Song of the Islands (1942)

Director:

Walter Lang

Writers:

Joseph Schrank (screenplay) &
Robert Pirosh (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 March 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

BETTY'S EVEN GOT THE PALM TREES SWAYING! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

With his sidekick Rusty, Jeff Harper sails to paradisiacal tropical isle Ahmi-Oni to bargain on behalf...

Plot Keywords:

Cattle | Island | Barbecue | Cousin Cousin Relationship | Harbor

Cast

Betty Grable	...	Eileen O'Brien
Victor Mature	...	Jefferson 'Jeff' Harper Jr.
Jack Oakie	...	Rusty Smith
Thomas Mitchell	...	Dennis O'Brien
George Barbier	...	Jefferson Harper Sr.
Billy Gilbert	...	Palola's father
Hilo Hattie	...	Palola
Harry Owens	...	Himself (as Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians)
Lillian Porter	...	Paulani (Palola's cousin)
Hal K. Dawson	...	John Rodney

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (PCA #7884) | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Hawaii, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Cut from the release print was a ballad called "Blue Shadows and White Gardenias" (music and lyrics by Mack Gordon and Harry Owens), sung by Betty Grable and Victor Mature (dubbed by Ben Gage). The melody remains in the background score. Bing Crosby, for Decca Records, waxed a version issued originally on a 78.

Quotes:

Jeff Harper Jr.: If you see me in the moonlight, you better yell aloha and start running.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-up" (1995)

Soundtrack:

What's Buzzin' Cousin?

Grass Skirts? The Better To See Betty Grable's Legs

I'm not sure but that Song of the Islands was had been done before December 7, 1941 and definitely before US servicemen started bleeding and dying in the South Seas. There certainly is no mention of World War II at all in this escapist Betty Grable film where she's poaching on Dorothy Lamour's south sea territory.

I'm sure that Darryl Zanuck must have saw the kind of money that Paramount was raking in with those Dorothy Lamour sarong pictures. So why not put the woman who had risen to be their top musical star in the tropics. They gave Betty a hula grass skirt instead of a sarong, the better to show her legs with.

Zanuck was also smart enough not to pass the blond Grable as a native Hawaiian. She's come home to teach school on the island where her father, Thomas Mitchell, has a small place, but also where George Barbier is the absentee owner of a cattle ranch.

Barbier's place is run by Hal Spencer, but Victor Mature and Jack Oakie sail over from America to see if they can buy out Mitchell. Mature is Barbier's son and of course when he and Grable meet, the inevitable sparks do fly.

Zanuck also put an official Hawaiian imprimatur on Song of the Islands by using Harry Owens to write the music with Mack Gordon's lyrics. Owens was the musical interpreter of Hawaii to the world, his most famous song being Sweet Leilani. And a Hawaiian national treasure named Hilo Hattie also appears in the film, singing in her inimitable style and setting her marriage cap for Jack Oakie.

It's all light and pleasant escapist entertainment and Song of the Islands is a good indication of why Betty Grable was the number one pin-up of GIs all over the globe. Except for Rita Hayworth.