Starring Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, Dan Dailey, and Virginia O'Brien
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter and others
We salute our men and women who fought and died on the high seas with this wartime hit. It started out on Broadway in 1940 as a popular vehicle for Ethel Merman, with music by Cole Porter. The start of World War II suddenly made its story about a nightclub singer and three sailors who get caught up in spy intrigue and her romance with a wealthy soldier even more relevant. How does all this look today? Let's start with an opening card admitting that the gobs in this movie get pretty goofy and find out...
The Story: Those three sailors who burst through the card, Red (Skelton), Rags (Rags Ragland), and Rowdy (Ben Blue), are huge fans of nightclub singer Hattie Mahoney (Southern). They're also convinced that spies are lurking around every corner. Hattie is in love with rich soldier Sgt. Dick Bullard (Dailey). She gets off on the wrong foot with his 8-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jackie Horner) when Gerry laughs at her ribbon-trimmed suit, but she soon makes friends with the child.
Hattie has a harder time with Lelia Tree (Marsha Hunt), the snooty socialite who is also after Dick. After Red gets two notes mixed up, Lelia angrily accuses Hattie of putting him up to it. Hattie insists Dick loves her, but after Lelia claims Hattie will just be in his way, she insists on leaving town. Hattie's sailor friends discover that the empty house mentioned in the first note may be the clue to the location of the spies they've been looking for...and their way of keeping Hattie around long enough to marry the right man.
The Song and Dance: Brief but charming. Despite Southern playing the title character, this one is really dominated by the three sailor comics. Skelton had some of his earliest exposure at MGM as the leader of the three, showing off the wacky pratfalls and babyish voices that would become his trademarks in later years. Southern does best playing off them and doing the sweet "Let's Be Buddies" with the adorable Horner. Virginia O'Brian has the most fun of the supporting cast as Hattie's best friend Flo, who gets to chase Dick's proper British butler Jay Jerkins (Alan Mobray).
The Numbers: We open in the nightclub with the chorus singing about "Hattie From Panama" and Hattie's sailors admiring how she performs the hit from this show, "I've Still Got My Health." The instrumental "Berry Me Not" lets the trio of Berry Brothers take command of the floor with their show-stopping tap routine. Lena Horne gets another Porter standard, the breezy "Just One of Those Things," later at the club. Flo sings the Porter patter number "Fresh as a Daisy" to explain her feelings for Jay. The trio of soldiers woo three pretty Panama lasses by insisting that they're all "Good Neighbors."
The last Porter song that made it into the film is "Let's Be Buddies." Hattie initially sings it with Gerry as they admit they got off on the wrong foot and want to start their relationship over. Flo picks it up as she grabs Jay and says she wants a relationship with him, period. The film ends with a band playing "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" as the sailors are saluted as heroes. Flo sings "Did I Get Stinkin' At the Savoy" at the nightclub, while Lena Horne and the Berrys introduce the audience to the South American dance number "The Sping." The film ends abruptly with the sudden burst of patriotism from Hattie and the cast, "The Son of a Gun Who Picks On Uncle Sam."
Trivia: Panama Hattie opened on Broadway in 1940 as a vehicle for Ethel Merman. The story seems to have been pretty much the same as the film, other than Hattie got more involved in helping the sailors capture the spies in the finale. Merman would do a second version for the short-lived TV show The Best of Broadway in 1954. Other than a few scattered staged concerts, Hattie has seldom been heard from since.
What I Don't Like: There's a reason for that. Hattie may be the quintessential 40's musical comedy...and as such, hasn't dated well beyond the end of World War II. Southern tries hard and is cute with Horner, but is otherwise no Merman. The three sailors dominate the action to such a degree, they pretty much crowd out everything else, including the love story between Hattie and her soldier. Dailey was at the start of his career and wouldn't really come into his own as a dancer and actor for another five years. Neither he nor Lena Horne (who is certainly capable of doing more than singing two songs) have much to do. There's also the loss of the full Porter score. I did hear it wasn't his best, but it would have been nice to have more songs that actually came with the show.
The Big Finale: Cute time-waster this holiday weekend if you're a huge fan of Skelton or 40's musicals, but nothing you really need to go out of your way for.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, the former in a remastered edition from the Warner Archives.
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