Here come the waves

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Movie
Original title Here come the waves
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1944
length 99-100 minutes
Rod
Director Mark Sandrich
script Ken United Kingdom ,
Zion Myers ,
Allan Scott
production Mark Sandrich for Paramount Pictures
music Robert Emmett Dolan
camera Charles Lang
cut Ellsworth Hoagland
occupation

Here Come the Waves (German Here come the girls / women ) is an American comedic musical film of Mark Sandrich from 1944, which starred with Bing Crosby , Betty Hutton and Sonny Tufts are occupied.

action

Recruitment poster for WAVES

Women in the United States are quitting their jobs to join WAVES , the women who volunteered in the Naval Forces, US Navy , and the United States during World War II .

At sea, a United States Navy Reserve girls' choir known as Waves sing shanties on stage. At the same time, the Allison Twins are performing at the club and singing Join the Navy , one of the songs the Waves just sang. The twin sisters look very similar, even if one of them has blonde hair and the other is brunette. Both are very spirited, but otherwise very different in nature. The blonde Susan "Susie" Allison is rather wet and volatile, while Rosemary is serious and reliable.

Rosemary has been thinking about joining the Waves for a long time and can persuade her sister to do the same. Susie is not wholeheartedly involved because she is in love with the popular singer Johnny Cabot and fears that she will no longer attend his shows and can hardly see the man she secretly covets. However, she takes her collection of his records to the barracks, where she longingly listens to Johnny's song Moonlight Becomes You .

During their first outing, the twins attend a film screening in which Johnny plays the lead role and then sings the song That Old Black Magic on stage , which gets his fans racing. Johnny, who wanted to join the Navy like his old friend Windy "Pinetop" Windhurst, tells Windy backstage during the break that his application had been rejected because of his color blindness . After the show, the friends go to Club 21, where they meet Susie and Rosemary. Windy, who knows the girls, introduces them to Johnny. Like Windy, Johnny is instantly drawn to Rosemary. Rosemary, at whom the screaming and fainting women, who mainly make up Johnny's audience, caused horror during the show, is very reserved towards the singer and takes offense at the fact that Johnny is still a civilian.

Eventually, due to lower requirements, Johnny is accepted into the Navy and begins his training at the Naval Training Center San Diego , where Susie and Rosemary are also stationed. He hopes to be able to serve on the "USS Douglas", the ship on which his award-winning father was. Although Rosemary still has problems with Johnny being so popular with all the girls, she tries to get to know him a little better when Windy is suddenly recalled during a meal together and she is left alone with the newly arrived Johnny. When he sings the song Let's Take the Long Way Home to her as a farewell , she clearly feels that she is by no means indifferent to Johnny. Susan, on the other hand, tries to prevent Johnny from being seconded to the USS Douglas and forges Johnny's name in a document that now states that Johnny is downright predestined to campaign for the recruitment of more Waves. In fact, the surprised Johnny is now entrusted with taking on the lead. Assuming that Windy suggested him for this job, Johnny is angry that he deliberately wants to keep him off active duty, so he chooses him as his assistant as a punishment.

The first show is held aboard the USS Traverse Bay and Johnny and Windy, both black-faced, sing a song with the chorus Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive for the Waves. Rosemary, assuming Johnny wanted to retire from active duty, doesn't believe Johnny's assurance that anyone brought his name into play. She is determined to leave the show. Windy, who on the one hand is out for revenge and on the other hand wants to get rid of his opponent, hatches a plan with Susie that she puts on a dark wig and pretends to be Rosemary. In this disguise, she brings a liquor bottle to her mouth, which is actually cold tea, and wants Johnny to see her kissing Windy. Johnny is supposed to get a completely wrong impression of Rosemary. This is now confronted with having probably misjudged Rosemary.

Then when the big show takes place, Susie and other Waves have an appearance with the song If Waves Acted Like Sailors , which also includes the line “There is a guy waiting in Puoghkeepsie”. Johnny and Windy join these last lines. After the performance, Windy finds a note from Johnny's convincing Windy that Johnny's feelings for Rosemary are sincere and true. He then explains the truth to his friend and Susie also admits that it was she who brought Johnny into play. Johnny then returns to the show and sings the song I Promise You with Rosemary, who has begged his forgiveness . At the end of the successful show they all sing the song Here Come the Waves . It is now also known that Johnny and Windy will be transferring to the USS Douglas. When Susie kisses Windy goodbye, she passes out.

production

Production notes

The shooting took place between May 11th and August 5th 1944. Part of the shooting took place in San Diego , California .

Roland Anderson and Hans Dreier and Ray Moyer were responsible for the production design, and Edith Head for the costumes . Charles C. Coleman and George Templeton assisted the director, Haskell B. Boggs assisted the primary cameraman. The visual effects were in the hands of Farciot Edouart , Gordon Jennings , Paul K. Lerpae , Jan Domela, W. Wallace Kelley , Harry Perry and Irmin Roberts. Benny Carter and Sidney Cutner worked as orchestrators and Joseph J. Lilley as an additional composer.

The first director of WAVES Mildred McAfee (* May 12, 1900 † September 2, 1994)

The opening credits of the film said they were grateful for the collaboration with the United States Navy , especially the Women's Reserve . It was also stated that Mark Sandrich had spoken to Captain Mildred Helen McAfee, director of the Navy Women's Reservation , about his plans for this film. College students Kay Scott and Gloria Saunders were supposed to make their debut in this film, but are not mentioned further. Although Vera Marshe is said to have starred as Betty Hutton's double, she is not mentioned in the credits.

Music in the film

The following songs were composed and written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer , unless otherwise stated:

  • Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive , alternatively Accentuate the Positive , sung by Bing Crosby and Sonny Tufts
  • Got To Wear You Off My Weary Mind
  • I Owe It All To You
  • Here come the waves
  • I Promise You sung by Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton
  • Let's Take the Long Way Home sung by Bing Crosby
  • The Navy Song
  • A Woman's Work Is Never Done
  • That Old Black Magic sung by Bing Crosby
  • There's a Fella Waitin 'in Poughkeepsie sung by Betty Hutton
  • Strictly on My Own Tonight sung by Betty Hutton
  • Come Join the Waves , performed by Betty Hutton in a duet with herself
  • Brazil by Ary Barroso , played for the Latin American dancers in the nightclub
  • Anchors Aweigh , march written by Charles A. Zimmermann
  • Moonlight Becomes You , written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke , talk: Bing Crosby

The song My Mama Thinks I'm a Star , also written for the film, was not used in the film.

Bing Crosby recorded four of the songs for Decca Records . Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive was on the Billboard charts with a top position at number 2 for nine weeks.

publication

The film premiered on December 27, 1944 in New York, after it had previously shown in selected cinemas on December 18, 1944. Here Come the Waves was published in Sweden on November 8, 1945, in Mexico in March 1946, in Finland in December 1946 and in Turkey and Denmark in 1947. In 1949 it was first seen in Portugal. It was also published in Brazil and Norway.

reception

Success, criticism

The film ranked seventh on the list of the most successful films in America that year in 1944.

- contemporary -
Bosley Crowther reviewed the film in the New York Times , saying that Paramount and its favorite star Bing Crosby did not go the same way they took with Mr. Crosby's last film Going My Way , but they made a charitable U-turn in this film in which Sonny Tufts and Betty Hutton are Crosby's social companions. Accentuate the Positive is probably the best of the various songs contributed by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Miss Hutton is also great in her double role, especially as the wilder sister, with the gag song entitled Strictly on My Own Tonight (actually In Poughkeepsie Waiting for a Guy ). It is true that Miss Hutton's dual achievement should be confused with not high art, but her powerful virtuosity should certainly be praised. The humorous interludes were very successful, especially Bing Crosby's soulful travesty as the famous nameless 'powerless'.

Also varietys evaluation was positive. It was decided that Here Come the Waves was a pretty trite title, but the film managed to pull the lever and become top notch. Embedded in Crosby's clever song sequence, Jonny Mercer and Harold Arlen would have delivered a number of excellent songs, including the dandy novelty 'Accent - Tchu-ate the Positive' , two sparkling ballads with 'Let's Take the Long Way Home' and 'I Promise You' , the latter in a duet with Betty Hutton as alter ego, and with 'Old Black Magic' , a delicious swipe at Frank Sinatra.

- later -
Derek Winnert said that Mark Sandrich's patriotic wartime musical from 1944 was rather poorly written, but was saved by the rousing stars Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton as well as by a great new song by Arlen and Mercer Accentuate the Positive , which too was nominated for an Oscar.

Paul Mavis rated the film on the DVD talk page and spoke of a fast-paced, funny film with great songs with a sparkling Betty Hutton and a relaxed, self-parodying Bing Crosby. Here Come the Waves is exactly the kind of war propaganda that was well received by a war-weary audience. Betty Hutton deserves special praise for two different characters she embodied credibly. The special effects are also remarkably good for the time. The wild Susan, who plays Hutton with her sexy blond mane, is particularly attractive. Sonny Tufts, who has now largely been forgotten, had become fashionable during the war years for various reasons, and at Bing Crosby's side as a tall, flogging, slightly moronic sailor, he is doing well here. The film has a good sense of humor, although recruitment propaganda is being carried out, which, thanks to Crosby and Hutton, does not detract from the entertainment value. Here Come the Waves can still hold its own today.

DVD Beaver's Eric Cotenas said this was nowhere near one of the better Crosby musicals, thanks in part to the black and white version that would enhance the look of the recruiting movie it was essentially, as most musicals are in Technicolor would be rotated. The characterization is often vague and the motivation of the characters is glossed over, the love story is also extremely superficial here, just to make the machinations of the two antagonists appear meaner than just manipulative.

Award

Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) were with her song Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive , which they had written for this film at the Oscars 1946 in the category "Best Song" for a Oscar nomination. However, the trophy went to Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers with their song It Might as Well Be Spring, which they composed and wrote for the musical film Fair of Love .

WAVES

A WAVE

WAVES means Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service and is the abbreviation for the women who were accepted for voluntary emergency service in the United States' naval forces, the US Navy , during World War II . WAVES began serving in August 1942 when Mildred H. McAfee became the first woman in American naval history to be hired as a female officer and became the first female director of WAVES. After only one year, WAVES was able to record 27,000 women soldiers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Here Come the Waves see catalog.afi.com (English).
  2. ↑ A Bing Crosby Discography see page bingmagazine.co.uk (English).
  3. ↑ Pop memories 1890–1954 see page archive.org (English).
  4. ^ Bosley Crowther : Here Come the Waves (1944) In: The New York Times , December 28, 1944 (English).
    Accessed January 30, 2020.
  5. ↑ Here Come the Waves (1944) In: Variety , December 20, 1944 (English). Accessed January 30, 2020.
  6. ↑ Derek Winnert: Here Come the Waves *** (1944, Bing Crosby, Betty Hutton, Sonny Tufts, Ann Doran) -
    Classic Movie Review 7393     see page derektwinnert.com (English). Accessed January 30, 2020.
  7. ^ Paul Mavis: Bing Crosby: Screen Legend Collection - Here Come the Waves see page dvdtalk.com (English).
    Accessed January 30, 2020.
  8. ↑ Eric Cotenas: Here Come the Waves see page dvdbeaver.com (English, including various film posters and film images).