Give Me a Sailor (1938)

There must be a way to pinpoint when Screwball Comedies gave way to Romantic Comedies, and even to today’s formulaic Rom-Coms, if it were possible to separate what we now understand by the concept from other Comedies involving Romance in some manner, but which may not necessarily fit in the contemporary mold.

The weird thing about this early film is that it very much feels like a contemporary Rom-Com; in fact, while it may not be the original source for When Harry Met Sally, it very much anticipates the plot of a couple of best friends who take more than a decade to realize they were made for each other.

Of course, here it’s not as simple as that.

Best friends from childhood (Bob Hope and Martha Raye) have made a pact separate a couple (Jack Whiting and Betty Grable, their respective brother and sister) so that they can develop a romantic relationship with the results of the split.

In their obsession with their sibling’s significant other they fail to notice their major faults, (they are petulant, lazy, bland, and, despite a neat song and dance number, quite boring.) Not only is Raye’s character the hardest working person around, but the actress herself (near-channeling Judy Garland,) single-handedly makes the movie.

With the two Navy brothers on leave, the pair of conspirators attempt to block every opportunity the lovers have to be together with the results often backfiring on them, most spectacularly when they manage to get stuck in an isolated inn and be discovered in a most compromising situation.

The script fails to convince us that a big-money modeling contract would stop the shotgun wedding (but never mind, let’s go with it); and it’s only when Grable proves unable to entertain a Navy official (big surprise, since we haven’t seen her do anything other than depend on her sister’s hard efforts – even stealing the dress she made and planned to take to the picnic,) the plot finally works, and the two schemers get the partner they’ve wanted for so long.

The script juggles too many elements: Sibling rivalry; a secret code; a picnic; a bratty sister; two photo contests, (despite Grable being around, astoundingly it's Raye who wins the sexy legs contest); the weekend ‘getaway’; sudden fame and fortune; dinner with the captain (who loves trout), etc. and does a good job with all of it but can’t avoid an episodic feel to it, even for such a short film. There’s nothing another pass at the script would not have smoothed out; but it is what it is.

It’s a fine Comedy, but it doesn’t quite feel like a Classic one.