What an absurd, ridiculous, simply awful picture!
Except of course if you enter into a trance whenever Bing Crosby starts crooning in a film and do not really care at all about the rest. Then maybe you'll enjoy this. I couldn't tell.
If this is not the case and you are impervious to the soft voice, blue eyes and limited acting talent of Bing, then hereafter are a number of reasons NEVER to lose 75 minutes in watching it as I did - it might seem short to you, I can assure you it does not feel like it.
Pick any of these reasons - they are all valid to consider it a stinker, and the list might even be expanded :
- the script. It is not simply silly and poor. It is extremely bad and annoying. By the way it is a transposition of the play The Admirable Crichton, which gets to be evoked by the characters at the end - and which is hopefully much better. It could not be worse at least.
- the filming. Constantly very low-grade - for instance the shipwreck, a real disaster indeed. Clueless and humorless.
- Carole Lombard's part. By far the worst one in which she had to waste her talent in her early career. She is a spoiled heiress - well, spoiled heiresses tended to be quite a lot of fun in comedies of the 30s, as Lombard herself more than convincingly demonstrated. Not this heiress - just plain dumb and witless character. Lombard's admirers, you should keep away. Not only will you be disappointed - you might get angry that such a poor role as a foil was offered her. Such as when she has to endure being filmed in a static shot a whole song with an expressionless crooning Bing Crosby, watching him fixedly and sort of making faces, just so as to have anything to do at all. Unaccountable, mindless cruelty to her from the director.
- the terrible sketches by Burns and Allen. It seems they were hugely popular comedy stars of their time. Well, whenever they started reappearing in this film, I cringed while thinking "oh no please, not them again!". I love absurd, nonsensical humor - but certainly not when it is as mediocre as that.
- the duet of princely money-chasers. Poor, poor young Ray Milland, one of them. I hope that later on he was able to smile on himself remembering he ever had to play such dismal stuff. He could - it did not ruin his career. I see that the actor playing the other prince never shot another film.
- and finally, Droopy the bear. Poor, poor bear. After some time I was not sure which apparitions, his or Burns and Allen's I most dreaded would take place again. Droopy gets the last laugh, that is the last no-laugh, in the film. Adequate conclusion.