Paramount. Director Hal Walker; Producer Hal B. Wallis; Screenplay James Allardice, Martin Rackin, John Grant; Camera Daniel L. Fapp; Editor Warren Low; Music Joseph J. Lilley (dir.); Art Director Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead
Dean Martin
Jerry Lewis
Corinne Calvert
Marion Marshall
Robert Strauss
Leif Erickson
While this film version of the 1933 legit piece [by Kenyon Nicholson and Charles Robinson, adapted by Elwood Ullman] has been padded to an unnecessary 104 minutes, it has enough of the comics in hilarious routines to more than satisfy Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' considerable following. Less emphasis on lightweight plotting and more on M&L would have made for better, overall comedy entertainment.
Martin and Lewis this time set out to scuttle the Navy. It's a cleaned up version of the stage hit, and only a thread of that original is contained in the celluloid treatment.
There's an unbilled opening and closing appearance by Betty Hutton - referred to as Hetty Button - and Martin makes his vocal bid on four tunes by Mack David and Jerry Livingstone. There's the usual round of scenes depicting Navy training, plus a television broadcast involving the comics and screaming femmes, and other incidents that set up the sailors' bets that Lewis can't kiss Calvet, nitery entertainer, when their submarine reaches Honolulu. Marion Marshall is a WAVE who has struck a spark with Lewis because she uses no makeup to which the comic is allergic.
Running through what passes as a plot are Robert Strauss, tough petty officer who is the natural enemy of the comics; Leif Erickson, sub commander; and Don Wilson, jovial TV announcer.
(B&W) Extract of a review from 1951. Running time: 104 MIN.
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