"Miss Pacific Fleet" misses the boat as a comedy and entertaining film. There are a few good lines out of dozens in a script that seems to have been written for the vaudeville stage. That's the way many of the one-liners play here. And very few are funny. They are mostly, well ... vaudevillian of the earlier, corniest type used by wannabe performers who didn't get very far except to remote small towns in the old days that couldn't afford the top entertainers.
It does have something of a plot, but it's so choppy with uninteresting diversions and sloppy film editing, that there doesn't seem to be much of a story. Into this mess, Warner brothers assembled some of its second-string talent of the period. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell were just okay in a couple of films, but not even that good in most, including this one. Neither of them was of the status of the top comediennes of the period (Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Myrna Loy, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, etc.).
The forgetful, feeble-minded Hugh Herbert persona would only go so far until his character became irksome. Here, he just gets by as Mr. Freytag. The fact that he and Allen Jenkins (as Kewpie Wiggins) are the top male stars that Warner Brothers could match for this film says much, and it's not flattering for the film. But then, this screenplay really didn't have a spot for a hero or top male lead. Again, it says a lot about what the studio thought of the film.
I agree with the New York Times reviewer, Frank Nugent, in his critique. He wrote, "Miss Pacific Fleet should not have been impeded in its headlong flight for second place on a double-feature bill. Being placed alone on the Roxy's screen imposes too great a strain upon the picture and the audience..." He calls the film, "a mousey little photoplay." And, of Blondell and Farrell, he quips, "upon whose comic talents the Warners are placing too much emphasis." Nugent asks, "What more can one expect of a sub-Class B picture?"
This film came in 165th out of 178 movies tracked from 1935 - so there were some worse. I don't think many people in modern audiences would be able to sit through this whole thing - at least not awake.
A couple of malapropisms are the best one-liners of the film. Here are the few somewhat funny lines.
Kewpie's Landlady, "Pardon me for protruding, but you're wanted on the phone Mr. Wiggins."
Gloria Fay, "How can you eat watermelon, cucumbers and cheese and then bananas?" Kewpie Wiggins, "Can I help it I like bicarbonate?"
Kewpie Wiggins, "Whadda ya think I got a head for?" Gloria Fay, "Just an excuse to use a comb."
Kewpie Wiggins, "I got a pal. Sgt. Tom Foster. He'd do anything for me on account of I saved his life once." Gloria Fay, "How?" Wiggins, "He arrested me once and I went along without fightin'."
Mae O'Brien, "Suppose you got a black eye. How would ya look?" Kewpie Wiggins, "Out of the other one".
Sadie Freytag, "Nicholas, how would you like to make a hundred dollars?" Nicholas, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I ain't maken 'em anymore. From now on, I'm leavin' that to the government."
