Corazón de marino

...because 5/10 seems too low and 6/10 seems too high.

MGM was late to the sound film game, and this movie released in December 1929 was the first sound film for MGM stars WIlliam Haines, Anita Page, and supporting player Karl Dane. In Dane's case it would be not only his first sound film but the biggest role he'd have in sound films before his career took a permanent and tragic downturn.

All of the sailors on Jack Kelly's (William Haines's) ship are being made to go to a dance being put on by some middle-aged society ladies. Most of the women there are considered very unattractive by Jack, but one stands out - Alice Brown (Anita Page). They have a pretty good time at the dance and a great time just spending time together the next day as well, but when Jack takes Alice home he confronts Mrs. Brown who hates sailors for some reason never explained and orders him to leave. Alice says she is leaving with Jack as she is sick of being treated like a child and that she is going to marry Jack. This puts Jack in a bind as he has always been a love-em-and-leave-em kind of guy, and marriage was not something he was planning on. Complications ensue.

This film is probably going to be of interest mainly to early sound film buffs as it has all of the signs of a studio grasping for a formula that works in a new medium. For example, one curious feature is some strange editing. In three or four scenes, when the actors walk off screen, there is a long pause between switching shots leaving only a blank room to look at for what seems a very long time. This usually happened at the very end of reels before the days of printed-in cue marks, especially with sound-on-disk, with several seconds of extra footage after the scene ends in case the projectionist is slow on making the changeover.

Another strange feature is just one song - "Navy Blues" - being sung or played throughout the film - by a group of unusually harmonious sailors, by an organ grinder, and by an orchestra at a dance hall. Maybe MGM didn't have much of a music budget after pulling out all of the stops for Broadway Melody?