THE FLEET'S IN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 172, 9 October 1942, Page 13

THE FLEET'S IN

(Paramount)

ND, dear me, how those American sailors do enjoy themselves! Nor, I think, will you fail to do likewise.

since it is apparently the Pacific Fleet, and it comes in at the Golden Gate, Cal., which is apparently second only to Los Angeles as a home of pulchritude (Non angli, sed Angeles, as Columbus put it.). And of course, there is Miss Lamour, sans sarong this time, but for part of the time at least positively popping out of an exotic evening gown, seductively slashed in several places. Lamour la merrier, as they say in the South Seas. Miss Lamour sings, but don’t let that discourage you. By a little selective tuning, you can listen

instead to Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra, who provide the accompaniment and if you like that kind of thing you will, well, like it, I suppose. Me, I liked the wisecracks, and there is a cabaret show in the final sequence that could rate as a Command Performance, with some first-class eccentric dancing and comedy turns. In fact, if The Fleet’s In ‘is typical of Paramount’s contribution to the 200 American war films we are threatened with, Miss Lejeune has been over-pessimistic in her apprehensions. But, on second thoughts, I doubt it. The show is probably pre-Pearl Harbour. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed it. (Memo: Must find out if the opposition to Roosevelt's Two-Ocean Navy came from the Pacific Fleet lower deck).