Swing It, Sailor!
Cast & Crew
Raymond Cannon
Wallace Ford
Ray Mayer
Isabel Jewell
Mary Treen
Max Hoffman Jr.
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As "Reveille" sounds on a U.S. Navy battleship approaching shore, sailor Pete Kelly remains asleep. The bosun's mate Hardy tips his hammock over, but before Pete can hit Hardy, Pete's large, dim-witted pal, Husky Stone, who loyally does Pete's work, fights his fights and gives him money, intercedes. When Hardy assigns Pete the task of painting the top of the smoke stack, Pete feigns a dizzy spell, and Husky does the job for him. After black paint from his bucket tips over into the face of the officer inspecting the ship, Pete is ordered to see the captain. Worried that Husky, who is love-struck for a blonde named Myrtle Montrose, will marry her and leave the Navy if he goes ashore alone, Pete sends Husky instead to the captain. When Husky, instead of Pete, is put into the brig, Pete visits Myrtle, who indignantly throws him out. Husky, who has been released after blaming Hardy for the mishap, then arrives. Pete, Husky, Myrtle and her roommate, Gertie Burns, go for a motorboat ride, and the next afternoon, Pete and Myrtle meet to try to exchange a parrot Husky gave her for a puppy. After the parrot repeatedly cries out "mad dog," which causes havoc among the customers in the pet store and animals who escape from their cages, the distraught owner gives Myrtle both the parrot and the puppy if they agree to leave immediately. In the next few days, Myrtle makes excuses to Husky and goes out with Pete. When Gert expresses doubts that Pete is the marrying kind, Myrtle baits Pete by showing him an ad for an engagement ring and saying that it is just like the one Husky is going to give her. When Pete objects, she embraces him in front of Gert and tells her they are engaged. One night at a dance hall, Hardy cuts in on Pete and Myrtle and tells her that Pete has been romancing her only to keep Husky, his stooge, away from her. Husky arrives and, seeing Hardy with Myrtle, knocks him out. When Myrtle tells him about Pete, Husky punches him, while Myrtle breaks a vase over his head. The fleet leaves for bombing exercises with Husky not speaking to Pete. As they repair the hull of a ship being used for target practice, Husky is hit on the head by a wooden beam and knocked out. After the bombing resumes, Pete realizes that Husky has been left on the hull and swims to rescue him just before the boat explodes. In the hospital, Husky, still not speaking to Pete, receives a package containing the parrot with a note from Myrtle, who is now married. As the parrot recites the names of all of Myrtle's ex-boyfriends, the two friends laugh.
Director
Raymond Cannon
Cast
Wallace Ford
Ray Mayer
Isabel Jewell
Mary Treen
Max Hoffman Jr.
Cully Richards
George Humbert
Tom Kennedy
Alexander Leftwich
Kenneth Harlan
James Robbins
Rex Lease
Kernan Cripps
Crew
Edward L. Alperson
Lieut. Comm G. W. D. Dashiell U.s.n. Rtd.
David Diamond
David Diamond
Richard Fryer
Gaston Glass
Aaron Hibley
A. E. Kaye
Harold Lewis
Clarence Marks
Abe Meyer
Gene Milford
Stanley Murphy
Louis Rachmil
Glenn Rominger
Percy Rowland
John Sherwood
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was He Wanted to Marry. According to the pressbook in the copyright descriptions, this film was to be the first in a series of four comedies starring Wallace Ford and Ray Meyer, each of which was to have as its background a different branch of the military. The series, which was to have been "on the order of the never-to-be-forgotten 'Flagg' and 'Quirt' of the Marines" series, which starred Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe, never materialized beyond this film. According to news items, the screenplay was based on an original by Percy Rowland, who did not receive screen credit. Reviews note that Navy stock shots were used in the naval training scenes and in the rescue scene.
