Honolulu. Edward Buzzell. 1939.
So much drama!
Heh. That was a good fake-out.
This is most amusing.
And horribly racist.
And that’s the main problem with this movie: Robert Young really isn’t that believable as somebody who’d people would go nuts for. I mean, he’s great and all, but imagine if this were Cary Grant instead.
And now there’s Eleanor Powell! She’s delightful.
It’s all delightful. I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling since this movie came on. It’s a perfectly fluffy little movie.
So the rest of the people are dressed up as movie stars, and Eleanor Powell shows up as… “The King Of Harlem”? I had to check whether that was actually a thing… and … it’s not?
Hm… Oh, it’s Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. It’s a good dance routine.
“And the way those kids dove after those pennies!”
I think this may be the most racist movie I’ve seen in quite a while!
(But Gracie Allen did say “I ran out of pennies, so I threw a five dollar gold piece and they never knew the difference.” And she’d wonderful.)
Eleanor Powell is amazing; I want to watch all her movies. But this is supposed to be a Hawaiian dance, and… did they choreograph this entire thing without once going to Hawaii? I know, it’s 1939, and the Japanese may bomb them, but… still!?
“You see, he’s only my brother by marriage. My father married my mother and he’s their son.”
This movie is hilarious. It doesn’t let up for a second — it’s silly the entire way through, and doesn’t even make a vague attempt at being respectable at any point.
It’s also really racist, way beyond what you’d expect of a movie from 1939, so you may want to avoid it, anyway.
This blog post is part of the 1939
series.