Why would I watch this again? Because I think I've fallen in love with Jessie Matthews.
...but back to this particular film; the premise is that a Royal Navy ship's crew are to put on a concert but none of the crew have any talent. That's the joke, ok, not a very funny one but it makes for interesting viewing such as Dr Watson being a pantomime horse - when else would you will watch three whole minutes of Nigel Bruce dancing as a pantomime horse? The concert is therefore meant to be bad but that ethos seems to have imbued this whole film.....it's a bad film. It is however so bad that it's almost good - or at least weirdly entertaining. The acting isn't what most people would call acting - reading words would describe that more aptly. Direction cannot be criticised because there does not appear to have been any so the overall result is that this looks more like a rehearsal than a motion picture from a major film studio.
The other strand to the story concerns a crusty old politician visiting this ship which is inevitably full of sex-starved sailors. Inexplicably he brings along his beautiful daughter and because the script seems to have been written by one of those same sex-starved sailors, this gorgeous dream-girl spends the rest of the film flirting with whichever sailor is walking past. The beautiful daughter is of course the beautiful Jessie Matthews.
This is probably her worst picture so anyone not familiar with her should definitely not start with this. This is a picture strictly for the converted but even for us fans her acting feels forced, her character is completely one-dimensional, she's not actually very good but none of that matters too much. Just her joyous, effervescent screen presence is all that's needed to make this stupid, badly made un-funny comedy peculiarly entertaining.
Although Clara Bow is remembered these days as the 'it girl' really nobody had 'it' as much as Jessie Matthews. What's so intriguing and dizzying about her is how your mind tries to reconcile that face which is the absolute epitome of innocence, sweetness and purity with her sexually charged, strong willed and naturally vibrant personality. That dichotomy coupled with her well-publicised love life including sleeping with the future Edward VIII, sex scandals and stories about her wearing see-through clothing is like finding out that Snow White has made a porn film. She was the ultimate sex symbol of the 1930s and although this particular film is terrible, her star quality just about manages to make it quite fun.
