Marinai all'erta

With the birth of the production code, the fun pre-code frolics of Cagney and Joan Blondell were at an end. Thus Warner Brothers came up with a new dynamic screen team - James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. This is the first of the films they did together. Prior to the production code, O'Brien often played the same kind of roles that Cagney played - the fast-talking smart guy with big ideas and a big dose of attitude. Since you can't have two of these in the same picture, O'Brien was generally promoted to being the more traditionally respectable of the two in their films together, and such is the case here.

The film starts with construction worker Chesty O'Conner (James Cagney) and naval officer Biff Martin (Pat O'Brien) trading at first verbal barbs and then punches. Chesty gets fired from his job because of the time he takes off recovering from the fight, and decides to go another round with Biff. Unfortunately, Biff's ship has put out to sea, so Chesty thinks the solution is to join the navy and get assigned to Biff's ship. He actually does wind up on Biff's ship, but soon learns he can't take to punching out officers whenever the mood strikes him. To complicate matters, Chesty takes a shine to Biff's sister, Dorothy (Gloria Stuart), and this just inflames matters more as Biff wants his sister to have nothing to do with Chesty. Warner contract player Frank McHugh provides the comic relief as Droopy Mullins, Chesty's stalwart friend and shipmate.

The film works better than most made right after the production code, primarily because the teaming of Cagney and O'Brien worked so well. By turning down the volume a bit on O'Brien's screen sauciness and turning up the volume on Cagney's, the two play off of each other's dynamism perfectly. This film is also interesting for historical reasons - it was filmed on and around the U.S.S. Arizona, one of the ships that sank at Pearl Harbor seven years after this film was made.

Metal worker James Cagney is humiliated by naval officer Pat O'Brien. So he joins the Navy to get even with him. Naturally. Then he falls in love with Pat's sister, only he doesn't know it's Pat's sister. Their romance may be short-lived, however, because Jimmy and Pat can't stand one another.

Cagney and O'Brien made a lot of these types of movies. This was the first and one of the best. Usually Jimmy's the cocky jerk and Pat's the nice guy. That's sort of the case here, too, but I actually found myself liking Cagney more than O'Brien. He's fun and likable, even if he's not always right. Pat, on the other hand, is a sour puss throughout the movie. Gloria Stuart plays O'Brien's sister who Cagney falls in love with. She's very pretty and does a fine job in a part that requires very little. Historically important for being partially filmed on board the USS Arizona, which was destroyed at Pearl Harbor seven years later. Also some footage of the dirigible USS Macon, which crashed the year after this film was released. It's a fun movie that fans of the stars will certainly enjoy. The climax is implausible but exciting. There is a blackface gag that will set some today back on their heels, so be prepared for that.

"That's my ship, the Arizona", says Pat O'Brien in the very first line of dialogue in this 1934 Warner Brothers feature. Indeed, much of this motion picture was filmed aboard the famous battleship that is now a national monument on the bottom of Pearl Harbor.

Another prominent feature of "Here Comes The Navy" is the USS Macon, the U.S. Navy's last dirigible. If the elderly battleship USS Arizona was a leftover from World War I, the USS Macon represented the cutting edge of technology in 1934, much as the Space Shuttle does today. The giant airship crashed into the Pacific Ocean less than a year after this film was produced, fortunately, with the loss of only two of her 100 crew members. Although the service continued to operate much smaller and less expensive non-rigid blimps for many years, the loss of the USS Macon put an end to the Navy's rigid airship program. There can be little doubt that many of the USS Macon's crewmen seen in this movie were still aboard at the time of the crash.

Of course, the principal feature of "Here Comes The Navy" is the crackling byplay between perennial rival/buddies James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, both of whom were at the top of their form here. As usual, Cagney plays the brash wise-guy while O'Brien is the steady, authority figure bent on channeling Cagney's energy into the right direction. It is a formula they were to repeat in several more movies, most famously in "Angels With Dirty Faces".

Caught between Cagney and O'Brien is Gloria Stewart. This was the same Gloria Stewart who would later be featured in the 1997 version of "Titanic". Stuart did a reasonable job here, even though she was inevitably upstaged by her two dynamic co-stars. But then, Cagney and O'Brien could easily steal scenes from anybody.

"Here Comes The Navy" is a treat for Cagney fans (and there are still plenty of those out there). It is equally a treat for history buffs. Originally intended as a showcase for the contemporary Navy, the movie is now a time capsule of the service in a bygone era.

Here Comes the Navy is a key film in the history of cinema. As it marks the first teaming of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, that in itself is historic. For these two in my humble opinion are the inventors of the male buddy film. The only other rivals for that distinction are Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen when they did a series of films as Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt. Cagney and O'Brien were teamed for seven years by Warner Brothers in various parts.

This also is James Cagney's first film in any of our Armed Services. He's the usual fresh mouthed Cagney who as a civilian runs afoul of CPO Pat O'Brien over a woman played by Dorothy Tree. Then Cagney joins the Navy and there's O'Brien waiting for him. And O'Brien has a sister, Gloria Stuart who Cagney falls for.

But of course when Warner Brothers had the good idea of shooting this movie at the San Diego Naval Station, they had no idea that they would be shooting on what became a national shrine. In fact it's mentioned several times that both O'Brien and Cagney are assigned to the battleship, U.S.S. Arizona. Shortly after this film was made the Arizona and the rest of the Pacific Fleet moved to Honolulu and on December 7, 1941 the Arizona became a part of history. A whole lot of the crew of the Arizona served as extras in Here Comes the Navy, so a lot of the faces you see are probably at the bottom of Pearl Harbor in the Arizona.

Knowing that I find it incredible that Here Comes the Navy has never made it to VHS or DVD. Hopefully that will be rectified soon.

I'd heard about this since I was a kid!

The scenes aboard Arizona, the US Pacific battle Fleet at sea!

The plot is lousy but entertaining enough to hold you between those amazing scenes!