In the Navy
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Arthur Lubin
Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Dick Powell
Claire Dodd
The Andrews Sisters
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
America's singing heartthrob, Russ Raymond, performs his coast-to-coast show at radio station WGAB before a loving throng. His sudden disappearance after the show causes national headlines. Russ travels incognito cross-country to California, with reporter Dorothy Roberts in hot pursuit. At the same time, sailors Smokey Adams and Pomeroy Watson are sent to deliver a letter addressed to Tommy Halstead. Tommy Halstead is Russ's real name, and the letter contains his enlistment papers. Disguised as a maid, Dorothy sneaks into Russ's hotel room and photographs him while he shaves off his mustache. Russ catches Dorothy and tells her that he plans to spend the next six years in the U.S. Navy as "just plain Tommy Halstead." When she tries to run out of the room with her camera, Russ catches her, destorys her negatives, then takes a photo of himself spanking her. Eight weeks later, pretending to be a Navy publicist, Dorothy sneaks onto the United States Naval Training Station with the Andrews Sisters. As the singing sisters perform for the recent naval graduates, Dorothy seeks her prey. The Andrew Sisters themselves are looking for Pomeroy, who they assume from his letters is "tall, dark and handsome." Dorothy sends them over to Russ, whom they immediately recognize, and she photographs the quartet. Russ manages to destroy Dorothy's negatives once again, then points out the real Pomeroy to the sisters. As he tries to impress the Andrews Sisters, Pomeroy is chastised by chief petty officer Dynamite Dugan for "pretending to be a sailor" when he is actually a pastry cook who has never been to sea. Later, Pomeroy, Smokey and Russ go to a San Diego dance hall to see the Andrews Sisters perform. Pomeroy finally gets his chance to dance with Patty Andrews, but starts a brawl which lands him, Smokey and Russ in the brig. The three sailors are then transferred to active duty on the battleship U.S.S. Alabama . Dorothy stows away on the Alabama , where she coerces Pomeroy and Smokey into hiding her. Once they are in the middle of the Pacific, Russ discovers Dorothy, and he warns her of the trouble Pomeroy will get into if she is caught. Once the ship arrives in Hawaii, the sailors go to a nightclub to see the Andrews Sisters. There, Dynamite hits Russ in the face with a pie as Dorothy snaps their picture. After Russ's picture ends up on front pages across the country, women storm the ship on visitors' day in hopes of seeing the idol. Afraid that the Andrews Sisters will discover that he is only a cook, Pomeroy dresses himself as the battleship's captain and greets the singers in "his quarters." While the portly sailor entertains the sisters, the Alabama is ordered to give a demonstration of its maneuverability. When Pomeroy's commands are followed, the ship puts on a brilliant display. In the midst of his triumph, Pomeroy awakens and is be told by Smokey that he mistakenly drugged himself and that it was all a dream. That night, Dorothy apologizes to Russ, then proposes marriage, stating that his fans will not chase after a married man. Russ agrees, then joins with the others to put on a show to celebrate the end of the ship's voyage.
Director
Arthur Lubin
Cast
Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Dick Powell
Claire Dodd
The Andrews Sisters
Dick Foran
Billy Lenhart
Kenneth Brown
Shemp Howard
The Condos Brothers
William Davidson
Thurston Hall
Robert Emmett Keane
Edward Fielding
Douglas Wood
Don Terry
Sunnie O'dea
Eddie Dunn
Gary Breckner
J. Anthony Hughes
Ralph Dunn
Dick Alexander
Richard Crane
Lorin Raker
Harold Daniels
Frank Penny
Pat Gleason
Barry Hays
Regis Parton
Hooper Atchley
Jack Mulhall
Harry Strang
Mickey Simpson
Claire Whitney
Lyle Latell
Charles Sherlock
Charles Sullivan
Phil Warren
Jack Roper
Chuck Morrison
Lee Kass
Virginia Engels
Doris Herbert
Patsy O'byrne
James "brick" Sullivan
James Farley
Edna Hall
Blanche Payson
Gayle Mellott
Sandra Morgan
Estelle Etterre
Joe Bautista
Lois Austin
Crew
Bernard B. Brown
Philip Cahn
Ted Cain
Charles Carroll
Nick Castle
Lucien Denni
John P. Fulton
R. A. Gausman
Alex Gottlieb
John Grant
H. E. Harris U.s.n., Retired
Joan Hathaway
Arthur T. Horman
Arthur T. Horman
Philip P. Karlstein
Roger Lewis
Harold H. Macarthur
Bob Moak
Jack Otterson
Gene De Paul
Charles Previn
Don Raye
Vic Schoen
Joseph Valentine
Vera West
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were You're in the Navy, We're in the Navy Now and They're in the Navy. Modern sources also include Hello Sailor as a working title. The film was also known in trade publications as Abbott and Costello and Dick Powell in the Navy and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and Dick Powell in the Navy. The opening credits begin with actors Bud Abbott and Lou Costello hoisting a flag with their names on it, then hoisting a flag with the title "Buck Privates" written on it. After Bud slaps Lou in the face, they both hoist flags with "Dick Powell" and "In the Navy" inscribed on them. (Universal had trouble with the picture's title, as Paramount, in March 1941, was also considering using the titles You're in the Navy Now and We're in the Navy Now for a planned service comedy starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, written by Eddie Moran and produced by Paul Jones. Although the Paramount film was not made, Universal changed the working title of its film to They're in the Navy.) The film includes the following prologue: "To the United States Navy and to the Officers and Enlisted Personnel of the San Diego and San Pedro Bases. This picture is dedicated in grateful appreciation of their invaluable cooperation.
In the Navy was to be the third Abbott and Costello release of 1941, but with the unexpected success of their service comedy Buck Privates (see entry above), Universal executives decided to withhold their second film, Oh, Charlie (later released as Hold That Ghost, see entry above) and release this film first, as it was also a service comedy made with superior production values. During the film's production, Universal executives then decided to make a series of service comedies starring Abbott and Costello, and this film was followed by Keep 'Em Flying , which executives felt would work well in the Latin American market.
When this picture was still in the planning stages, Hollywood Reporter announced that Commander Clyde Lovelace of the U.S. Naval Base in San Diego, CA would act as the film's technical advisor. That position was later credited to retired naval officer H. E. Harris, and it has not been determined to what extent, if any, Commander Lovelace contributed to the production. According to Hollywood Reporter, dance director Nick Castle was borrowed from Warner Bros. to work on this film. Hollywood Reporter also reported that the musical number "Gimme Some Skin" was recorded "live" on a Universal sound stage. This number included the use of 250 extras, and was filmed with members of the press in attendance. During production, writer John Grant signed a seven-year contract with Universal. Grant had worked on previous Abbott and Costello films, as well as writing for their radio show. According to a May 8, 1941 Hollywood Reporter new item, Carol Lou Costello, the two-and-one-half year old daughter of Lou Costello, made her acting debut in this film. It has not been determined, however, if she appears in the released film.
Universal publicity materials state that this was the first picture in which actor Dick Powell agreed to sing after a three-year singing hiatus. Press materials also state that the battleship sets for the film were based on actual U.S. Navy blueprints, and in order to reproduce the Royal Palms Hotel of Hawaii, Universal was required to haul to the studio lot 200 ruckloads of dirt and sand, as well as sixty palm trees. Publicity materials further claim that the song "We're in the Navy Now" became the official training tune at the U.S. Naval Training Station in San Diego, CA after the release of this film. Hollywood Reporter new items of June 1941 stated that In the Navy was doing forty per cent more business than Buck Privates, while breaking box office records in such theaters as the Orpheum in San Francisco. Modern sources state that the film's overall grosses exceeded those of Buck Privates, and it was among the top grossing films of 1941.
Modern sources also report that the film suffered censorship problems with the U.S. Naval Department. In the original shooting script, "Pomeroy Watson" disguises himself as the captain of a battleship to impress the Andrews Sisters. He then mistakenly takes over command of the ship, steering it though a series of wild maneuvers during a war games exercise, which ends up impressing the supervising admiral and a visiting senator. The Naval Department felt that this scene "made fools of the entire American fleet" and refused to allow the film to be released with it. Associate producer Alex Gottlieb then came up with the idea of re-shooting part of the controversial scene to have "Smokey" mistakenly drink a sleeping solution, thus establishing that the entire sequence was only a dream. The film was then approved by the Naval Department.
