Thursday, March 31, 2022

Movie review - "Sailor's Lady" (1940) **

 A three gals and three guys "fleet's in" movie - the sort that normally has colour and songs but this one has neither. The three guys are Jon Hall, Dana Andrews and Wally Vernon - the gals include Nancy Kelly and Joan Davis. Buster Crabbe, whose career has some similarities with Hall, plays a sailor keen on Kelly.

The pacing is slow and there's an un-fun aspect to it: Dana Andrews hates dames because of a divorce and wants Hall to not marry Kelly (who has adopted a baby without telling Hall first). 

The last act involves the baby on a warship and Hall and Andrews go into the background and it becomes the officers, who play it straight... as if the filmmakers were concerned about getting co operation.

I get the comedy this was going for - cute shenanigans on a ship with a baby - but the film doesn't really do it. The characters all blend in. There's not enough women involved. Subplots feel unresolved.  I didn't like it.

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