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| George Brent and Jane Powell |
LUXURY LINER (1948). Director: Richard Whorf.
Widower Jeremy Bradford (George Brent) is the captain of a luxury liner. His precocious daughter, Polly (Jane Powell), wants to go with him on a cruise to Rio, but he insists that she finish her studies first. The determined young lady decides to become a stowaway, first to spend time with her dad, and second to audition for famous tenor Olaf Eriksen (Lauritz Melchior), who is also voyaging to South America. Instead she winds up peeling potatoes and scrubbing the corridors! Others on the boat include the man-hungry soprano Zita Romanka (Marina Koshetz); Laura Dean (Frances Gifford), who is trying to get away from her ex-fiance; and said fiance Charles Worton (Richard Derr), who is determined to win her back. Although Polly tries to get the lovers back together, a complication is that her father is falling for Laura himself.
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| Brent with Frances Gifford |
Luxury Liner is a gorgeous MGM technicolor bauble with no pretentions to great art, but it is an entertaining trifle that is good to look at and listen to. There is no score as such, just some older tunes that work well with this material. Melchior gets to sing
Wintersturm, there's a dandy production number with Polly leading the kitchen staff in
Alouetta, Polly sings a bit of Massenet's
Manon, and even Xavier Cugat and his band get into the act with a zesty Latin number. Powell, who has a beautiful voice, even looks attractive when she does a trouser role in her school play at the film's opening. The Pied Pipers singing group get a number and Met soprano Koshetz also gets a chance to shine. Amiable and amusing as a man-chaser, she appeared in several other films as well. Brent does well with this unchallenging material, as does Powell, and Gifford was in everything from the great serial
Jungle Girl to Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour, acquitting herself nicely in all. Melchior not only has a fine voice but a winning personality; he also did other movie musicals. Thomas E. Breen makes an impression as the sailor, Mulvey, as does John Ridgely,
Verdict: The captain has a grand piano in his cabin! ***.
I had a girlfriend that looked like Jane Powell so I've always got a soft spot for a JP film. I've never seen this one so it will give me a reason to seek it out.
ReplyDeleteEven if it's got George Brent in it, or as call him; the discount Brian Donlevy.
I never noticed just how many Bette Davis films he was in and hammed up his pretentious delivery.
Bill, I don't know why I'm being so critical today, I'll get over it!
Ha, Neil, there's nothing wrong in being critical. I liked Brent better than you do, although I admit I couldn't necessarily call him a great actor, though I don't know if he was ever as hammy as Bette Davis could be, LOL. I have always been a fan of Jane Powell's, very pretty, very talented. She was even good playing a "drunken slut" in that Hedy Lamarr film "Female Animal," a stretch for her that she handled adeptly. (This is not a comment on her private life, although she did have five husbands!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Neil!