BEFORE: The end of the (M)Archie Madness Tournament is in sight. Just one more war-themed picture after this one, then I'll tabulate the results. I'm back to Stanley Donen tonight, and of course it's the first pairing of director Donen with actor Cary Grant, which would later be followed by "Indiscreet", "The Grass is Greener", and "Charade".
THE PLOT: Three decorated Navy pilots finagle a four day leave in San Francisco. They procure a posh suite at the hotel and Commander Crewson, a master of procurement, arranges to populate it with party people.
AFTER: The first beauty shot of San Francisco looked extremely familiar - I spent 1 fabulous day in S.F. in 2012 right after Comic-Con, and as a result I now occasionally recognize landmarks from that city in films, like I do with New York, Boston and San Diego. I paused on the first shot of the hotel and called up my Flickr page - yep, that's the Fairmont, and I took almost exactly the same photo from the same angle, 55 years later of course. The interior shot matched as well, the Fairmont has one of those fabulous, opulent, unmistakable lobbies with brown marble and a giant staircase. I went there because of their notorious "Tonga Room", where one can have a drink in a rainforest setting, with indoor rain and canned thunder on various intervals. Of course, I was there on a Tuesday, and the Tonga Room is closed on Tuesdays, a fact that Anthony Bourdain failed to mention on his show "The Layover". Due diligence, Tony...
But that's not why you called, is it? Tonight's film centers on Navy pilots on leave who are tired of the war, which seems a bit of an odd topic for 1957, a time when films tended to either sensationalize World War II, or look back on it fondly. But if you're looking for the missing link between the attitudes of "From Here to Eternity" and "On the Town" and, let's say, "Kelly's Heroes" or "M*A*S*H", this could be it. Seamen here are human - they do their duty, but they also question whether following orders is right, they want to party, and in private they wonder how long this crazy war is going to be going on. They don't want to die - well, that just makes sense, now, doesn't it? And they break the rules when it comes to women and having a good time, because they feel that they deserve to do so.
That said, if you don't want to take this film so seriously, and you want to think of it as the film where Cary Grant goes on shore leave with Col. Klink from "Hogan's Heroes" and the alien from "My Favorite Martian", and they party with the hottie from "The Girl Can't Help It", well, I can't stop you.
There's an argument over the promotion of war itself - somehow our boys get roped into doing promotions for a shipping magnate, aka a war profiteer (Boo! We needed a villain!) but Cary Grant's character falls into a love triangle via the guy's fiancée, so that seems fair. How dare he try to profit from the war - he doesn't deserve to be married! And there's a debate over whether our heroes even deserve to be partying, because the Navy keeps trying to send them to a hospital for observation or some manufactured duty.
On the whole, this was a bit confusing - are they on leave or not? Was their absence approved, or did they bend the rules to get to San Francisco? And if they're not where they're supposed to be, how does the Navy know where they are? And is it OK to steal another man's girl, or sleep with a woman who's not your wife, just because you're on shore leave? I mean, the rules of proper society still apply, don't they? And if they were there just to party, why did Lt. Buzzkill keep trying to set them up to give rallying speeches at the shipyard?
Also starring Jayne Mansfield, Suzy Parker, Leif Erickson (last seen in "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd"), Ray Walston (last seen in "The Apartment"), Larry Blyden, Werner Klemperer (last seen in "Houseboat"), Harey Carey Jr., with a cameo from Nancy Kulp.
RATING: 4 out of 10 nylon stockings
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