Producer: Solomon C. SiegelCopyright 25 July 1952 by 20th Century- Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 25 July 1952. U.S. release: August 1952. U.K. release: 15 September 1952. Australian release: 23 October 1952. Sydney opening at the Regent. 7,495 feet. 83 minutes.
NOTES: Donna Lee Hickey changed her name to May Wynn, which was also her character's name in "The Caine Mutiny".
COMMENT: The trouble with "Dreamboat" is that, whilst the script has a very promising central comic idea, it doesn't develop it as entertainingly as it might (the obligatory romantic episodes between the two ingénues are a dead loss).
What it really lacks is the kind of bright, witty, sophisticated dialogue such a subject demands.
Dull, steadfastly routine direction specializing in long, static takes, doesn't help. Miss Rogers looks a bit past her prime, though she is very ravishingly attired. The rest of the cast is adequate. The send-ups of the silent screen are by no means clever, consisting solely of exaggerated acting. No explanation is tended for the peculiar, speeded-up effect that was most definitely not a characteristic of the original movies.
Most of the stock footage is not from silent films anyway, but from such films as The Mark of Zorro (1939). Still, there's a good fight sequence with Webb imitating his screen counterpart.
OTHER VIEWS: Writer/director Claude Binyon had a mighty good idea, but the conventional way he develops it is pretty disappointing. Despite the sterling efforts of a large and most interesting roster of players, and some delightful spoofs of TV commercials from Mr Magoo's U.P.A., Dreamboat is no more than passably entertaining at best. - JHR writing as George Addison.
NOTES: Donna Lee Hickey changed her name to May Wynn, which was also her character's name in "The Caine Mutiny".
COMMENT: The trouble with "Dreamboat" is that, whilst the script has a very promising central comic idea, it doesn't develop it as entertainingly as it might (the obligatory romantic episodes between the two ingénues are a dead loss).
What it really lacks is the kind of bright, witty, sophisticated dialogue such a subject demands.
Dull, steadfastly routine direction specializing in long, static takes, doesn't help. Miss Rogers looks a bit past her prime, though she is very ravishingly attired. The rest of the cast is adequate. The send-ups of the silent screen are by no means clever, consisting solely of exaggerated acting. No explanation is tended for the peculiar, speeded-up effect that was most definitely not a characteristic of the original movies.
Most of the stock footage is not from silent films anyway, but from such films as The Mark of Zorro (1939). Still, there's a good fight sequence with Webb imitating his screen counterpart.
OTHER VIEWS: Writer/director Claude Binyon had a mighty good idea, but the conventional way he develops it is pretty disappointing. Despite the sterling efforts of a large and most interesting roster of players, and some delightful spoofs of TV commercials from Mr Magoo's U.P.A., Dreamboat is no more than passably entertaining at best. - JHR writing as George Addison.