Ship Ahoy (film)

Ship Ahoy
Ship Ahoy
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Edward Buzzell
Screenplay by	Harry Clork; Irving Brecher (uncredited); Harry Kurnitz (uncredited)
Story by	Matt Brooks; Bradford Ropes; Bert Kalmar
Produced by	Jack Cummings
Starring	Eleanor Powell; Red Skelton; Bert Lahr; Virginia O'Brien
Cinematography	Robert H. Planck; Leonard Smith; Clyde De Vinna
Edited by	Blanche Sewell
Music by	George Bassman; George Stoll
Production; company	MGM
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	May 1942;
Running time	95 mins.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,037,000
Box office	$2,507,000

Ship Ahoy is a 1942 musical-comedy film directed by Edward Buzzell and starring Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton. It was produced by MGM.

Background

Ship Ahoy was the first of two films in which Powell and Skelton co-starred. It is considered a lesser effort on both actors' behalf, however the film is chiefly remembered today for including Frank Sinatra, who appears in an uncredited performance as a singer with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The movie also is credited with one of the most unusual displays of dance on screen for a sequence in which Powell's character, needing to communicate a message to a (real) US agent in the audience of one of her shows, manages to tap out the message in morse code. (Reportedly, Powell taps genuine code during the performance.)

Skelton and Powell next paired up in 1943's I Dood It. In that film, they appeared with Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy's brother.

Plot

Tallulah Winters is a dancing star who is hired to perform on an ocean liner. Before she leaves, she is recruited by what she believes is a branch of the American government and asked to smuggle a prototype explosive mine out of the country. In fact, she is unknowingly working for Nazi agents who have stolen the mine. Meanwhile, Merton Kibble (Red Skelton), a writer of pulp fiction adventure stories but suffering from severe writer's block, is on the same ship and soon he finds himself embroiled in Tallulah's real-life adventure. Also appearing in the film were Bert Lahr, Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, and Virginia O'Brien.

Cast

Eleanor Powell as Tallulah Winters
Red Skelton as Merton K. Kibble
Bert Lahr as "Skip" Owens
Virginia O'Brien as Fran Evans
William Post Jr. as H. U. Bennett
James Cross as "Stump"
Eddie Hartman as "Stumpy"
Stuart Crawford as Art Higgins
John Emery as Dr. Farno
Bernard Nedell as Pietro Polesi
Tommy Dorsey as Himself
Frank Sinatra as Himself
Buddy Rich as Himself
Ziggy Elman as Himself
Moroni Olsen as Inspector Davis
George Watts as Hotel detective
Ralph Dunn as Flammer
William Tannen as Grimes

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $1,831,000 at the US and Canadian box office and $676,000 elsewhere, making the studio a profit of $1,037,000.^[1]^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ "101 Pix Gross in Millions" Variety 6 Jan 1943 p 58

External links

[Mannix-1] The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.

[2] "101 Pix Gross in Millions" Variety 6 Jan 1943 p 58

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