Here Comes the Navy (1934)

This is all fairly standard fayre, but there is still something special about the hugely charismatic James Cagney here as he goes through the motions in this predictable marine yarn. “Chesty” (Cagney) is what you might call a reluctant sailor who pretty swiftly falls foul of his CPO “Biff” (Pat O’Brien), a situation that only worsens when he takes a shine to “Dorothy”(Gloria Stuart) who just happens to be his new nemesis’s younger sister. Under no circumstances is this ne’er do well going to be allowed to court his sister, and if that means all out warfare between the two men, then that’s fine! Of course, she wants peace to break out between them aboard the recently refitted USS Arizona, but what chance? It’s an amiable vehicle for Cagney that plays along without too many big waves as it races along from seaborne antics to airborne ones aboard a giant zeppelin-style dirigible - the USS Macron - where a denouement between these two men is bound to occur. On that combative front, the film works. O’Brien and Cagney bounce well off each other and it’s pretty clear that there is a respect, even affection, between these two actors as they squabble through this ninety minutes ably abetted by an on-form Stuart and some quite entertaining dialogue. Keep an eye out for, or more likely feel sorry for “Droopy” (Frank McHugh) and put your earplugs in for Maude Eburne and you ought to enjoy it well enough.