Coasting thru the war years when just about anything made money, Hollywood peaked commercially in the afterglow year of 1946, then watched helplessly as the old studio system started to collapse. A slow drip contraction of some twenty-years. And while M-G-M didn’t fare much worse than other ‘majors,’ they had farther to fall. (Note this handwriting on the wall a year before the Supreme Court vertical-integration ruling against the studios and even longer before television was having a serious financial effect. What you do see are the old formulas curdling before your eyes, as in this idiotic showcase film, a typical Joe Pasternak family-friendly production, for Jane Powell. More irritating brat than adorable baby coloratura, she’s a stowaway on Captain Daddy’s ocean liner where she gets quality time with single parent George Brent (looking quite stout in uniform) and plays mismatching matchmaker to half the passengers onboard. Lots of second-tier musical interludes (legendary, if aging Wagnerian heldentenor Lauritz Melchoir never did get film-friendly) though Xavier Cugat (plus band and chihuahua) show how to do this kind of silliness. But Pasternak, here with kid actor turned mediocre director Richard Whorf, seems to have forgotten the rules for the distribution of laughs, tears and reconciliations, he once could pull off in his sleep.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: As we’ve mentioned before, 100 MEN AND A GIRL/’37, Pasternak’s best, also uses baby coloratura and single-father/daughter strained relationship as narrative engine. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/03/100-men-and-girl-1937.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: M-G-M’s tech crew gave the big ship some unusually clever process/model combo shots. Very cool looking. With a repeated shot from the side where the visual integration and grain match is stunning.
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