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Song of the Islands

  • 1942
  • Approved
  • 1h 16m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
304
YOUR RATING
Victor Mature, Betty Grable, and Jack Oakie in Song of the Islands (1942)
ComedyMusicRomance

With his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But ... Read allWith his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But Jeff falls in love with O'Brien's daughter, Eileen, and even his father can't break them u... Read allWith his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf of his cattle baron father for land owned by transplanted Irishman Dennis O'Brien. But Jeff falls in love with O'Brien's daughter, Eileen, and even his father can't break them up after he arrives and himself falls under the spell of island splendor.

  • Director
    • Walter Lang
  • Writers
    • Joseph Schrank
    • Robert Pirosh
    • Robert Ellis
  • Stars
    • Betty Grable
    • Victor Mature
    • Jack Oakie
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.1/10
    304
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Walter Lang
    • Writers
      • Joseph Schrank
      • Robert Pirosh
      • Robert Ellis
    • Stars
      • Betty Grable
      • Victor Mature
      • Jack Oakie
    • 14User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos35

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    Top cast46

    Edit
    Betty Grable
    Betty Grable
    • Eileen O'Brien
    Victor Mature
    Victor Mature
    • Jefferson Harper
    Jack Oakie
    Jack Oakie
    • Rusty Smith
    Thomas Mitchell
    Thomas Mitchell
    • Dennis O'Brien
    George Barbier
    George Barbier
    • Harper
    Billy Gilbert
    Billy Gilbert
    • Palola's Father
    Hilo Hattie
    Hilo Hattie
    • Palola
    Harry Owens
    Harry Owens
    • Harry Owens
    Lillian Porter
    Lillian Porter
    • Palola's Cousin
    Hal K. Dawson
    • John Rodney
    Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians
    Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians
      Louise Allen
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      Marie Bodie
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      Kahala Bray
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      Amu Cordone
      • Specialty Act
      • (uncredited)
      Grace Davies
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      Virginia Davis
      Virginia Davis
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      Evelyne Eager
      • Islander
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • Walter Lang
      • Writers
        • Joseph Schrank
        • Robert Pirosh
        • Robert Ellis
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews14

      6.1304
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      Featured reviews

      7raskimono

      Light fluffy war time comedy

      I kinda liked this movie. The plot is not much to write off and is questionable if it will have any appeal to adults because it involves full grown men and women acting like ten year olds. Set on the Hawaii Islands it has something to do with some millionaire rancher's son who falls for a enjoy-life goodnik loafer on the Islands. Romance, fighting, with some will they or will they not get together? That is a typical Betty Grable picture. Gable who couldn't really act but was always charming with a nice smile and is always fun to watch because the woman approached all her roles with gusto. It didn't matter the role; she played as if it were Scarlett O'Hara. Poor Victor Mature suffered in being cast in light tripe like this where he practiced how to take pratfalls and sound dopey and goofy before better things and dramatic roles elevated out of this parts. The popular radio star Jack Oakie provides much needed support and has many scenes where his sub plot line dominates the movies. This I have to mention because this is sorely missing in Hollywood movies, today. Let's take a recent hit like "Hitch", Kevin James gets no scene without Will Smith on the phone and in the background and it's a credit to him that he still finds a way to steal the movie. Gable too was not a very good dancer but again you forgive because she lights into it with so much pep and determination and that can be said for the whole movie. It is poorly written, obvious with no surprises but everybody plays it to the utmost fullest that makes you enjoy the whole silly farce for what it's what.
      6JamesH-491

      Good songs and dancing

      The story isn't much but Grable has lively song and dance numbers at the beginning and end with a big chorus line of hula girls in grass skirts (beginning) and cellophane skirts (end). Hermes Pan directed the dances. Hilo Hattie appears in a few songs, mainly "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai" where she's entertaining if a bit overly excited. She was a popular entertainer in the 40s and onward and I was lucky to work at the Halekulani Hotel in the mid 70s when she was part of a show of old-time Hawaiian entertainers. Betty Grable is beautiful and a very energetic actor and dancer. Lightweight entertainment for sure.
      7donofthedial

      Grable in Technicolor in Hawaii

      I never thought that this was one of the better Grable pictures and as I am taking a break from re-watching it for the first time in a decade I still hold to that original opinion.

      The film has, if possible, too many character actors - Thomas Mitchell, George Barbier, Jack Oakie, Billy Gilbert, Hilo Hattie. And there is too much bickering.

      OTOH, most of the songs are very tuneful, though undistinguished and the Technicolor is, as always, eye-popping.

      The high points in the film are almost all Grable. If the film had been destroyed after the first reel, it likely would not have mattered because Grable's absolutely gorgeous entry into the film on a small outrigger just off shore of a tropical is breathtaking as is her brilliantly pretty face and figure.

      And what a figure! All curves and plenty of them, looking delicious in clingy island dresses and hula girl out-fits. What a bundle! 5'4" (As I thought when looking at her while danced barefoot) and she measured in at 34 1/2-24-36 (self-described 1940).

      She is singing "Sing Me a Song of the Islands" as she heads towards shore with her blonde hair blowing gently in the breeze as she softly offers the song in that vastly under-rated melodious and well modulated beguiling voice of hers. She's radiant with gleaming white teeth and big eyes as she sings the entire song in 90 seconds with the big Technicolor camera slowly zooms in from a medium shot to what becomes a near full lose up if her expressive face, never once breaking away...all in one shot.

      I had a customer in my video store about 15 years ago who had not seen Song of the Islands since its original release in 1942 and all he remembered all those years was that opening shot of Betty Grable, her hair blowing in the tropical breeze and singing "Sing Me a Song of the Islands". Movie magic!

      Victor Mature is in the film, too. He looks fine.

      Hilo Hattie is the Hawaiian version of Charlotte Greenwood in the film; man hungry and doing her eccentric dances and songs.

      As mention, it is not one of the 'great Grables' of the era, in spite of having the talented Walter Lang, who had directed some of Grable's best films in the 1940.

      Unfortunately, what ever momentum the film has fairly comes to a halt about 50 minutes into the picture at which time there is little question (if there was ever any) about how the film will wrap up. The pictures weakest tunes are trotted out and Grable's last dance sequence is far from memorable.

      Jack Oakie, playing Mature's sidekick (and only 39 years old at the time) manages to squeeze in a song and a romance for himself with a pretty island girl even younger than Grable and he and Hilo Hattie have the last laugh in the film. (Oakie frequently seems to get a special moment at the end of the films he is in. He had a big following and was extremely popular with everyone.) All in all...very lightweight stuff. Nice try by all involved. There's better Grables out there.

      Now I'll go back and rewind the tape and watch that opening island sequence one more time. It's a freeze-framers delight!
      6atlasmb

      Pure Entertainment Fun Featuring Betty Grable

      Shot in color and released in 1942, "Song of the Islands" is a comedy about the relationship between Betty Grable (as Eileen O'Brien) and Victor Mature (as Jefferson Harper). The new couple seems happy until a conflict arises between their fathers.

      Her father, Dennis O'Brien (Thomas Mitchell), is a long-time resident of Hawaii. He leads a low-key life of relaxation, based upon the principles of aloha. Life for him is about goodness toward others. And an inspired laissez-faire laziness. When Jefferson's father (George Barbier)--owner of an adjacent cattle ranch--wants to purchase access rights to O'Brien's waterfront property so that he can more easily export his cattle, O'Brien is insulted. He would gladly give him the rights for free, but resents efforts to reduce the transaction to a legal contract.

      It's a premise that merely serves to contrast the two ways of life. The real story is the dancing and singing of Betty Grable and a chorus line of local hula girls. The dance numbers by Hermes Pan feature an Irish jig hula with swing elements (danced to "O'Brien Has Gone Hawaiian"). The songs, mostly by Owens and Gordon, include catchy ditties like "The Cockeyed Mayor of Kuanakakai (which gets a comic delivery by Hilo Hattie, who assumed that name after her role in this film) and "What's Buzzin' Cousin" (which comic relief Jack Oakie plays with).

      It's a film with a heart of celebration and it will serve to push the wartime popularity of Grable, who becomes America's best known pinup girl. It's release only four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor could be viewed as a tribute to the island way of life, but I honestly don't know how Americans viewed its release so soon after the historic surprise attack.
      2LeonardKniffel

      Cartoonish Claptrap

      Not so much a comedy as an opportunity to show off Betty Grable's million-dollar gams, this stinker is rendered unwatchable largely upon the arrival of two idiots (played by Victor Mature and Jack Oakie) to a fictional Hawaiian island inhabited by rival white guys and a tribe of good-hearted natives. For some unfathomable reason Oakie is pursued by a native woman and her cannibalistic cohort, both of whom are man hungry, so to speak. The absurdity of Grable as having grown up on the island and thereby mastering the hula outweighs the genuinely Hawaiian musical interludes, and although it was filmed in color, most of the sea scenes are obviously movie sets.

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      Related interests

      Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
      Comedy
      Prince and Apollonia Kotero in Purple Rain (1984)
      Music
      Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
      Romance

      Storyline

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      Did you know

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      • Trivia
        Cut from the release print was a ballad called "Blue Shadows and White Gardenias" (music and lyrics by Mack Gordon and Harry Owens), sung by Betty Grable and Victor Mature (dubbed by Ben Gage). The melody remains in the background score. Bing Crosby, for Decca Records, waxed a version issued originally on a 78.
      • Quotes

        Jeff Harper Jr.: If you see me in the moonlight, you better yell aloha and start running.

      • Connections
        Featured in Film Preview: Episode #1.3 (1966)
      • Soundtracks
        Song of the Islands (Na Lei O Hawaii)
        (1915) (uncredited)

        Written by Charles E. King

        Played during the opening credits

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      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • March 13, 1942 (United States)
      • Country of origin
        • United States
      • Language
        • English
      • Also known as
        • Sången till Söderhavet
      • Filming locations
        • Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawaii, USA(background shots)
      • Production company
        • Twentieth Century Fox
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 1h 16m(76 min)
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.37 : 1

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