Waikiki Wedding (1937)

Purely Joyful Movie!

best movie i've ever seen.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This film -- like most of Bing's films from the 1930s -- is eclipsed from the bigger budget Crosby films of the 1940s. Nevertheless, this is a rather pleasant diversion that includes several Hawaiian themed songs that were forever thereafter associated with Crosby.Here, Crosby plays a publicity agent for a pineapple company whose latest publicity stunt -- a young lady (Shirley Ross) from the continental United States -- is chosen as the "Pineapple Girl" and is given "3 romantic weeks" in Hawaii; which she finds rather rather dissatisfying and she decides to head back stateside, thus ruining the publicity campaign. Crosby to the rescue, but he misidentifies the girl in question, thinking it is Martha Raye. Meanwhile, by pure coincidence, he falls in love with Ross, not knowing she is the actual "Pineapple Girl".There's a lot of nonsense about a sacred pearl stolen from a local shrine. It's kind of a dead end part of the plot, although it does give us a chance to see a very young Anthony Quinn as a native Hawaiian. There's more nonsense about a pig. Don't ask.In the end -- of course -- Crosby wins Ross, only then finding out she is the real "Pineapple Girl".Among the great songs here are "Blue Hawaii" and "Sweet Leilani".Crosby is...well...Crosby. No great acting here. Just the pleasant personality audiences enjoyed back then. Ross is fairly good here, too. Martha Raye contributes her comic relief. Bob Burns, as Crosby's buddy, also provides comic relief...although I found him more annoying than humorous.It's a decent film. Better than "Double Or Nothing", which is often on the same DVD disc. Probably more for Crosby fans, although the on location outdoor photography makes the Hollywood scenes believable as Hawaii in the 1930s.

How many clichés can you pack into one movie? Paramount answered the question with "Waikiki Wedding." You've got lithe dancing natives (a few of whom actually look like they're from the islands,) miles of leis, a mysterious black pearl, a volcano that's about to blow, a contest to name Miss Pineapple and even Anthony Quinn (yep, that Anthony Quinn) as a local roustabout. All that's missing are the nuptials of the title. Bing Crosby saunters through the stereotypes as an idea man for a fruit company who spends most of his time lolling on his sailboat, dreaming up promotion stunts and singing island refrains. Toss in a pair of walking clichés -- Martha Raye and Bob Burns -- and appreciate that this was what Crosby had to go through before the studio recognized his potential.

A mixed blessing. Bing, as usual is in fine form, and the songs are not only worth listening to because of Bing's mastery, but the Rainger-Robin numbers are reasonably attractive in their own right. Of course the stand-out is "Sweer Leilani" by Harry Owens. The story, however, is another matter. True, it starts most promisingly and for a while there it looks as if George Barbier and Grady Sutton are going to enjoy some stellar moments. But this promising sub-plot is soon all but junked in favor of a ridiculous lot of drivel about a stolen black pearl which the script writers themselves undermine when they turn it into a Clayton's affair. (For those unacquainted with liquor, the non-alcoholic Clayton's is extensively advertised as "the drink you have when you're not having a drink." Therefore a Clayton's plot is the plot you have when you're not having a plot). Poor old Anthony Quinn is cast in this segment and looks as puzzled by the script's casual turnabout as we do. Of course, if you decide midway through your movie to junk your plot, you've got to produce a substitute. This the writers promptly do. In fact, they produce two substitutes. The first is a series of strained slapstick scenes involving Martha Raye and Bob Burns, and the second a slightly more bearable but nonetheless ridiculous lot of twaddle involving Bob Burns and Leif Erickson. But the writers do have a nice trick up their sleeve for the Crosby-Ross fade-out. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell director Frank Tuttle to make sure the actress involved, Emma Dunn, played her scene tongue-in-cheek. Maybe they did tell him and Tuttle refused. Or maybe they simply assumed that Tuttle would cotton on. Anyway, as the movie now ends, thanks to Tuttle's incompetence, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth. No audience likes to feel that it's being taken for a ride and critics don't like it either. If a scene is tongue-in-cheek is supposed to be played that way. In fact, the whole movie is a tongue-in-cheek affair. Quinn is obviously aware of this. Understandably, he looks rather puzzled and plays at half steam – which is certainly a good decision, especially if you're not receiving any advice from a seemingly unaware director. Crosby, of course, just breezes trough the movie in his usual fine, casual style. And photographically, my hat's off to Robert C. Bruce who has enlivened his location material with some really captivating yachts-at-dusk footage.

In 1937 Bing Crosby made a celebrated trip to the Hawaiian Islands and stayed about a month. Of course being the mega star he was at the time, the trip was accompanied with the usual fanfare and publicity and when he got back Paramount took full advantage of the publicity with Waikiki Wedding.It would have been nice if in fact they'd sent him back to Hawaii and did some beautiful color location photography, but I assume that Adolph Zukor felt that for the studios own homegrown South Sea island gal, Dorothy Lamour never got off Paramount's backlot, they wouldn't do more for Bing.However they did give Crosby a good, amusing plot and some nice songs to sing. Crosby plays a publicist for a Pineapple company who has had the idea to sponsor a Miss Pineapple contest with the winner getting an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii and to send back articles about the great time she's having and hawk the virtues of Hawaiian Pineapples. But the winner, Shirley Ross, ain't havin' such a good time, she's bored. So Bing concocts this elaborately staged adventure involving a stolen idol, a volcano, some natives and Shirley loves it and him. It all resolves itself in the end. George Barbier who's a favorite character actor of mine from the 30s plays Bing's boss at his choleric best. Crosby gets good support from Martha Raye and Bob Burns. Martha Raye was doing the second of three films she did with Bing. Bob Burns, who is forgotten today was a regular on Bing's Kraft Music Hall radio show. He played a hillbilly type character with a touch of Will Rogers without the topical humor. He did two films with Bing and retired from show business in 1941.Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin did the score which includes the classic Blue Hawaii, reprised later by Elvis Presley. However the number one song in the movie at the time was Sweet Leilani, word and music by Hawaiian composer Harry Owens. Bing heard the song while in Hawaii and insisted it be included in the picture. It won an Oscar that year for best song and Crosby had a big hit record of it. Nice Entertaining movie in the Crosby manner.