Waikiki Wedding *** (1937, Bing Crosby, Shirley Ross, Bob Burns, Martha Raye) – Classic Movie Review 7392

Director Frank Tuttle’s pleasant, carefree 1937 musical comedy romance Waikiki Wedding stars a fresh-faced Bing Crosby, who croons the grass skirts off Hawaiian maidens, in this entirely jovial and genial Paramount Pictures musical, best remembered, if at all, for Harry Owens’s song ‘Sweet Leilani’ which won Owens an Oscar for Best Original Song.

LeRoy Prinz was an Oscar nominee for Best Dance Direction for the Luau routine. Alas, both movie and song, as well as the Luau routine, are pretty much forgotten nowadays, of course. Sweet Leilani has the dubious honour of beating George and Ira Gershwin’s ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’ from the 1937 Shall We Dance, which is an unforgettable classic.

Crosby plays the pineapple growers’ public relations man, who suitably falls for and pursues Georgia Smith (played by Shirley Ross), the sweet young woman who wins his Miss Pineapple Princess beauty pageant contest.

Happily, Bob Burns and Martha Raye are on hand to provide the amusing, broadly funny comedy relief as Shad Buggle (really?) and Myrtle Finch.

Other hits include ‘Blue Hawaii’, ‘In a Little Hula Heaven’, ‘Okolehau’, ‘Nani Ona Pua’ and ‘Sweet Is the Word for You’, all by Ralph Rainger [music] and Leo Robin [lyrics]. ‘Blue Hawaii’ is more famous than ‘Sweet Leilani’ thanks to Elvis Presley, who performs it in his 1961 movie Blue Hawaii.

Also in the cast are George Barbier, Leif Erickson, Grady Sutton, Granville Bates, Anthony Quinn, Mitchell Lewis, George Regas, Nick Lukats, Spencer Charters, Harry Stubbs, Emma Dunn and Robert Emmett O’Connor.

Crosby eventually sang four Oscar-winning songs in his films.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7392

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