Robert Young lacked the charisma and looks of a Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power, etc.. Thus, he was usually relegated to starring in "B" films or supporting roles in "A" films(as in "Northwest Passage"). He generally made a good fatherly type character, but is hardly believable as a Brando/Presley-type heartthrob that he plays in this film. The role would seem perfect for Cary Grant to develop as one of his premier screwball comedies. But, I guess he was too busy at this time making "Bringing Up Baby" A Grant screwball comedy blended with Eleanor Powell's dancing and sunny personality and Gracie Allen's vaudevillian talents would seem a sure fire hit.
People pretending to be other people or looking like identical twins of others is sort of a running gag in this film. Most importantly, we have Young playing two look alike men : one(Brooks Mason) a heartthrob movie star, the other(George Smith) a colorless, if wealthy, Hawaiian pineapple grower, who agree to switch identities for a spell to escape their usual selves, rather like "The Prince and the Pauper" Of course, they don't anticipate all the embarrassing situations that this will give rise to. Then, we have the masquerade ball on the ship carrying Young, Powell and her daffy friend, played by Gracie Allen, to Hawaii. First, we have a Bing Crosby mimic crooning one of his songs. Gracie is initially dressed in an over the top period outfit , with huge ornate hat, presumably in imitation of Mae West or perhaps Lillian Russell. Young abandons the podium after masquerading as the long-haired orchestra conductor. After ditching her hat, Gracie then begins a song and dance to "The Leader Doesn't Like Music", accompanied by impersonators of the Marx Brothers(with a second Groucho filling for the bland Zeppo). This comes across as a typical eccentric Marx-type musical production. We then glimpse people made up as W.C.Fields, Frank Morgan, Oliver Hardy, etc., before Eleanor arrives in black face to do her impersonation of Bill(Bojangles) Robinson, dancing on some improvised stairs. Robinson had been one of her dance instructors. While not technically demanding, her impersonation is remarkably on target. Somehow, she looks taller than normal, like Robinson. This belies the occasional reviewer comment that she was a poor actress. Her impersonation of an imaginary French actress in Broadway Melody of 1936" was also great. Yes, she could have been an excellent dramatic actress, but her extraordinary dancing talent got in the way! The final instance of look alikes involves Gracie, but I won't detail.
Eleanor's semi-hula performance near the end of the film generally draws the most comments. However, it was hardly her most technically challenging dancing, even in this film. Her jump rope routine on the ship qualifies for that distinction. Ever try to tap dance or do spins while jumping rope?! Her hula performance is divided into 3 segments. The first is a fast barefoot semi hula, the second a slow barefoot traditional hula, and the third is a fast tap dance-spin-hula combo with tap shoes.
Periodically, Gracie would tell one of her inane stories or comments: a trademark of her vaudevillian persona, and something shared with Jimmy Durante. Modern audiences(including me)will mostly just groan. In contrast to Gracie, husband George Burns appears only sporadically, as Young's assistant in CA and NYC. He doesn't meet Gracie until the end, but dominates the final scene in the film. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is seen only in the first portion, as Young's servant. Unfortunately, he exhibits the then Hollywood stereotype of African Americans as dim-witted, lazy, and superstitious. Willi Fung serves as his counterpart in Hawaii and had a bigger role in the film, making suggestions to Young on how to get out of various sticky situations. Willie was a native Cantonese with a Hollywood career that spanned over 20 years and 125 films, until his early death. If Hollywood needed a Chinese servant, cook, launderer or devil, they called on Willie. As demonstrated in this film, he developed some comedic talent during his later talkie career.
On the whole, I enjoyed this modern version of "The Prince and the Pauper".If Cary Grant had starred in it, I probably would have given it a 10 rating. You get to see 3 specialized dances by Eleanor that you won't see in her other films. The story starts off a bit slow, but gradually gains momentum. Like the prince, Brooks Mason and George Smith discovered that it was more difficult than they imagined to recover their real identities. Just 2 years before, Warner Brothers had made an Errol Flynn-starring film adaptation of Mark Twain's classic tale.
People pretending to be other people or looking like identical twins of others is sort of a running gag in this film. Most importantly, we have Young playing two look alike men : one(Brooks Mason) a heartthrob movie star, the other(George Smith) a colorless, if wealthy, Hawaiian pineapple grower, who agree to switch identities for a spell to escape their usual selves, rather like "The Prince and the Pauper" Of course, they don't anticipate all the embarrassing situations that this will give rise to. Then, we have the masquerade ball on the ship carrying Young, Powell and her daffy friend, played by Gracie Allen, to Hawaii. First, we have a Bing Crosby mimic crooning one of his songs. Gracie is initially dressed in an over the top period outfit , with huge ornate hat, presumably in imitation of Mae West or perhaps Lillian Russell. Young abandons the podium after masquerading as the long-haired orchestra conductor. After ditching her hat, Gracie then begins a song and dance to "The Leader Doesn't Like Music", accompanied by impersonators of the Marx Brothers(with a second Groucho filling for the bland Zeppo). This comes across as a typical eccentric Marx-type musical production. We then glimpse people made up as W.C.Fields, Frank Morgan, Oliver Hardy, etc., before Eleanor arrives in black face to do her impersonation of Bill(Bojangles) Robinson, dancing on some improvised stairs. Robinson had been one of her dance instructors. While not technically demanding, her impersonation is remarkably on target. Somehow, she looks taller than normal, like Robinson. This belies the occasional reviewer comment that she was a poor actress. Her impersonation of an imaginary French actress in Broadway Melody of 1936" was also great. Yes, she could have been an excellent dramatic actress, but her extraordinary dancing talent got in the way! The final instance of look alikes involves Gracie, but I won't detail.
Eleanor's semi-hula performance near the end of the film generally draws the most comments. However, it was hardly her most technically challenging dancing, even in this film. Her jump rope routine on the ship qualifies for that distinction. Ever try to tap dance or do spins while jumping rope?! Her hula performance is divided into 3 segments. The first is a fast barefoot semi hula, the second a slow barefoot traditional hula, and the third is a fast tap dance-spin-hula combo with tap shoes.
Periodically, Gracie would tell one of her inane stories or comments: a trademark of her vaudevillian persona, and something shared with Jimmy Durante. Modern audiences(including me)will mostly just groan. In contrast to Gracie, husband George Burns appears only sporadically, as Young's assistant in CA and NYC. He doesn't meet Gracie until the end, but dominates the final scene in the film. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is seen only in the first portion, as Young's servant. Unfortunately, he exhibits the then Hollywood stereotype of African Americans as dim-witted, lazy, and superstitious. Willi Fung serves as his counterpart in Hawaii and had a bigger role in the film, making suggestions to Young on how to get out of various sticky situations. Willie was a native Cantonese with a Hollywood career that spanned over 20 years and 125 films, until his early death. If Hollywood needed a Chinese servant, cook, launderer or devil, they called on Willie. As demonstrated in this film, he developed some comedic talent during his later talkie career.
On the whole, I enjoyed this modern version of "The Prince and the Pauper".If Cary Grant had starred in it, I probably would have given it a 10 rating. You get to see 3 specialized dances by Eleanor that you won't see in her other films. The story starts off a bit slow, but gradually gains momentum. Like the prince, Brooks Mason and George Smith discovered that it was more difficult than they imagined to recover their real identities. Just 2 years before, Warner Brothers had made an Errol Flynn-starring film adaptation of Mark Twain's classic tale.