Skirts Ahoy!

this movie was a disaster.the plot if there was one was pathetic. considering that many name stars were in this film it is amazing that it could be done so poorly.if boot camp were this easy we would lose all future wars. do yourself a favor don't watch this or your review might be worse than mine. to call this movie bad would be too polite.

Diverting bit of fluff from MGM about three women who join the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) to get away from their respective man troubles. One (Joan Evans) was left standing at the altar, one (Esther Williams) left someone standing at the altar, and another (Vivian Blaine) never got to the altar. The women go through training, singing and having fun along the way, until they get down to the important business at hand: landing a man.

Vivian Blaine keeps things moving with her energetic performance. Joan Evans starts out being a terribly depressing character but she has a good turnaround about a half-hour in. Esther Williams seems to be going through the motions; not bad but not remarkable in any way. Barry Sullivan plays her love interest. The two have no chemistry at all. The DeMarco sisters are fun to watch. Debbie Reynolds has a cameo in a dance routine. Emmett Lynn is a scene stealer as Pop the plumber. The song and dance numbers are nothing to write home about. At least one of them ("What Good is a Gal without a Guy?") is downright embarrassing. Still, it's a hard movie to dislike. Everything is light and frothy with an enjoyable trio of stars. The highlight of the whole thing is (not surprisingly) Esther's big swimming scene, this time with a couple of cute kids.

SKIRTS AHOY! (1952) is musical-comedy fluff aimed mostly at a female audience, but it's not too bad. It's pleasant enough and some of the songs by Harry Warren and Ralph Blane are fun ("What Makes a Wave?", "What Good Is a Gal?"). MGM's swimming superstar Esther Williams, "Guys and Dolls" standout Vivian Blaine, and Joan Evans join the Navy to escape their man troubles. Esther Williams performs a couple of dry-land musical numbers, but the script still finds time for her to visit the pool. In one scene she's accompanied by a couple pint-sized swimming prodigies (brother and sister Russell and Kathy Tongay). Keenan Wynn, Debbie Reynolds, and Bobby Van make celebrity cameos.

This post-WWII film is very dated. The women recruits sing a song about how 'women are nothing without a man'. If you can put this sort of sentiment in the context that it was created, this film has a few things to recommend it. There are a few good musical numbers, and lots of camp humour. It's hilarious that none of the military personnel are ever shown doing anything remotely militant. The Navy is depicted as a social event, with shows, synchronized swimming, dating, hijinks.

The DeMarco Sisters contribute a few nice moments to this brief, shallow movie. They harmonize nicely, and perform with enthusiasm.

The movie is a mildly entertaining snapshot of the early Fifties, when America was still preoccupied with the war even while it was starting to focus its gaze on the changing relationship between the sexes.

This movie isn't terribly accurate as to actual Boot Camp life, they had MUCH more freedom than we did, but it was filmed at Great Lakes Naval Station about 10 years before I was stationed there in 1962-3. The barracks, the furnishings, everything in the background shots look just the way they did when I was there. We also lived in those same WWII temporary barracks. I thoroughly enjoy this movie every time I watch it just for the memories and to see those wonderful uniforms that I really liked! My favorite part of the movie each time is the Drill Team scene, they do some of the very same routines that we did when I was on the Boot Camp Drill Team at Bainbridge, Maryland in 1962.