Melody Cruise

Dir. Mark Sandrich

76 Minutes

USA

1933

Starring: Charles Ruggles, Phil Harris, Helen Mack, Greta Nissen, Chick Chandler, June Brewster

**1/2/*****

Appearing to be a low rent Busby Berkeley-type knock-off, Melody Cruise main appeal is a mix of pre-code sleaze and Mark Sandrich's enthusiastic presentation of a fairly routine and superficial narrative about a "not the marrying kind" man falling in love for real aboard a cruise. The film hits some obvious beats, but the entire thing feels like preparation for Sandrich's much richer work with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire that would be right around the corner (one can even imagine Edward Everett Horton is the Charlie Ruggles role). But Phil Harris in the leading role is so unappealing, his magnetism perplexing, and the love story truly devoid of any stakes or charm. The films is most fun when Sandrich experiments with transitions, rhythm, and montage, with some of the sequences aboard the ship operating as if Eisenstein were crafting a musical. But even that eventually becomes showy and disjointed, with some “Mickey-mousing” bordering on the annoying over charming, and the picture is ultimately more an intriguing curio that anything special, a prelude to much better work to come.

April 14, 2020