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The Bad Girl couple reunited, not Borzage's lyrical grace but Raoul Walsh's salty tumult. "What are you trying to do, show me a good time?" Out of the S.S. Missouri and into San Pedro Harbor, the Navy horndog (James Dunn) on raucous shore leave. He makes the acquaintance of the swimming pool clerk (Sally Eilers) amidst much splashing and dunking, meanwhile a fellow seaman (Sammy Cohen) serves up endless variations of diving-board pratfalls. (Frank Moran as the third mate is a galoot who grows mysteriously thoughtful tickling the ivories of a fortune teller's piano.) Footsie under the table, "spanky spanky" in the boardinghouse boudoir, fisticuffs with the dandified rival (Victor Jory). "Whatsa matter? He sick?" "Aw, he's in love." The Walsh profusion in spades, a buzzing overflow of gags that suggests a live-action version of the Fleischers' Barnacle Bill cartoon. Lascivious bathhouse bosses, irate Eye-talian creditors, sloshed ditched grooms... The fellas mocking the queer eye ("Etgay the ansypay. Woo-hoo!") are later caught proclaiming their love of bananas on a shared bed, the gal heartbroken over her jealous beau won't turn down the gift of lingerie. Very much of a piece with Me and My Gal and The Bowery, a cyclonic vaudeville climaxing with a dance marathon that spills into a full-fledged riot and a lovers' embrace that combines face-sucking and hair-pulling. "Here's to the girls that are single, and here's to the married ones, too. But I'm for the Army and Navy, three cheers for the red, white and blue!" The raunchiness is laundered in On the Town but brought back in The Last Detail. With Esther Muir, Will Stanton, Armand "Curly" Wright, Jerry Mandy, Phillips Tead, Lucien Littlefield, and Buster Phelps. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |