Down Among the Sheltering Palms

Lots of behind the screen talent takes a whack at what seems to be an attempt to make something to compete with the success of Rodgers & Hammerstein's SOUTH PACIFIC. They struggle with some unfortunately odd casting choices to produce a fitfully interesting, silly musical. We have Billy Gilbert and Mitzi Gaynor as Polynesians, William Lundigan and Jane Greer singing songs written by Harold Arlen and Ralph Blaine, and smirking Jack Paar as an army officer.

It's all an attempt to keep soldiers on Rest and Recreation on a delightful Polynesian island from fraternizing with the native girls, and Edmund Goulding fighting with a script by Claude Binyon -- whose writing talents were best expended on Abbott and Costello programmers -- to produce something interesting. The photography is the only part of the movie that can't be faulted: it's typical of the Fox musical style. It looks like it was planned for a Betty Grable musical but whatever her intended role was, it was recast. If you must watch this, see if you can spot Lee Marvin in the ensemble.