Honolulu Lu (1941) User Reviews

Lupe at her loopiest!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 14 August 2014]

A surprisingly good "B" comedy from Columbia starring RKO's "Mexican Spitfire", this is a tale of mistaken identity where Latina singer Lupe Velez arrives in Hawaii and becomes two different characters, both the star of a bond drive. Consuela is the darling of Marjorie Gateson's society, and Lu is the sweetheart of the navy, having won their admiration during a nightclub show where she amusingly imitates Dietrich, Swanson, Hepburn and Hitler. Ms. Velez's impressions are dead on, and it is hysterically funny to see the Furher in a long evening gown. Leo Carrillo plays her social climbing uncle who has no idea that she is also posing as Lu, and for some reason, makes the military police think she's a spy. Lupe finds romance with the handsome Bruce Bennett who is always being stalked by his buddies (which includes a young Forrest Tucker), while Carrillo is a Latino Groucho to Gateson's stuffy Margaret Dumont type matron.

Some future stars appear in smaller roles, although according to the cast list, some of them were deleted from the final print. Velez gets more opportunities to steal the scenes here, as in the "Mexican Spitfire" scenes, she was usually upstaged by Leon Errol. At just over an hour, this is just the type of second feature that audiences clamored for during the heyday of Hollywood, and being just right before America got involved in the war, it is also patriotic to the countries already involved. The scarier thought though is that with its Hawaiian setting that within months of the film's release, Pearl Harbor would be attacked.

Watch it for Velez; it's a shame she didn't have stronger material

[gbill-74877 · 6/10 · 13 January 2019]

Highlights:

• The context. The film is set in Honolulu and was released just four days after Pearl Harbor was bombed. While it has only has a few moments actually from Hawaii, mostly stock footage of surfers with Diamond Head in the background, it's a little eerie to see the lighthearted sailors in the film.

• Lupe Vélez. For the representation alone, and it's nice that her performance here is less frenetic and stereotypical than some of her others. She does still bring zest to the role and gives as good as she gets, doling out a few slaps to guys who try to get fresh with her. When she yells at people, watch her throw her whole body into it; I thought this was pretty good acting. Her musical performances in the cabaret appear dubbed and not all that memorable, but she has an appealing presence, donning several cute outfits and shaking her hips provocatively while giving us the teensiest hint of a striptease.

• Vélez's impersonations, which deserve special mention. As part of her show, she imitates Marlene Dietrich, Gloria Swanson, Katharine Hepburn, and lastly Adolf Hitler, all of which are fantastic. The rivalry she had with Dietrich over Gary Cooper give that one an interesting backstory, and with Hitler, whose mention was often avoided in films, the satire adds to the film's context.

Lowlights:

• The plot. Don't even try to follow the Miss Honolulu silliness. The material Vélez has to work with is weak, which is a shame. Unfortunately it renders the film pretty mediocre, so if you're not a fan of Vélez, this is probably a film to skip.

• Nina Campana's character, 'Aloha'. Her broken English is annoying and problematic. Leo Carrillo's character isn't much better, starting with him not knowing that the name of the ocean is the Pacific.

• The production code impact. Vélez's dance moves are sometimes given to us in long shots, distance apparently being an acceptable softening of her sensuality, and at other times, she's shot from the waist up, even though we know she's shaking her hips, a solution akin to that used with Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show 15 years later. The sailors are also cartoons, in one scene crowding around Vélez after a day at the amusement park as she doles out the carnival prizes, because that's of course what they would be clamoring for right? The miscegenation taboo doesn't permit any passion to smolder between Vélez and Bruce Bennett.