It's World War II Honolulu and good time girl Jane Russell has just arrived there after being kicked out by the vice squad from San Francisco. So you know she's not there to learn how to do the hula unless it means getting a large bank account to go with it. Russell fills out the screen once again in glorious Technicolor and cinemascope, playing a character who find true love with an army officer (Richard Egan) what can't resist the profits that come with an increased revenue at Agnes Moorehead's not quite so clean canteen. Egan even gives up good girl Joan Leslie for him and when he leaves for military duty it is with the promise that she will be faithful while waiting for him. but as Morehead realizes how invaluable Russell is, she increases Russell's profits to basically where Morehead isn't getting any profit from Russell's presence.
This had the potential to knock em' all out of the park with its innuendos that could not pass the censorship. Of course the book on which this was based was a lot more racy, and Russell really isn't shown doing anything outside of the ordinary flirtation and performing a seductive musical number.
Russell of course is the majority of the whole show, but Egan is a handsome and graceful leading man. Leslie is wasted in a superficial role and other than a few good scenes, Moorehead doesn't really have anything juicy to do outside of her firing strict assistant Michael Pate who attempts to dominate all of the girls, especially Russell who cannot be controlled. An uncomfortable moment for Morehead occurs when she stops page from telling her how ugly she is, rich in the. Of just a moment says a lot more about Moorehead's character than the script allows her to show. She is of course commanding in the scene where she reveals her past story to Russell as a way of keeping her working for her, and unlike what the nasty Pate says, Moorehead is far from ugly even if it is obvious that her character is a very unhappy female.
The ending is rather Bittersweet, reminding me of the beginning and the end of the movie version of "Pal Joey", released just the following year. Russell does get some moments to show who this character is underneath all her hardness and in her one musical number, shows exactly why Mamie Stover could have indeed been the most popular pin-up girl in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. That scene alone is very tense as the people in the surrounding area can hear the bombing occur and think at first it's some type of drill until the news tells them otherwise. this is a film that has a lot going for it but ultimately is nothing more than glorified, glamorous trash, tied up in a pretty ribbon, but when it is opened, revealing something that's no sensible member of the audience probably didn't realize anyway.
This had the potential to knock em' all out of the park with its innuendos that could not pass the censorship. Of course the book on which this was based was a lot more racy, and Russell really isn't shown doing anything outside of the ordinary flirtation and performing a seductive musical number.
Russell of course is the majority of the whole show, but Egan is a handsome and graceful leading man. Leslie is wasted in a superficial role and other than a few good scenes, Moorehead doesn't really have anything juicy to do outside of her firing strict assistant Michael Pate who attempts to dominate all of the girls, especially Russell who cannot be controlled. An uncomfortable moment for Morehead occurs when she stops page from telling her how ugly she is, rich in the. Of just a moment says a lot more about Moorehead's character than the script allows her to show. She is of course commanding in the scene where she reveals her past story to Russell as a way of keeping her working for her, and unlike what the nasty Pate says, Moorehead is far from ugly even if it is obvious that her character is a very unhappy female.
The ending is rather Bittersweet, reminding me of the beginning and the end of the movie version of "Pal Joey", released just the following year. Russell does get some moments to show who this character is underneath all her hardness and in her one musical number, shows exactly why Mamie Stover could have indeed been the most popular pin-up girl in Pearl Harbor Hawaii. That scene alone is very tense as the people in the surrounding area can hear the bombing occur and think at first it's some type of drill until the news tells them otherwise. this is a film that has a lot going for it but ultimately is nothing more than glorified, glamorous trash, tied up in a pretty ribbon, but when it is opened, revealing something that's no sensible member of the audience probably didn't realize anyway.