Standard wartime musical with sailor Ted Barker (Jimmy Stewart) falling in love with beautiful tap dancer Nora Page (Eleanor Powell). Predictable complications ensure. Buddy Ebsen is in this too.
The songs are good, the tap dancing by Powell is incredible and there's a HUGE all out production number at the end--but I didn't really like this. The script is, to be charitable, lousy and there's some truly painful "humorous" dialogue with some horrid overacting. Also there's some really strange sequences...even for a musical. (Witness the one between Stewart, Powell and a cop in Central Park). The thing that ruins this is the profound miscasting of Stewart and Ebsen. Stewart just can't sing and his dancing isn't much better. Ebsen can't sing either and his "dancing" (which makes him look like he's having an epileptic fit) is unintentionally hysterical. This gets a 5 for the songs, dancing and Powell. However the terrible script, bad dialogue, annoying overacting and truly bizarre sights and sounds of Stewart and Ebsen singing and dancing make this almost unwatchable. ONLY for fans of old corny musicals.
The songs are good, the tap dancing by Powell is incredible and there's a HUGE all out production number at the end--but I didn't really like this. The script is, to be charitable, lousy and there's some truly painful "humorous" dialogue with some horrid overacting. Also there's some really strange sequences...even for a musical. (Witness the one between Stewart, Powell and a cop in Central Park). The thing that ruins this is the profound miscasting of Stewart and Ebsen. Stewart just can't sing and his dancing isn't much better. Ebsen can't sing either and his "dancing" (which makes him look like he's having an epileptic fit) is unintentionally hysterical. This gets a 5 for the songs, dancing and Powell. However the terrible script, bad dialogue, annoying overacting and truly bizarre sights and sounds of Stewart and Ebsen singing and dancing make this almost unwatchable. ONLY for fans of old corny musicals.