Panama Hattie

Plot synopsis:
Act I
Hattie Maloney owns a night club in the Panama Canal Zone where she also performs. Three sailors from the S.S. Idaho, Skat Briggs, Windy Deegan and Woozy Hoga, ask her to sing at a party they are organizing ("Join It Right Away"). Nick Bullet, Hattie’s fiance, is a wealthy Navy officer. They are about to meet his eight-year-old daughter Geraldine (Jerry), off the boat from Philadelphia. He tells Hattie, "My Mother Would Love You". Hattie, eager to make a good impression on her prospective stepdaughter, spends three weeks' wages on her elaborately frilly outfit. But when she arrives, Jerry makes fun of Hattie's clothing and way of speaking. Feeling that her marriage is off, Hattie gets drunk on rum ("I’ve still Got my Health"). Kitty-Belle, the daughter of Admiral Whitney Randolph, wants to marry Nick, and she schemes to end his romance with Hattie.
Florrie, a singer in the night club, develops a crush on Nick's very proper butler Vivian Budd ("Fresh as a Daisy"). Nick’s efforts to persuade Jerry and Hattie to get along with each other finally succeed, with Jerry making the still hungover Hattie cut the bows off her dress and shoes ("Let’s Be Buddies"). Jerry gives Hattie advice on how to behave like a lady at a party where she is to be presented to Nick’s boss, the Admiral ("I’m Throwing a Ball Tonight"). Admiral Randolph is to be presented with a cup, and his daughter Kitty-Belle suggests that Hattie might present it filled with goldenrod. This gives Whitney hay fever; Hattie is blamed, and Nick is ordered not to marry Hattie.
Act II
The sailors from the S. S. Idaho uncover a spy plot involving saboteurs. Hattie swears off rum ("Make It Another Old Fashioned Please"). Hattie has it out with Kitty-Belle, whose boyfriend keeps being called in whenever Hattie is on the verge of hitting her. Meanwhile, Florrie continues to try to attract the romantic attention of Budd ("All I’ve Got to Get Now is My Man"). Hattie, two of the sailors and Budd meet regarding these various threads ("You Said It"). Mildred Hunter, Kitty-Belle’s best friend, turns out to be a terrorist ("Who would Have Dreamed"). She gives Jerry a secret package to put in Nick’s desk. Fortunately, Hattie overhears the plot to blow up the Panama Canal control room, finds the bomb and throws it out, saving the day. The grateful Admiral Whitney retracts his order and the sailors praise Hattie ("God Bless the Woman").

Tags: romantic

Review:
I felt it my patriotic duty to write a comment, since this movie was commentless.
A little background:  I'm a big fan of Cole Porter, Ann Sothern, musicals, and 40's movies, and had been wanting to see this film for a while before I actually saw it this afternoon.
I saw another 30's Cole Porter musical turned into 40's movie, Dubarry Was a Lady.
Red Skelton was an idiot.
So, I entered with trepidation the world of Panama Hattie to realise that the script was quite witty, full of sight gags, yes, but tasteful sight gags, the non-Porter songs were not crap, Ann Sothern is a competent vocalist(Nothing compared to Merman, who originated the part, but really, who is anything compared to Merman?), and Lena Horne's in it.
Any movie with two Lena Horne numbers is worth watching simply for Lena Horne.
But, I suggest watching this movie for more than just Lena Horne.
While she is the best songstress of the bunch, Virginia O'Brian is rather fun to watch with her deadpan singing.
She was quite famous for that, as I vaguely recall watching a short of her doing a lavish production number with Jimmy Durante or someone similar.
I found Red Skelton, whom I so loathed in Dubarry Was a Lady, to be extremely likeable, along with his sailor buddies.
Rags Ragland was the funniest of the three, but I came away wanting to marry Ben Blue.
Dan Dailey was also fun to see, but I thought it was very odd that he didn't get a musical number.
Anyway, the plot is slim to none, but the movie really wasn't about plot, it was about fun and peddling war bonds..
PANAMA HATTIE (1942) is two different movies, plotwise.
One movie is about nightclub singer Hattie Maloney and her romance with a young soldier from a well-to-do Philadelphia family.
The other film is a slapstick comedy about a trio of sailors on shore leave, with a penchant for catching spies.
Juggling both, only tenuously connected plots in a 79-minute time frame means that neither story is properly developed.
And both stories give way to extended musical numbers, particularly at the end.Despite its obvious weaknesses, PANAMA HATTIE is a very entertaining collection of parts.
Red Skelton, Rags Ragland, and Ben Blue make a fine comedic team.
Ann Sothern impresses with her singing and Lena Horne is showcased in a couple of musical numbers with the dancing Berry Brothers.Two favorites of mine, the offbeat "deadpan" singer Virginia O'Brien and the lovely Marsha Hunt, are welcome presences in the congenial ensemble.
O'Brien shines in fun numbers like "Fresh as a Daisy" and "(Did I Get Stinkin') At the Savoy".
Hunt's mildly antagonistic Philadelphia snob is a bit of a change of pace for her, and she has some great comedic moments opposite Skelton.The film's finale becomes an interesting showcase of wartime patriotism, capped by the entire cast singing "The Son of a Gun Who Picks on Uncle Sam" about bombing the Japs and Heinies right off their Axis and whatnot.
The comic antics of Red Skelton was substituted for the songs of Cole Porter in this MGM adaption of his Broadway show Panama Hattie.
His other contemporaries suffered the same fate, but in Porter's case more so because of the sophisticated and naughty lyrics he wrote.Ethel Merman starred on Broadway beginning a run that lasted 501 performances.
Only Rags Ragland who along with Ben Blue was one of Red's sidekicks as a trio of oafish sailors who capture enemy spies by accident is the only survivor from the Broadway cast.
Ann Sothern takes Ethel's place as the star and she performs along with young Jackie Horner the big hit of the Broadway show Let's Be Buddies.
Only I've Still Got My Health and Fresh As A Daisy survived from Porter's original score.
But one of the best is from Porter himself when Lena Horne sang Just One Of Those Things.
In fact it doesn't get better than that.In the title role Sothern is the owner of a nightclub located in the Panama Canal Zone which is frequented like Rick's Cafe Americaine of all kinds of people from our Armed Forces and from an international assortment of mysterious and intriguing figures.
Some of them are planning to do damage to the Canal.Some are planning to damage to Sothern like Marsha Hunt who has her eye set on Army sergeant Dan Dailey.
But with Sothern guarding what she's got a previous claim on and the comic sailors guarding the Canal the spirit of America carries on.
Panama Hattie is more Red Skelton than Cole Porter and Porter fans will not be happy.
But it is a fun wartime film..
Even though Ethyl Merman originated the role on Broadway, she was not considered attractive enough to carry the starring top billing.
I am a real fan of Cole Porter and will watch anything he is involved with.
Unfortunately, a lot of his work is either not included in movies that tout "music by Cole Porter", or is thrown out because it may not be mainstream for the audience of the day.
Good example is "Anything Goes."This is a movie you watch for the musical performance and dancing, not the story.
I pull out the DVD about twice a year and again visit Cole Porter and this innocent musical.Lena Horne is outstanding..
mediocre MGM version of Merman's Broadway hit.
Highly mediocre musical is a botched filmization of Ethel Merman's Broadway smash.
In this one, the marvelous Ann Sothern at the peak of her pin-up girl beauty almost saves the film with another delightful performance.
Glossy MGM production values and a game cast including Dan Dailey, Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien and the lovely Lena Horne give it their all.
Story is very thin but this was still a huge hit at the time.
Probably because Miss Sothern was then one of MGM's top box-office draws at the time.
Sothern's "Lady Be Good"(MGM,1941) is a far superior film with a charming script and an Oscar-winning song but was somehow less popular than "Panama Hattie." WHo knows why some films make a fortune and others tank.....
Okay, taken as a whole, the movie is pretty much a mess, particularly the storyline, which even by generous standards of the Hollywood musical is pretty much impossible.
That too is not surprising given the large number of featured players, with some like Dailey and Esmond left to drift around the edges.
Add the undistinguished musical numbers, except of course for Horne's eye-catching and tuneful Just One of Those Things, and the 80- minutes amounts to a disappointment.However, there are compensations.
These are energetic and colorful little comedy segments—too bad the rest doesn't reach this level, especially the under-inspired and over-long mansion knock- about sequence.
Nonetheless, Ragland and Skelton are a natural team and would go on to bigger and better routines.
Anyway, the movie looks to me like a good example of a cast being a lot better than the material.
.. Film version of Cole Porter's Panama Hattie is a mixed bag but worth a look for anyone not minding that.
After years of only reading a bit about this movie, I finally saw Panama Hattie on a DVD I borrowed from the library.
Adapted from a Cole Porter musical comedy, this film version only retains 4 of his songs from it with another one he wrote called "Just One of Those Things" from another musical he wrote it for.
Lena Horne sang that one and another song written by someone else which she performs with The Berry Brothers dancers who also have another number.
The stars are Ann Sothern in the title role and Red Skelton as one of three sailors-the others being Rags Ragland and Ben Blue-who are involved in a plot to expose spies.
Ms. Sothern has a romantic subplot involving her romance with Dan Dailey but really, it doesn't really go anywhere while the sailors/spies one at least has some good laughs.
Oh, and since this was made during wartime, it ends with a number meant to get America cheering the eventual destruction of the Japs which while understandable for the time it was made sounds very politically incorrect today.
But none of this is supposed to be taken seriously so on that note, Panama Hattie is worth a look for anyone interested in these vintage old movies..
Ann Sothern is "Panama Hattie" in this 1942 film based on the Broadway musical starring Ethel Merman.
Also starring are Dan Dailey, Red Skelton, Rags Ragland, Ben Blue, Virginia O'Brien (as Flo, originated on Broadway by Betty Hutton), Marsha Hunt, Lena Horne and the Berry Brothers.
The story concerns a vivacious nightclub singer (Sothern) who falls in love with a man (Dailey) who has a young daughter, but she has competition from a socially prominent woman who warns Hattie that she's not of his class and won't make a good wife.
There is a subplot concerning spies who are uncovered by three sailors (Skelton, Ragland and Blue).This a very old-fashioned musical comedy plot with pleasant music, the highlight being "Just One of Those Things" as sung by the beautiful Lena Horne.
The singing from Sothern and O'Brien is very good, and Sothern does well as the insecure, vulnerable and sometimes overdressed singer.
The problem for me are the Three Stooges-like sailors - a little bit of that goes a long way.Watch it for the singing and the patriotic "Good Neighbors" finale - it was wartime..
Not exactly a Red Skelton film..
While the credits list Red Skelton and Ann Sothern as the leads in this film, it certainly is NOT a Skelton film...though he is in it.
In fact, he plays a smaller supporting role--one of three lovable dumbbell sailors who help out the title character.
So, if you are a big Skelton fan (like me), you'll probably find the film to be a big disappointment.The film is set in Panama but clearly is a script based on a stage production in style.
In other words, the plot seems to be very thin and often nonsensical and the production is stuffed full of songs.
The songs, while by Cole Porter, aren't especially memorable but the dance numbers by the uncredited Berry Brothers are awfully good.The plot is just plain goofy.
Hattie (Sothern) has somehow fallen in love with a soldier (Dan Dailey) who comes from a fancy-shmancy family...which is a problem since Hattie is just a dame who sings in nightclubs.
Can Hattie, with help from her three idiot friends, somehow win over the child and marry the guy?
Along the way, it gets SUPER strange--with spies, big production numbers and none of of makes a lot of sense.
That single kernel, that one diamond hidden in the dirt, is an excellent little dance routine by the three comedians.
More about that later.This is one of those movies constructed in a way I most loathe—the characters talk their way through an unpleasant story that bores me to death, and unsympathetic characters (Ann Southern doesn't get along with a child; how unsympathetic can you get????).
In amongst all this are three highly-talented comedians, and a bunch of speciality song-and-dance numbers.I hate specialty numbers.
It would be so much better if they did these acrobatics as part of a story, like Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd.
I hated it when Hal Roach did this to Laurel & Hardy and I hate it in this movie.But one scene—ONE number is the sole reason to keep this DVD.
About 31 minutes in, Red, Rags and Ben do a characterful little dance.
Now I've been searching to find out if Red Skelton could really dance—he said once that he could dance, but I've never seen him do a good number in his TV shows nor in all the movies I've seen so far; and I've wanted to see Ben Blue do a nice number—because I wondered how someone so contrived could have been a successful performer (and it was obvious that he was a great dancer).Well, here it is, for a very, very, MUCH TOO SHORT moment or two, the comedians get to do some real dancing.
This is dancing with technique, but also infused with great personality and THAT is the dancing I like to see!For the rest of the movie...
I don't see why people like Ann Southern—she has a voice like a kazoo and she doesn't do much with her dancing.
The comedy trio is good when they dance, but the rest of time......I would actually have preferred to see the Three Stooges doing their sketches!!
Red, Rags and Ben are SO LAME here I couldn't believe it.
Ann Sothern sings up a storm here, especially at the beginning of the film to remind us that this comic legend had quite a nice voice in her time.The picture starts off promising, but goes downhill rapidly even with Red Skelton and Ben Blue in it.
The two comedians are given little opportunity to show this comedic talents.
As her suitor, we really could have seen Ann's developing a better relationship with his daughter, after a very rocky beginning.How about the spy situation in that house?
The ending patriotic song was great, but the story line is so terribly weak..
Ordinary but mostly enjoyable farrago, mixing song and dance, propaganda, comic routines "a la Three Stooges", and espionage.
When it follows the plot of the romance between a refined American soldier and the trashy title singer (an American showgirl lost in Central America), aided by a trio of American sailors and the leading lady's American best friend, and hindered by an American officer's daughter, with all of them in a cardboard Panamá, it is a happy musical, the typical romantic comedy full of music.
The sing and dance numbers blend quite well with the plot (though a couple of songs are on the ugly side, as "Good Neighbors" and "The Sping").
But when the spying subplot is introduced out of the blue (to destroy the Panama Canal one more time), the film goes off-balance and it never recovers, with a terrible propaganda finale as the cast sings the awful "The Son of a Gun Who Picks on Uncle Sam" (by Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg) before the end title selling war bonds appears.
However the two previous acts were much better, and counterbalance the bad impression a bit, even if we take into consideration the rather offensive representation of Panamá as a small village out of a Mexican ranch comedy, in a time when international singers, orchestras and dancers (including Evita Perón) performed at prestigious cabarets in the capital city; and worst of all (for an American movie), a most inaccurate portrait of the Panama Canal Zone administered by the United States Armed Forces.
In spite of all the bad things said and written about the troubled film (with director Norman Z.
McLeod walking off the production), "Panama Hattie" will make you no harm in 79 minutes, it contains several fine moments of entertainment for you to enjoy, and I am sure that you have seen much worse musicals..
Old King Cole was not a merry Broadway soul with altered film versions of his biggest 30's and 40's hits..
Cole Porter and Ethel Merman struck gold on stage with half a dozen hits but the movie versions of these shows greatly edited down his songs, made alterations to the stories, and gave da Merm's part to contract players.
"Panama Hattie" went to M.G.M's Maisie, only changing the name to Hattie which makes the role indistinguishable for star Ann Sothern.
Add in newcomer Red Skelton, comic sidekicks Rags Ragland and Ben Blue, and it is obvious that this is a streamlined version of a stage hit that ran for over 500 performances.The plot switches gears from romance to farce, easily wrapping up each plot in order to throw in some specialty numbers.
Lena Horne has a cameo singing, very briefly, "Just one of Those Things", and later the mediocre "The Sping", which at least a lively dance sequence to go with it.
Virginia O'Brien gets at least a character to play in addition to her two deadpan songs.
Sothern does get two of Merman's hits and is especially memorable with "I've still got my Health".
Future Betty Grable partner Dan Dailey is Sothern's love interest and Marsha Hunt a bitchy rival, but both are wasted.
Pleasant and fun film that loses its way.
This film really belonged to Ann Southern (Hattie), but it came along just as Red Skelton was skyrocketing, so he got top billing.
I'm not complaining; I've always been a fan of Red. This is a pleasant enough B movie, but if you watch for the Cole Porter songs (this is an adaption of a Cole Porter Broadway musical), you'll be disappointed.
Only 4 of Porter's song make it into the film.
Interestingly, the musical numbers were staged by Vincente Minnelli.Skelton is just what you want Skelton to be, although it's pretty clear the top billing came after the script was written.
We have forgotten how talented Ann Southern was...perhaps because of her later years in television.
Rags Ragland (who was always best with Skelton) and Ben Blue are along for laughs.
Dan Dailey is Southern's love interest.
Lena Horne takes a couple of turns as a singer, but gets no billing.
And the spectacular African-American dancers The Berry Brothers are stunning, but also got no billing.Unfortunately, just about an hour into the film, it seems to lose direction.
Let's see, I thought it was about the love story between Southern and Dailey...oops, that disappears until the very end of the film.
Oh, suddenly it's about the zany trio (Skelton, Blue, Ragland) catching spies...well, it is, for a few minutes.
And so it goes.But, it's a sort of fun pic and good for a watch.