User Reviews

I never quite understood why Robert Young appeared mostly in B movies. Long one of my favorites, "The Enchanted Cottage" certainly showed off his serious side. This film is far lighter, and Young does an admirable job in it.

Eleanor Powell has to be the finest female tap dancer in history, and this film is no exception.

Gracie Allen was a delight in this film and stole many scenes. I never understood the attraction of George Burns, and apparently after this film neither did Hollywood -- it was his last film for 37 years. He was pretty much irrelevant in this motion picture.

The plot is nothing fantastic, but it is pleasant enough...once you get past the first 10 or so minutes where Robert Young's character as a heart-throb actor meets Robert Young's character as an everyday Joe. That segment of the film is clumsy, at best. But after that you'll find a rather pleasant "B" level MGM musical.

When it came to Eleanor Powell, a great dancer, MGM didn't go all out to make her more appealing in vehicles that could show her talents better. This film, reminds us of another of Ms. Powell's films, "Ship Ahoy", with a similar kind of setting, which in retrospect, showed no imagination on the studio's part. She didn't even merit a Technicolor picture, something that "Honolulu" could have used to enhance its star. Like the other film, this one was directed by Edward Buzzell. Even the costumes by Adrian, seemed third rate and unflattering to the star.

The story is silly enough. A famous actor, Brooks Mason, whose female fans love to tear off his clothes when he goes to premieres, meets an identical "twin" in the figure of George Smith, a dull pineapple grower from Honolulu. Mason makes a proposition to Smith that he can't refuse: How about impersonating Mason in New York, where he is supposed to be seen in connection with the new picture being promoted.

In the meantime, Dorothy March, a dancer, is seen on board the ship that is bringing her to Honolulu. The real Brooks Mason, now passing himself as George Smith, is discovered by Dorothy's friend Millie. Mason makes believe he is from Hawaii, even though he has no clue about the place. Things get more complicated when Smith's real fiancée, Cecilia Grayson enters the picture. Her father has it in for George, whom he blames for making him lose a deal.

While we already know where this story is going, and how it will end, it is worth the time because Eleanor Powell's dancing. The musical numbers aren't as elaborate as some MGM productions; it's an easy time at the movies. Robert Young, in his dual role is fine. Gracie Allen and George Burns are also good in their roles. Rita Johnson, who always had sophisticated roles of women who end up not marrying the leading man, is seen as Cecelia. Clarence Kobs, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Ruth Hussey play supporting roles.

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.

The grass is always greener on the otha side of the fence! Rich movie star is sick of getting mobbed by fans, and Hawaii plantation owner is sick of his slow, dull life, so they decide to switch lives for a while. The only way that works is that they look like identical twins. Some great actors in here.. Burns & Allen, Eleanor Powell, Robert Young. Willie Fung plays the butler, as usual, and is the butt of so many jokes. Powell does a tap-dance bit in black-face, which would certainly be off limits now. I would guess that the cast never left the lot, as the beautiful scenes of hawaii all seem to be backdrops, but it must have been fairly exotic for its day. Some great steel guitar songs, Hawaiian music. ukuleles. and a fun song by some Marx Brothers impersonators, as they sing "the Leader Doesn't Like Music, written by Gus Kahn. A LOT of tap dancing ....did people really want that much tap dancing back then? twists, turns, and hopefully it all gets straightened out by the end. The cast seems to be having fun, so its light, fluffy and fun to watch. Shows on Turner Classic now and then. Directed by Edward Buzzell, who DID direct two Marx Brothers films. and that's probably why they were lampooned in this one. Catch it if you can...

What today's stars could get with and the alibis they could come up with in order to avoid bad publicity. Willing to take there place at any minute to take abuse from stalking fans (who back in the glory days of Hollywood were stereotyped as clothes-ripping, screaming, stampeding herds of privacy ignoring sociopaths), here the look-alike is of a popular matinée idol (Robert Young in a dual role) who goes to Hawaii while the other ends up in a New York hospital and romantic confusion ensues. On a ship to Hawaii, the star meets a pretty dancer (Eleanor Powell) whose wacky friend (Gracie Allen) spots him and thinking he's the star (which he is in spite of denying it) approaches him a bit more gently than the type of fan I mention above. Tuning her ukulele with a song "My Dog Has Fleas", Allen gets Powell dancing & together, they do a neat little routine. Young, the star, takes over the look-alike's life in Hawaii, and romantic complications concerning a fiancée and movie star Young's sudden love for Powell ensues until the look-alike can make it back and explain everything.

It gets a little confusing in spots, so much so I was tempted to create a diagram to remember who was who, who was in Hawaii and who was in New York, who was involved with who, and finally, why nobody told the important people involved why they were doing what they were doing. And then there are Burns and Allen who only are on screen together for a brief bit (concerning Gracie's brother, of course) at the end. George, indeed, is wasted in this film, but Gracie gets a lot more to do even than leading lady Powell.

The highlight of the film is a shipboard costume party where everybody shows up as their favorite movie star. Young doesn't want to come as himself so he dresses up as famous frizzled-haired conductor Leopold Stokowski. Allen, hysterically costumed as Mae West, greets some passengers dressed as the Seven Dwarfs, "Come Boys, It's Off to Work We Go", as only West could say it. Look-alikes of the Marxx Brothers (with for some reason two Grouchos), Oliver Hardy (minus Laurel), W.C. Fields, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Frank Morgan are part of the big musical number surrounding Allen's Mae and Young's Leopold entitled "The Leader Doesn't Like Music". This leads into an eye-raising dance number with Powell in blackface as Bill Robinson. Powell is more successful when she does a tap hula. Look for a very funny denouncement at the end that reminded me of the gag at the end of the Bette Midler/Lily Tomlin look-alike comedy "Big Business".

The gentleman singing and walking carrying a horse as Bing Crosby look like with hat was William Thomas Paye.My father I have the still shots he was given at time of filming in 1938. The credits list someone else. This needs to be corrected.