Modest R.K.O. programmer, neatly handled by workhorse director Christy Cabanne (at the helm since the ‘teens), about a motley quartet of Naval Academy Cadets who fall out over one of the guys’ good-lookin’ sister. That’d be Marsha Hunt, while the roomies are James Ellison (girl-averse son of Navy lifer Harry Carey); Van Heflin (rich kid, trying to bust out of the joint thru bad behavior); bland Dick Hogan; and goofy Arthur Lake. Pretty tame drama, but helped by real Annapolis locations and by a young, largely untested cast all in their twenties. Fun to see Van Heflin trying out James Cagney stylings before M-G-M took him on, adding glasses & pipe to groom him as their in-house intellectual leading man. And the sexual politics are also of interest, in a depressing way, confirming that good gals can shake an ambitious man off-course just as easily as a bad one. Yikes! When’s the last time a red-blooded fellow could be complimented for being ‘a woman hater.’
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Spatting & sparring early in the film over class issues, Ellison and Heflin settle things in an unusually convincing little boxing match that’s neither laughably fake nor OTT brutal. No small achievement then or now.
No comments:
Post a Comment