Who payed the critics

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Made after HOLD THAT GHOST, but released before it to cash in on the success of BUCK PRIVATES. IN THE NAVY is an excellent and fun film, featuring many familiar faces(if you've seen many films from Universal in the 40s). The film also features a nice(and funny) nod to BUCK PRIVATES during the opening credits. Now, BUCK PRIVATES is the better film of the two, but IN THE NAVY still fairs really well among any comedy film. Fast paced, and the comedy never dies. This film evens strengthens Abbott and Costello's friendship with the Andrews Sisters, more so than BUCK PRIVATES did. Worth grabbing, most definitely! Oh, and keep an eye out at the beginning for Costello's real-life daughter Carole, making her first of four on-screen appearances with her dad(in this one, she's a baby in a carriage).

Lou: "I'll fight these men in a field of honor"Bud: "But they have no honor"Lou: "That's okay, I ain't got no field!"One of the earliest Abbott & Costello films, "In the Navy" has a better balance of humor and music than, say, the Marx Brothers outings of the same period. The songs, although dated, are still quite catchy, and there is also a spectacular tap-dancing number by the Condos Brothers (OK, the Hawaiian song is perfectly awful, but at least nobody plays a harp for 10 minutes here). The comedy is visual, verbal, and at times even surreal (Costello draws a line with a piece of chalk on a blackboard - and then hangs his cap on it!). This film is not great cinematic art, but it does offer some great laughs. (**1/2)

Having recently laughed my way through 'Buck Privates' and 'Keep 'em Flying', I was largely disappointed by this navy tribute. 'Hold that Ghost' was literally put on hold in order to speed up the release of 'In the Navy', and it showed, most noticeably in the less than special effects for the final sequence.Dick Powell was a welcome addition to the cast but he really wasn't given much of a chance to show his talents. The songs overall lacked the punch so evident in 'Buck Privates', and later on, in 'Keep 'em Flying'. A fatal error was the so-called romance between Lou and Patty. The lead singer of the Andrews Sisters may have been a great vocalist but she was a woeful actress. Where were you, Martha Raye? My favourite Bud and Lou gag was the 'Sons of Neptune'. With the boys ad-libbing all the way through, it seemed evident that they and the rest of the cast and crew had a great time getting through the sequence. Director Arthur Lubin, according to author Jim Mulholland, began to laugh uncontrollably during this take. An interesting point from the same source - the censor requested the director not show the actual spitting of water into anyone's face.

Maybe Who's On First is Abbott and Costello's best known routine, but the one that is my favorite has Lou successfully proving to Abbott and everyone else that Thirteen times seven does equal twenty eight. That is the centerpiece of this film and I never fail to split a gut when I see it.In the book the films of Dick Powell it says that Powell grabbed this role with relish because it reflected him in real life. At that time Powell was desperately trying to get out of crooning roles and do straight drama. And that's just what Russ Raymond, Powell's character, is trying to do here. He enlists in the Navy under the name of Tommy Halsted with reporter Claire Dodd hot on his trail and the accompanying story. That's the thin plot of this film, but with Abbott and Costello at the top of their game, plot, shmot, who cares. Good laughs for all.