Hit The Deck (1955) We used this movie as the perfect way to cheer ourselves up after watching what we've come to call 'The Half Hour Of Horror' (otherwise known as the nightly national news.......)
Sadly, the film's thought of as the late autumn of the golden age of MGM musicals.......almost everybody in it was finishing off the final obligation left on their studio contracts.......musicals as a genre became exhausted and these performers would move on to TV, stage work and only an occasional film.....
MGM sent them off in fine style with super wide Cinemascope, Eastman Color, bright bubbly songs and dances........and even a few astonishing, bravura sequences that are the equal of the beloved numbers in "Singin' In the Rain", "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" and "An American In Paris".....
One of the two scenes we speak of involves the cast's junior varsity members, the wildly athletic Russ Tamblyn and the criminally cute Debbie Reynolds.......
Tamblyn and Reynolds, trapped in a carnival funhouse's replica of hell, put on a dazzling display of acrobatics both breathtaking and funny.......even prone on the couch, we wanted to stand up and applaud.
The movie's other eye popping showstopper arrives, as it should, as the film's big finish.....providing MGM's whirlwind tap dancer Ann Miller a spectacular showcase for her unique speed-of-light footwork.
Miller taps and spins madly while behind her, what looks like a hundred chorus boys in white sailor suits match her with precisely timed locksteps. It's brilliant, jaw dropping stuff to watch......and once again we came close to giving our flatscreen TV a standing ovation.......
Or, as Frank Sinatra remarked in his narration for the studio's 'That's Entertainment' documentary...."you can wait around and hope, but you'll never see the likes of this again..."
MGM did produce a few more musicals after this one, but none of them matched the pure fun and exuberance of "Hit The Deck". And unlike the majority of the cast who faded into obscurity, Russ Tamblyn and Debbie Reynolds continued on at MGM for a while and moved on to long performing careers.....(with Tamblyn's dynamic athleticism on full display in "West Side Story")
What more can we say? If the nightly news twin horrors of Covid-19 and Donald Trump leave you depressed beyond description, Dr. BQ prescribes a musical for a quick pick-me-up......
"Hit The Deck" proved the perfect medication for us. 4 stars (****). Like its finale song goes, 'Shout Hallelujah!'.......
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