We're Not Dressing

I can’t say that I was particularly looking forward to this musical comedy, but it turned out to be a very entertaining 1 hour and 14 minutes. Being a Bing Crosby vehicle (albeit featured on Universal’s Carole Lombard set), there’s a plethora of dated romantic songs – and since a young (not to say slim) Ethel Merman appears in support, she chimes in as well…and so does comic Leon Errol!

Still, as I said, it’s a generally fun seafaring ride (inspired by J.M. Barrie’s “The Admirable Crichton”) – though given a rather silly and entirely meaningless title! Also in the cast are another comic couple – George Burns (who really achieved stardom after an Oscar-winning turn some 40 years later!) and real-life spouse Gracie Allen – and a young (though somewhat stiff) Ray Milland as one of two aristocratic parasites hoping to win Lombard’s hand. However, she’s got her eyes on crooning sailor Crosby – but, of course, their relationship runs far from smoothly!

Starting off on Lombard’s yacht, the group are shipwrecked on a tropical island (thanks to a tipsy Errol sabotaging the boat’s commands) – where explorers Burns and Allen(!) are carrying out some kind of research. Actually, the two parties rarely interact: in fact, very little happens on the island itself – other than that the feckless idle rich are taught a moral lesson by the manly and resourceful Crosby (anticipating Lombard’s own MY MAN GODFREY [1936] in this respect).

It’s refreshing to find Lombard in a non-wacky role, but her performance is just as delightful as ever; equally notable are the amusing contribution of Errol (Lombard’s uncle but who’s sympathetic to commoner Crosby) and the various antics of the harebrained Allen (which includes her devising an unlikely and complicated method to trap wild animals). Even so, an amiable bear named Droopy (Lombard’s pet!) steals everybody’s thunder – especially in the way it cuddles up to Crosby when singing a particular tune, and a hilarious scene in which the animal runs riot on the deck of the yacht after Errol fits it with skating shoes! There’s even a joke at the expense of another Paramount star, Mae West, when a sailor describes the acronym ‘B.C.’ as ‘Before “Come Up And See Me, Sometime”’.