The plot of this movie, derived from the stage show, is that in the Canal Zone, well born army man Dan Dailey and gaudy entertainer Ann Southern want to get married, but Admiral's niece Marsha Hunt wants to break up the ill-conceived affair.
Which has little, if anything to do with the movie, or probably the stage show. It's another example of the evolution of the musical from a straight revue to a book musical, with a plot that's enough of a sketch to allow several specialty numbers. Despite the clowning of Red Skelton, Rags Ragland, and the ever-not-funny Ben Blue as three dumb sailors, Alan Mowbray as Dailey's butler who thinks he's made a mistake being in this movie, there are some decent Cole Porter numbers, including "Just One Of Those Things", which Lena Horne sings in a number placed so it could be cut for the Whites-Only theaters. There's also Virginia O'Brien singing some frozen-faced numbers, and so forth.
It's an early production credit for Arthur Freed, and Vincente Minnelli directed some bits uncredited. However, it looks like he was given one of those overstuffed scripts by the boses and had no choice in the matter.
Fortunately, Freed would soon demonstrate what he could do if left alone, and Red Skelton was carved off, and with S. Sylvan Simon as director and Buster Keaton as gag writer, did some good work. But this stuff is all canned ham, with the performers slotted in regardless of their actual strengths. Except for Miss Horne.
Which has little, if anything to do with the movie, or probably the stage show. It's another example of the evolution of the musical from a straight revue to a book musical, with a plot that's enough of a sketch to allow several specialty numbers. Despite the clowning of Red Skelton, Rags Ragland, and the ever-not-funny Ben Blue as three dumb sailors, Alan Mowbray as Dailey's butler who thinks he's made a mistake being in this movie, there are some decent Cole Porter numbers, including "Just One Of Those Things", which Lena Horne sings in a number placed so it could be cut for the Whites-Only theaters. There's also Virginia O'Brien singing some frozen-faced numbers, and so forth.
It's an early production credit for Arthur Freed, and Vincente Minnelli directed some bits uncredited. However, it looks like he was given one of those overstuffed scripts by the boses and had no choice in the matter.
Fortunately, Freed would soon demonstrate what he could do if left alone, and Red Skelton was carved off, and with S. Sylvan Simon as director and Buster Keaton as gag writer, did some good work. But this stuff is all canned ham, with the performers slotted in regardless of their actual strengths. Except for Miss Horne.