Marineros mareados

Almost every comedy nowadays is purely Rated R for a reason, because it's vulgar trash in some way... unfortunately that is what passes as funny to today's audiences. Well, comedy does not need to be that, as shown here in this wonderfully hilarious military comedy from Abbott & Costello. The routines are so funny and should have your sides splitting! Other entertainment comes from The Andrews Sisters. Their music might be lame by today's standards but you gotta commend 'em for always bringing a smile to the face of our young men in uniform. Including a tap dance routine, the movie is a little more musical than I would have liked but still overall an excellent film! --A Kat Pirate Screener

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello work up to a goofy stride in "In the Navy," their second feature film and also the second in which they're in the service. Having left the Army for the Navy, their misadventures continue with Abbott still the money-hunting con artist and Costello his sidekick and, usually, patsy.

An A & C skit is the highlight of every film they made and here Abbott's blatant cheating at Three-Card Monte, played with produce, is very funny.

The score is so-so. Jerome Kern composed the music for "Buck Privates." The composers here weren't in Kern's league.

Supported by the ever fine Andrews Sisters and Dick Powell as a famous crooner running away from fame to seek anonymity by serving his country, "In the Navy" has a stronger national defense message than its G.I. predecessor. We were getting closer to war. "Keep your ship afloat," intones an officer at a recruit graduation ceremony. Sadly, the magnificent but obsolescent battleships shown at the beginning and end of the film and in quick shots within the story are the very vessels that suffered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The movie is dedicated to the navy personnel at the San Diego and San Pedro bases from which the Pacific Fleet deployed to Pearl Harbor in 1941 at President Roosevelt's express orders.

7/10

In The Navy does at times feel rushed, you sense that it was what is commonly known today as a cash cow !, it was rushed thru to capitalise on the success of Buck Privates the previous outing from the duo. Abbott & Costello are widely regarded and lauded for saving Universal Studios bacon, so with that in mind I feel that it would be churlish of me to downgrade the film for its forced feel, but sadly it is evident regardless.

Yet for me to even suggest that the film is less than entertaining would be doing a big disservice to all involved, all the expected formula's are in here, the gags from the boys hit the mark, with the "find the submarine sequence" particularly mirth inducing, and of course the musical warbling of The Andrews Sisters offers foot tapping relief. The film does exactly what it says on the tin, open it up expecting fun and light relief, and you will get it in spades, a safe 6/10.

Lou: "I'll fight these men in a field of honor"

Bud: "But they have no honor"

Lou: "That's okay, I ain't got no field!"

One of the earliest Abbott & Costello films, "In the Navy" has a better balance of humor and music than, say, the Marx Brothers outings of the same period. The songs, although dated, are still quite catchy, and there is also a spectacular tap-dancing number by the Condos Brothers (OK, the Hawaiian song is perfectly awful, but at least nobody plays a harp for 10 minutes here). The comedy is visual, verbal, and at times even surreal (Costello draws a line with a piece of chalk on a blackboard - and then hangs his cap on it!). This film is not great cinematic art, but it does offer some great laughs. (**1/2)

Having just left Laurel & Hardy attempting to sail a boat in Towed in a Hole, I just now rewatched Abbott & Costello as sailors in In the Navy. Also on board is former Warner Bros. Musical star Dick Powell as a popular radio crooner who's anxious to ditch his female fans and Claire Dodd as a newspaper photographer trying to take his picture. Returning with Bud & Lou in this, their third starring film but their second released after Buck Privates (which is mistakenly IDed in the beginning flag-pulling sequence), are Shemp Howard as their foil and The Andrews Sisters who this time, besides doing their singing numbers, also have dialogue with most of the above cast with lead singer Patty, especially, reciting lines, usually with Costello since he's smitten with her in this one. Plenty of funny routines abound and the songs are pretty entertaining. The climax involving Lou and Patty and her siblings possibly involved in a disastrous ship maneuver is not as hilarious as one wants it to be but it's amusing in its own right. Watching this again after 40 years, I looked for eventual set court jester Bobby Barber after looking at the cast list on this site but I didn't recognize him. Consulting the book "Abbott & Costello in Hollywood", I was pleased to see Lou's then two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Carole in the brief baby carriage scene in which she takes her father's message as well as Bud's stunt double Joe LaCava in the "Lemon Bit" routine. I've been highly enjoying revisiting these A & C flicks for review on this site especially in comparison to many Laurel & Hardy films with similar subjects or routines I comment on. So that's a recommendation of In the Navy. Next, I'll review L & H's Them Thar Hills.