. Memorable tunes seem to turn up in unlikely venues. "I'll Remember April" is from an Abbott and Costello movie, "Star Eyes" from a Red Skelton comedy.
I didn't find the plot so enthralling but, as with Astaire and Rogers, it must be taken lightly, I guess. Just let your mind drift. It's only a movie.