A different sort of Pine-Thomas movie, despite being written, as so many of them were, by Max Shane. It's more laidback, more devoted to character, as it looks at four men who enlist in the Navy. The main ones are a boxer and a millionaire; there's also an older guy and a momma's boy.
Earlier the main guys would've been played by Richard Arlen and Chester Morris but they're not here - there's the younger Robert Lowery and William Henry. To be honest I had trouble telling them apart - and from the other actors.
There's Jean Parker returning to give Pine Thomas some continuity - she's good as always and has quite a racy make out session in a swimsuit with Henry who is in his swimmers.
The film sets up a whole bunch of plots but in the second half basically ignores them to focus on Robert Lowery, who plays the bitter boxer, who loses Parker to millionaire Henry (no fool she!) I was enjoying the stories about the rancher whose son died and the kid who had never been away from home - I was looking for some development there. Ditto the girl who was dumped by Henry.
Still it's decently done. Acting is fine - Lowery became an inhouse star for Pine-Thomas (it's a great role - you get to be bitter, heroic, cry to chaplains). There's second unit shooting at the real naval training facility near the Great Lakes. Robert Armstrong pops up as an officer.
There's a bit of punching and a little bit of acting but the bulk of this is character stuff which is a nice change.
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