Let's Go Navy!

Let's Go Navy (1951)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Silly but charming entry has Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) getting held up by a couple sailors who take off with nearly two grand. The boys decide to join the Navy to track down the thieves not knowing that the men were just in costume. It goes without saying but once on board the boys do non-stop damage. The 23rd entry is a pretty good one even though we're certainly not going to bear witness to any ground breaking comedy or Oscar-winning performances. I think the film does benefit from a better than normal screenplay that features a lot of longer takes that let the jokes come at a smaller but better pace than many of the previous entries. One of the best examples of this is a rather long sequence where the boys try to swab the decks but Sach keeps doing on dumb thing after another, which eventually gets under the skin of the CPO (Allen Jenkins). The scene goes on a good five minutes and instead of just one or two quick jokes the screenplay allows the scene to play out by letting the actors get into a rather good grove and actually perform. This sequence is followed with an even better one where Slip is feeding the Captain but doesn't realize the cheese on the plate is actually soap. Once again we could have had a couple simple jokes but instead the screenplay allows the scene to expand and really deliver something more than the obvious joke. It goes without saying but there are quite a few jokes that don't work and this includes a rather annoying talking bird that Sach becomes friends with. The actual robbery subplot doesn't have much going for it but I guess they were just looking for any cheap way to get the boys on the boat. Both Gorcey and Hall are up to their usual standards, although it seems like poor Sach is getting dumber with each new film. Charlita doesn't earn an Oscar but she's certainly worth looking at. Warner character actor Jenkins is in good form here and takes quite a beating but it was fun seeing him here. LET'S GO NAVY would appear to be a lazy entry just because the plot of a group of dummies going into the navy isn't original but the familiar set up actually leads to quite a few good jokes so fans of the series should find themselves entertained.