Miss Pacific Fleet (1935) User Reviews

amusing, starring two favorites

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 1 June 2015]

Two young women running a ring toss in a carnival work on entering a contest so they can get back to New York in Miss Pacific Fleet (1935).

The two women are Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell, and they need money so they can return to New York and get chorus work. They decide that Gloria (Blondell) will enter to win $2500 and a trip to New York for two. But they have to get the votes.

Amusing comedy. I'm always amazed and how quickly people talked on screen in those days.

This film was made during the Depression, something to take peoples' minds of off their troubles.

Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are great as always, and made several films together. Hugh Herbert plays a businessman always trying to get away from his wife. The film also features the usual suspects - Allen Jenkins, Minna Gombell, and Guinn Williams, with good-looking Warren Hull as Gloria's boyfriend.

Cute, light, an artifact of another time.

These Two Girls Both Win The Prize

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 25 January 2006]

Joan Blondell must be one of the most appealing actresses in movie history. And Glenda Farrell, though less well known, is also always great company. Allen Jenkins is kind of an unlikely leading man (though he's also a very reliable comic actor.) He shows a very muscular build here, playing a boxer.

Hugh Herbert played variations on the same note in way too many movies for my taste. He's amusing here, though. And Minna Gombell is entertainingly shrewish as his bossy wife.

The plot involves a beauty contest. The girls are roommates and they're hoping Blondell can win and turn around their financial fortune. Though it's pretty G (or maybe PG) stuff, we see lots of beautiful girls who are also contestants.

Anyone who likes the Golddigeer movies, "42nd Street," etc., is likely to find this slight but agreeable.

If Laverne and Shirley had been around in the 1930's, they would have been played by Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 19 September 2014]

Here, the two blonde bombshells are roommates involved in a Pacific Coast Fleet Week, and the anticipation of who will be crowned "Miss Pacific Fleet". The sponsor of this event is wacky businessman J. August Freytag (Hugh Herbert) whose possessive wife (Minna Gombell) is certain he is playing around on her. She is amusingly abusive to him, reminding him, "August, people already think you're a donkey. Don't open your mouth and remove all doubt." She's also very jealous of "Miss Pacific Fleet" front-runner Blondell and plots a kidnapping to get her out of the way. In the meantime, there's romantic intrigue between Blondell and two servicemen (Allen Jenkins and Warren Hull), and dizzy comedy from the future "My Friend Irma", Marie Wilson.

The antics these two girls get into is as zany as anything any of the sitcom sisters in spirit got into, from Lucy and Ethel, Mary and Rhoda, Patsy and Edina, and most obviously here, Laverne and Shirley. One of the funniest moments occurs at a gathering of the various military men and the candidates for "Miss Pacific Fleet" where Gombell shows up, and in an effort to keep Herbert from getting into trouble with his harpie of a wife, Jenkins steps in and makes insinuations about himself with her. Pretty predictable, it's an enjoyable diversion and a reminder of how much fun it could be going to the movies during the depression.

Blondell and Farrell Meet the Navy

[drednm · 23 December 2005]

One in a series of B pictures that teamed Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell as brassy dames usually on the run or on the make. Here they get talked into a fixed beauty pageant so they can scram California and get back to Broadway and chorus girl jobs. They run a ring toss concession in a carny.

Fast and funny but without much substance, the girls are a good comedy team, usually aided by stock players from Warners: Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Minna Gombell, Mary Treen, Marie Wilson, Eddie Acuff, Warren Hull, Mabel Colcord, Sarah Edwards, Mary Doran, Jack Norton, and Guinn Williams.

Farrell and Blondell are always worth watching but in between a few laughs there's not much going on here. Hugh Herbert gets the most laughs with his HOO HOO act, mimicked by Farrell at one point, but Hull is pretty dull and no one else has much to do. The boxing angle with Jenkins is pretty lame.

Some of the dire warnings issued by . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 19 December 2018]

. . . the always eponymous Warner Bros. are more urgent than others, because the Calamity, Catastrophe, Cataclysm, or Apocalypti being forecast is more imminent than not. MISS PACIFIC FLEET is a case in point. Warner Bros. famously had "Rick" muttering a few years after MISS PACIFIC FLEET's release about "all the gin joints in the whole wide world" after "Ilsa Lund" traipsed into his dive during CASABLANCA. At the time of this earlier cautionary flick, America had hundreds of warships spread across several fleets. Of all these vessels, Warner's Prophets of Doom correctly plastered a "U.S.S. Arizona" sailor hat on "Kewpie Wiggin's" noggin. Seaman Wiggins is consistently pictured here as a drunk, a knock-out target, a patsy, a cuck-hold, and an ill-prepared shipmate. The only thing that Kewpie's good at is winning ring toss games. Ringers have a special affinity for Arizona crewman Wiggins, just as German buzz bombs could not miss the London-based "Private Slothrop" in GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. However, the latter story was a work of FICTION imagined AFTER the fact. Warner's MISS PACIFIC FLEET, on the other hand, was a clarion call to "Beware!" to the U.S. Pacific Fleet--and especially to the ill-fated Arizona--six years BEFORE the Pearl Harbor's "Day of Infamy." However, just as the Ancients ignored Cassandra's timely alerts, America pooh-poohed MISS PACIFIC FLEET.

"This is all a mistake. I was expecting somebody else"

[boscofl · 3/10 · 20 April 2020]

Miss Pacific Fleet (1935) is a poor, slapdash effort by Warner Brothers who seem to have provided little attention or care to this particular Joan Blondell - Glenda Farrell vehicle. In fact, the girls play third fiddle to Allen Jenkins and Hugh Herbert which compounds the disappointment. The photoplay was assembled by 5 credited contributors which could account for the jumble of ideas and situations. Miss Blondell is lensed licking a lemon in two scenes which certainly sums up this drab film.

As far as the plot goes, the girls enlist the aid of smitten sailer Allen Jenkins to enter Joan in the Miss Pacific Fleet contest; the winner copping a $2500 prize which would be used to get them from San Diego to New York. Many complications ensue; most of which involve Jenkins and Herbert as the businessman sponsoring the contest. Jenkins gets the lions share of the screen time as he participates in a boxing match and a high speed boat chase at the climax. Jenkins is always pure gold in supporting roles but here, forced to carry most of the film's 63 minutes, his act wears thin very fast. Hugh Herbert absorbs much screen time as well and his "woohoo" schtick - not to mention relentlessly imbibing shots of booze and clumsily ducking his shrewish wife - is positivity painful to tolerate. To complete the triumvirate of annoying characters no one cares about is newcomer Marie Wilson as the stereotypical dumb blonde. Miss Wilson takes things to a whole other level of irritation with her nails-on-a-chalkboard routine of never being able to spit out a sentence correctly.

Which brings us to the top billed stars of the show, Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell. Miss Farrell tries her best to generate sparks but is defeated by poor material and lack of screen time. Miss Blondell really gives the impression she mailed this one in and who could blame her? She spends the first 20 minutes looking impossibly glum, wearily tossing off wisecracks with every breath until she meets her celluloid love interest, Warren Hull. From this point until the end she plays kissy face with him in a few turgid scenes while virtually disappearing from the movie. Miss Blondell was involved in a career dispute with Jack Warner around this time and ended up on suspension which could account for her role being curtailed.

Miss Pacific Fleet is a film that, on paper, probably appeared like it could be fun but that possibility vanishes quickly onscreen. Why Warners would squander their two best assets is a mystery; the fact that Blondell & Farrell are basically used as a plot device while Jenkins & Herbert carry the film is disappointing to say the least. Fans of Jenkins, Herbert, and Marie Wilson will probably enjoy this but for the rest of us . . . Yikes.

A terrible film made deliberately badly to ruin JoanBlondell's career

[1930s_Time_Machine · 2/10 · 16 March 2023]

This is a horrible film. It's not just horrible, it makes you angry when you realise why it was made so bad.

The only interesting thing about this (besides the electronic monkey) is that it's a classic example of how bad a picture can become when nobody involved wants to make it. Everything about this is excruciatingly awful: the story, the direction, the photography and the acting (especially the acting!) is shambolic.

Joan Blondell, the loveliest actress of the 1930s had had enough of having to play the exact same part in the exact same story with the exact same team and same director in her last four movies. She was a great actress but could see no end to her own personal Groundhog Day so tried to rebel against Warners. Cagney and Bette Davis had done the same and won and become massive stars. Joan unfortunately, maybe because she was going through a messy divorce at the time, didn't.

The studio then forced her do this as punishment. It was made really quickly on a shoestring so looked incredibly cheap. It was made badly on purpose which was Warners' way of crushing her ambition and keeping their asset doing what they wanted. It's so upsetting watching this because this atrocious, badly written, totally unfunny trash was how the studio if not exactly ruined but certainly stifled her career.

Miss Blondell & Miss Farrell Are At It Again

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 26 May 2001]

Two smart gals stuck in California scheme to win the title of MISS PACIFIC FLEET and its prize money which will finance their way back to New York.

This was the sort of ephemeral comic frippery which the studios produced almost effortlessly during the 1930's. Well made & highly enjoyable, Depression audiences couldn't seem to get enough of these popular, funny photo dramas.

Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell are perfectly cast as the girls who will try almost anything to grab the needed greenbacks. Although Joan gets both top billing and the romantic scenes, both ladies are as talented & watchable as they are gorgeous.

Whimsical, wacky Hugh Herbert appears as an eccentric business promoter, constantly on the run from his shrew of a wife. Utterly hilarious, he adds greatly to the enjoyment of the film. Behind him comes a small parade of character performers - Allen Jenkins, Marie Wilson, Minna Gombell & Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams - adept at making viewers smile.

Handsome Warren Hull plays Blondell's Marine boyfriend. Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Mabel Colcord as Jenkins' landlady.

While never stars of the first rank, Joan Blondell (1906-1979) & Glenda Farrell (1904-1971) enlivened scores of films at Warner Bros. throughout the 1930's, especially the eight in which they appeared together. Whether playing gold diggers or working girls, reporters or secretaries, these blonde & brassy ladies were very nearly always a match for whatever leading man was lucky enough to share equal billing alongside them. With a wisecrack or a knowing glance, their characters showed they were ready to take on the world - and any man in it. Never as wickedly brazen as Paramount's Mae West, you always had the feeling that, tough as they were, Blondell & Farrell used their toughness to defend vulnerable hearts ready to break over the right guy. While many performances from seven decades ago can look campy or contrived today, these two lovely ladies are still spirited & sassy.

A vaudeville script and cast sink this flick

[SimonJack · 3/10 · 7 July 2020]

"Miss Pacific Fleet" misses the boat as a comedy and entertaining film. There are a few good lines out of dozens in a script that seems to have been written for the vaudeville stage. That's the way many of the one-liners play here. And very few are funny. They are mostly, well ... vaudevillian of the earlier, corniest type used by wannabe performers who didn't get very far except to remote small towns in the old days that couldn't afford the top entertainers.

It does have something of a plot, but it's so choppy with uninteresting diversions and sloppy film editing, that there doesn't seem to be much of a story. Into this mess, Warner brothers assembled some of its second-string talent of the period. Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell were just okay in a couple of films, but not even that good in most, including this one. Neither of them was of the status of the top comediennes of the period (Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Myrna Loy, Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, etc.).

The forgetful, feeble-minded Hugh Herbert persona would only go so far until his character became irksome. Here, he just gets by as Mr. Freytag. The fact that he and Allen Jenkins (as Kewpie Wiggins) are the top male stars that Warner Brothers could match for this film says much, and it's not flattering for the film. But then, this screenplay really didn't have a spot for a hero or top male lead. Again, it says a lot about what the studio thought of the film.

I agree with the New York Times reviewer, Frank Nugent, in his critique. He wrote, "Miss Pacific Fleet should not have been impeded in its headlong flight for second place on a double-feature bill. Being placed alone on the Roxy's screen imposes too great a strain upon the picture and the audience..." He calls the film, "a mousey little photoplay." And, of Blondell and Farrell, he quips, "upon whose comic talents the Warners are placing too much emphasis." Nugent asks, "What more can one expect of a sub-Class B picture?"

This film came in 165th out of 178 movies tracked from 1935 - so there were some worse. I don't think many people in modern audiences would be able to sit through this whole thing - at least not awake.

A couple of malapropisms are the best one-liners of the film. Here are the few somewhat funny lines.

Kewpie's Landlady, "Pardon me for protruding, but you're wanted on the phone Mr. Wiggins."

Gloria Fay, "How can you eat watermelon, cucumbers and cheese and then bananas?" Kewpie Wiggins, "Can I help it I like bicarbonate?"

Kewpie Wiggins, "Whadda ya think I got a head for?" Gloria Fay, "Just an excuse to use a comb."

Kewpie Wiggins, "I got a pal. Sgt. Tom Foster. He'd do anything for me on account of I saved his life once." Gloria Fay, "How?" Wiggins, "He arrested me once and I went along without fightin'."

Mae O'Brien, "Suppose you got a black eye. How would ya look?" Kewpie Wiggins, "Out of the other one".

Sadie Freytag, "Nicholas, how would you like to make a hundred dollars?" Nicholas, "I'm sorry, ma'am. I ain't maken 'em anymore. From now on, I'm leavin' that to the government."

gotta love a film with Blondell & Farrell

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 15 June 2020]

The awesome and beautiful Joan Blondell teams up with Glenda Farrell (again) to make Miss Pacific Fleet. They made eight films together! Mae and Gloria work in a amusement concession, and get into trouble with the law. if they can win a contest, they can pay off their debts. Hugh Herbert anad Allen Jenkins are along for humor! some funny stuff in here, a mix of physical humor and word play. the US needed some humor, coming out of the depression. at one point, there's a china pineapple sitting on the shelf, and the top flips up, plays music, while a pair of monkey eyes blinks. weirdest music box ever! the film is a fun romp. you just can't go wrong with Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell... it's kind of like watching Lucy and Ethel run around the candy factory. Directed by Ray Enright. i think his big claim to fame was making seven films with Randolph Scott.