LUXURY LINER

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. 

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! ***. 

TARZAN TRIUMPHS

TARZAN TRIUMPHS (1943). Director: William Thiele.

Jane is out of Africa looking after her sick mother when who should show up but the beauteous Zandra (Frances Gifford of Jungle Girl). She saves Boy's life but then finds herself in trouble when a pack of loathsome Nazis -- who first pretend to be friends -- descend on her tribe in the city of Pallandria and begin to enslave them. At first Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) stays out of the conflict, making him seem not very heroic, but he cries "Now Tarzan make war!" when Boy (Johnny Sheffield of Bomba the Jungle Boy) is kidnapped and he, Zandra, Boy -- and of course, the magnificent Cheeta -- roust the invasion of German soldiers. Tarzan seems pretty hot for Zandra in at least one sequence when they go swimming. The actors are all fine for this sort of thing, and Cheeta proves once again that he is the most wonderful and talented creature in all of Hollywood's animal kingdom. Cheeta dances to band music, steals grapes from monkeys (and then has to return them, chastened) and even talks on the radio to the Germans. The final shot of Cheeta about to talk to Hitler is priceless! Sig Ruman plays a Nazi sergeant.

A note of sheer disillusionment: Apparently Cheeta was actually played by a wide variety of chimpanzees. The Cheeta feted here died in 2011 and may not have appeared in any movies. Well, whichever Cheeta played what, these chimps were cute and talented and the highlight of every movie they were in.

Verdict: They should have given Cheeta -- whoever he was -- his own picture! **1/2.

JUNGLE GIRL

JUNGLE GIRL 15-chapter Republic serial (1941). Directors: William Witney; John English. 

Nyoka (Frances Gifford), who lives in the jungles of Cairobi with her father Dr. Meredith, doesn't realize that he has been replaced by his evil twin brother Bradley (Trevor Bardette). Nyoka not only has to deal with the sinister machinations of the medicine man, Shamba (Frank Lackteen), but with the deadly wiles of Bradley's confederate, Slick Latimer (Gerald Mohr). At least the brave Nyoka has three allies: the pilot Jack Stanton (Tom Neal of Detour fame), his buddy and co-pilot Curly (Eddie Acuff), and the little native boy Kimbu (Tommy Cook). 

Jungle Girl, loosely based on a novel by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, is packed with action and deadly situations that occur within each chapter and not just at the end of each. Nyoka is suspended over a fire and tied to logs by straps, shrinking due to the heat, which are about to snap her into the flames; or is nearly drawn and quartered by the sadistic Shamba. Kimbu falls off a rope bridge and is nearly eaten by a crocodile. Jack gets trapped in a pit with a hungry lion in one chapter and dangles overhead in a trap as another tries to claw him from the ground in another. Nyoka herself battles a lion to the death at one point. And these aren't even the cliffhangers! 

The actual cliffhangers present a flood of water that nearly washes the good guys out of a cavern and off of a cliff; a thatch of fiery oil on the river that nearly roasts them alive; a slipping log that traverses a high chasm; and a trap that consists of a room with a floor that moves to reveal what appears to be a bottomless pit! One of the best cliffhangers and action scenes has to do with Jack trapped on a conveyor belt that draws him ever nearer to a huge block of stone that repeatedly mashes downward as his head gets closer and closer. The suspense over this sequence continues into the following chapter where Jack continues to be in danger as Nyoka and the others battle all around him. There is a superb fight to the death between Jack and Slick on an airplane for the memorable and highly satisfying climax. 

Curly isn't just comedy relief, although he does figure in the funniest scene, when he throws his voice to make little Kimbu think that his adorable monkey can talk! Later on, when Curly is unjustly accused of murdering the native chief, he realizes that they will kill everyone else just to get to him and is willing to sacrifice his life to save the others -- until the truth comes out. The actors are fine, with Mohr, in one of his best roles, taking top honors as the slimy Slick. Neal makes a more than adequate two-fisted hero, and Gifford is lively and athletic. Bardette is fine as both the sympathetic doctor and his very unsympathetic brother. Tommy Cook is a charmer as Kimbu, as is his little monkey. There's even a very hammy gorilla in chapter eight. Al Kikume, who played Lothar in Mandrake the Magician, is herein cast as Chief Lutembi. Ken Terrell, who played Mrs. Archer's butler Jess in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, is cast as another native. Gifford also appeared in Henry Aldrich Gets Glamor. The theme music sounds like something you'd hear for a "safari" act in a nightclub. 

NOTE: The Perils of Nyoka, made by Republic the following year, was probably not an "official" sequel. In this Nyoka's dead father [killed in the first chapter of Jungle Girl] somehow turns up alive. 

Verdict: One of the best serials ever made! ***1/2.

HENRY ALDRICH GETS GLAMOR

HENRY ALDRICH GETS GLAMOR (1943). Director: Hugh Bennett.

The Henry Aldrich series, about a bumbling, girl-crazy teen, was made to cash in on the popularity of the Andy Hardy series. This entry is a charming if mildly amusing time-waster that has Henry winning a date with a glamorous movie star, Hilary Dane, played by Frances Gifford. Hoping to convince her studio that she's innocent enough to play Juliet in a new production of Romeo and Juliet, Gifford decides to string Henry along for a romance and goes to the dance with him. When a photo of him supposedly kissing the star winds up in the paper in Centerville, everyone improbably assumes that Henry has become a big lover boy. Soon he's gotten the reputation of a wolf, and his father's plans to run for office are derailed. His reputation as an unlikely Casanova is cemented when he takes Gifford out to the secluded patio at the dance and walks back in sporting the huge lipstick imprint of a kiss on his face. Jimmy Lydon offers a splendid comic portrayal as Henry Aldrich, and he gets able support from Charles Smith as his loyal buddy “Dizzy” and Diana Lynn as Phyllis, the shy girl who has an unrequited crush on him. John Litel is Aldrich's father; while competent, he's not in the league of Lewis Stone, the “father” of the Hardy series.

Verdict: Mildly amusing and easy to take. **1/2.