During WW2, Australians and Britons (and presumably New Zealanders and other countries who acted as military launch pads) said of the Yanks that they were "over-sexed, over paid and over here" - well, that seems to be the impression the Yanks had of themselves, too, according to this film, which starts with a bunch of marines headed to Sydney lecherously imagining all the things they can get up to with local girls. (I wonder if they ever screened this in cinemas in Australia - it might have caused local press outrage).
Dennis O'Keefe and William Bendix are two mates whose friendship is constantly threatened by O'Keefe constantly cutting Bendix's lunch - O'Keefe is no oil painting but Bendix looks like, well, Bendix so you wonder why O'Keefe doesn't get his own women. He hears about a girl (Helen Walker) who is the sister of an Aussie (John Loder) whose life Bendix has saved - so O'Keefe pretends to be Bendix in order to crack on to her, which isn't very nice. He then keeps trying to go for her, even after Bendix falls for her himself, and then later on when Loder reveals he's not related to her and he loves her, too - Bendix steps aside, but not O'Keefe, so when you think about it he's the villain (or, at least, antagonist), which is kind of odd for a "buddy" comedy. This sort of loses a bit of momentum in the middle but recovers at the end when O'Keefe and Bendix wind up in drag and attend a party. It's a bit of a mess (there were something like five writers on it) but it is cheerful - you get the sense the cast would do anything for a joke.
From an Aussie point of view its fascinating to see a film set almost entirely in Sydney - Walker doesn't really try and Aussie accent but some of the other actors playing locals do and the results (eg Loder) are weird and wonderful. They make some attempts to be Aussie - names like Cyril and Joyce, some of the slang, there is affection for Aussies. And of course the final sequence has the two leads in drag - how Aussie can you get! I'm surprised this isn't better known - its one of a series of farces made by director Allan Dwan for producer Edward Small.
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