Down to Their Last Yacht (1934)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Paul Sloane

Writers:

Herbert Fields (story) and
Lou Brock (story) ...

Release Date:

31 August 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Self Sacrifice | Socialite | Sailor | Singer | Bomb

Cast

Mary Boland	...	Queen of Malakamokalu, 'Queenie'
Polly Moran	...	Nella Fitzgerald
Ned Sparks	...	Captain 'Sunny Jim' Roberts
Sidney Fox	...	Linda Colt-Stratton
Sidney Blackmer	...	Barry Forbes
Sterling Holloway	...	Freddy Finn
Marjorie Gateson	...	Mrs. Geoffrey Colt-Stratton
Irene Franklin	...	Mrs. Gilhooley
Charles Coleman	...	Sir Guy

Also Known As:

Hawaiian Nights (UK)

Runtime:

64 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #145) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Retakes in August 1934 reportedly re-shot about 25 percent of the movie. Sam White directed the retakes while producer Lou Brock supervised.

Soundtrack:

Tiny Little Finger on Your Hand

A campy shipboard musical

A family of bluebloods made destitute by the depression are scammed into leasing out their yaucht and posing as crew to tacky "new money", one of whom is their former cook. The scam turns out to be a plot by the gruff captain (Ned Sparks, the Walter Matthau of his day) to shipwreck them on a desert island run by a madcap queen (Mary Boland) and escape with their money. Of course, things go afoul has the queen as plans of her own.

Such is the basic plot of this pre-code comedy with a few musical numbers thrown in for good measure. It was the era of Astaire and Rogers at RKO, and in their other musicals, RKO attempted to give them the gloss of the popular dance team. This relatively short film (just over an hour) was a major disaster in its day according to "The Hollywood Musical", but seen today, it is fairly fun, campy, and a passable timefiller. There is nothing remarkable in the songs or numbers (except one production number, "South Sea Bolero"), and the romantic leads (Sidney Fox and Sidney Blackmer) are uninteresting. The character parts, however, add humor, especially Spark's grumpy ship's captain, Boland's dizzy queen, and Polly Moran's butch cruise

director. Throw in Sterling Holloway (the voice of Winnie the Pooh), and you have enough humor to make this an adequate second feature.

The comic moments (most notably Holloway's rigging of a roulette table) are enjoyable, but there is a somewhat disturbing portrayal of South Sea Islanders as lazy folks who do nothing but make love all day. There was plenty of eye-raising and "I can't believe they said that!" among my friends whom I watched this with, but just another example of what Hollywood "used" to be like. I view it as an interesting idea with tacky elements thrown in that make this film a product of its times.