It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Meet the Navy (1946) – Musical #827

Studio:
British National Films

Director:
Alfred Travers

Starring:
Lionel Murton, Margaret Hurst, John Pratt, Robert Goodier, Phyllis Hudson, Percy Haynes, Bill Oliver, Jeanette De Hueck, Oscar Natzke

Plot:
The story toggles between a Canadian Navy ship and the stage where performers are staging a show to entertain the troops. In addition to the rehearsals, the story shows the signaling of the end of the war, and antics of sailors trying to sing their song on film. The film ends with a Royal Command Performance.

Trivia:
• Members of the Royal Canadian Navy appeared in the film.
• Based on the the musical theater production, “Meet the Navy,” by the Royal Canadian Navy that was to entertain service members and help with enlistment.
• The original version was presented in Technicolor.

Notable Songs:
• “Meet the Navy”
• “In Your Little Chapeau”
• “Rockettes and the WRENS”
• “Beauty on Duty”
• “You’ll Get Used to It”

My review:
Well this was strange.

Sometimes the IMDB star ratings don’t feel quite fair, but the 4.8 stars (out of 10) allocated to MEET THE NAVY (1946) feels appropriate.

I’m really not quite sure what to say about this one. The plot is even a bit difficult to decipher.

In the film, the story toggles between a Canadian Navy ship and the stage where performers are staging a show to entertain the troops. In addition to the rehearsals, the story shows the signaling of the end of the war, and antics of sailors trying to sing their song on film. The film ends with a Royal Command Performance.
This was one of few film credits for most of the actors in this film, which also makes both the performances and the characters forgettable.

The film is filled with several pleasant tunes that are just as forgettable as the film’s performers.

The film is so disjointed as it goes back and forth between war and musical numbers.

What I will say is that this low budget, forgettable musical does actually do some interesting technical camera work. One is is a dream sequence where the whole screen is spinning as the dancers in the dream sequence perform.

The other is a rehearsal montage where we see dancers performing with chalk writing over the screen and periodically a zoom in on a the face of a man saying “No, no, no!”

It’s low budget, but it’s interesting to see that they tried to do something different. While this was originally filmed in Technicolor, the print I watched was in black-and-white.

Honestly, this movie should have been only 60 minutes instead of 80. It’s interesting to sometimes watch these low budget musicals, but this one is a bit dull.

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