If this was the last gasp of the big old fashioned MGM musicals, then it was a sad dying. The songs are mediocre, the choreography mediocre and the sets stale. The cast comprising Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and the excellent Ann Miller really, really do their best and for this I give this cardboard film a 4. As for the men I could hardly believe any of the women could be interested in them, and Roy Rowland (a fairly good director ready to take on any genre) was clearly not at ease with the musical. 1955 was the year of ' Blackboard Jungle ' and its revolutionary call to the young with the Bill Haley song ' Rock Around the Clock, ' and for a lot of the young there was no turning back the clock to creaky songs from decades past. And ' Hit the Deck ' even if it had been good would have seemed old hat. I am surmising that Russ Tamblyn in the cast probably realised this, and along with the rest just fulfilled a contract with the studio. In any event the death rattle sounded louder than the old songs, and the ' Hallelujah ' conclusion sounded ironic to my ears. This kind of musical was certainly on its way to its final resting ground. That many here have praised its grave is fine by me, but I am not that sentimental.
Review of Hit the Deck
