In the Navy (1941)

To my mind,a musical slapstick comedy, superior in interest to the Abbott and Costello hit of the previous year: "Buck Privates". This one is not about misadventures during basic training. The boys have been in the Navy for 6 years, yet have never been on a ship! Lou has been a shore baker for most of the time.Besides following the misadventures of A&C, the plot centers around the adversarial relationship between Dick Powell: a Sinatra- like crooner idol, and a phony chambermaid (Dorothy) for the place he is hiding out, trying to exit from his celebrity status. She wants to get snapshots of Powell before and after he enters the Navy, to accompany writ-ups of his current activities. Yes, a pretty dumb plot, but the main interest is in the comedy and music.As in "Buck Privates", we have the Andrews Sisters occasionally popping up to sing a song, none of the tunes being especially memorable, although the lyrics were good and often appropriate. Dick Powell also gets to sing a couple of songs. Lou steals some money, and Bud steals it from him, via a fixed shell game and confusing Lou's count of the bills....Lou has a crush on Patti Andrew, and tries to impress her by somehow getting assigned to orchestrate a rowing team practicing in a beached rowboat, with humerus consequences.....Later, aboard a battleship, Lou has a hilarious time trying to sleep in a hammock. Their ship heads for Hawaii, where the boys enjoy a feast, with hula girls and The Andrew Sisters to boot.Lou apparently accidentally spilled some potent sedative into a drink he served the captain and drank some himself. Both are knocked out cold. Lou has a dream in which he is the captain and The Andrew Sisters are ordered to visit the captain's cabin. After they arrive, he locks the door. He wants to show off his skill as captain, barking various contradictory orders through the loudspeakers. Of course, his ship zig-zags between the several others close by, and is headed straight for a ship when he awakens.What about Powell and the phony 'maid" Dorothy? Well, maybe you can guess how they turn out at the end. Claire Dodd, who played the "maid", retired from films after the following year, to get remarried and raise a family.

Released in 1941 - "In the Navy" was one of the top 5 most popular films of that year. And Abbott & Costello got a lot more screen-time to perform some of their most clever comedy routines, like the hilarious "Lemon Bit", a crooked, sleight-of-hand shell game, and the equally priceless math routine where Abbott proves to Costello that 7 times 13 equals 28.Just like "Buck Privates", "In The Navy" was also a WW2 service comedy, clearly intended to encourage American men to enlist in the US Armed Forces. And also, like "Buck Privates", this film contains a number of well-staged song & dance numbers, featuring the talents of The Andrews Sisters and crooner, Dick Powell.Bud and Lou play characters, Smokey Adams and Pomeroy Watson (respectively), a pair of rascally, bottom-of-the-rung, gopher gobs stationed on the US battleship, Alabama.As one could only expect from Bud & Lou, our navy boys never fail to get themselves into a whole lot of wacky trouble with a whole lot of their fellow shipmates.I think that it's interesting to note that before "In The Navy" could be released into theaters it was first screened for officers of the actual US Navy.When offence was found in the sequence where Pomeroy Watson (Costello) impersonates a captain and puts the battleship through a series of madcap maneuvers, it was ordered to be deleted from the picture.Since this sequence was the film's climax, it couldn't be removed and so Universal Studios solved the officers' complaints by making this sequence Pomeroy's dream. And, with that, everybody was happy.

In The Navy does at times feel rushed, you sense that it was what is commonly known today as a cash cow !, it was rushed thru to capitalise on the success of Buck Privates the previous outing from the duo. Abbott & Costello are widely regarded and lauded for saving Universal Studios bacon, so with that in mind I feel that it would be churlish of me to downgrade the film for its forced feel, but sadly it is evident regardless.Yet for me to even suggest that the film is less than entertaining would be doing a big disservice to all involved, all the expected formula's are in here, the gags from the boys hit the mark, with the "find the submarine sequence" particularly mirth inducing, and of course the musical warbling of The Andrews Sisters offers foot tapping relief. The film does exactly what it says on the tin, open it up expecting fun and light relief, and you will get it in spades, a safe 6/10.

Having recently laughed my way through 'Buck Privates' and 'Keep 'em Flying', I was largely disappointed by this navy tribute. 'Hold that Ghost' was literally put on hold in order to speed up the release of 'In the Navy', and it showed, most noticeably in the less than special effects for the final sequence.Dick Powell was a welcome addition to the cast but he really wasn't given much of a chance to show his talents. The songs overall lacked the punch so evident in 'Buck Privates', and later on, in 'Keep 'em Flying'. A fatal error was the so-called romance between Lou and Patty. The lead singer of the Andrews Sisters may have been a great vocalist but she was a woeful actress. Where were you, Martha Raye? My favourite Bud and Lou gag was the 'Sons of Neptune'. With the boys ad-libbing all the way through, it seemed evident that they and the rest of the cast and crew had a great time getting through the sequence. Director Arthur Lubin, according to author Jim Mulholland, began to laugh uncontrollably during this take. An interesting point from the same source - the censor requested the director not show the actual spitting of water into anyone's face.