Prolific Hollywood director Christy Cabanne relied on his own experiences in the United States Navy for Annapolis Salute (1937), a tale of romance, honor, sacrifice, and camaraderie on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Enjoying a rare role out of cowboy duds, western actor James Ellison plays a promising recruit whose love for civilian Marsha Hunt (on loan to RKO from Paramount) threatens to disrupt the career path laid out by his father (Harry Carey). Complicating matters is the attention paid to Hunt by Ellison's fellow midshipman Van Heflin (in his third film). Taylor Hackford's Academy Award-winning An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) would add little to a formula that Cabanne had laid out fifty years earlier, to the point of introducing a leggy cadet chaser (Ann Hovey) whose heartless ambition has a devastating effect on the lives of others. Van Heflin was pointed here to a long and rewarding career while costar Ellison went on to key roles in Fox's The Undying Monster (1942) and RKO's I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Leading lady Marsha Hunt's liberal politics got her into trouble with the House on Un-American Activities Committee while sixth-billed Arthur Lake was next cast as Dagwood Bumstead in Columbia's long-running Blondie film series.

By Richard Harland Smith