Sorry, this movie sucks

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Blistering performances.

How many clichés can you pack into one movie? Paramount answered the question with "Waikiki Wedding." You've got lithe dancing natives (a few of whom actually look like they're from the islands,) miles of leis, a mysterious black pearl, a volcano that's about to blow, a contest to name Miss Pineapple and even Anthony Quinn (yep, that Anthony Quinn) as a local roustabout. All that's missing are the nuptials of the title. Bing Crosby saunters through the stereotypes as an idea man for a fruit company who spends most of his time lolling on his sailboat, dreaming up promotion stunts and singing island refrains. Toss in a pair of walking clichés -- Martha Raye and Bob Burns -- and appreciate that this was what Crosby had to go through before the studio recognized his potential.

"Waikiki Wedding" is a very lightweight film starring Bing Crosby. While it is quite watchable, sometimes the humor is very, very broad and the story a bit predictable.When the film begins, the big boss at a pineapple company is upset because Miss Pineapple is upset. It seems that the lady who won this beauty contest and who has been brought to Hawaii is NOT enjoying her stay and things that all the talk about romance in the islands is a sham. And, if she goes home and talks about her experiences, it can't help but hurt sales. So, the company's #1 brain, Marvin (Crosby) concocts a long and complicated scheme to give her some excitement and romance. The only trouble is after a while, Marvin has really fallen for her and he feels like a rat.So why do I give this light romance only a 5? Well, to put it very succinctly--Martha Raye. The comedienne has never been one of my favorites but here she is just awful--very, very broad and annoying. I think without the humor, the film would have actually worked better as I liked the romance. Still, it's a decent little time-passer if you can get past Raye's annoying antics--and the presence of a wild chimp living in the jungles of Hawaii!

Waikiki Wedding delivers a bit more than you would expect from one of Bing Crosby's musical trifles of the 1930's. A couple of hit songs, some dynamic dance numbers, and a lot of genuinely funny, if somewhat broad, gags from rustic Arkansas comedian Bob Burns and big-mouth comedienne Martha Raye. Burns and Rae get riotous support in their department from a certain pal of theirs we'll get to later.This very likable, laid-back musical comedy is set in romantic, tuneful Hawaii, never mind the cast never actually got any closer to said Pacific isles than the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanic Garden. If the lavishly constructed sets looked like Hawaii, who cares. The huge cast of Hawaiian natives were all natives, all right. Well, at least two or three were genuine Hawaiians, but the others were all natives -- of Mexico, Latin America, and well...Chicago, maybe. Who cares, it was such great fun! Great music, great singing by Bing and minor leading lady but major singer Shirley Ross, and the "Hawaiian" chorus. Accademy Award nominated dance direction with a terrific foot-stomping number on tom-toms by a well-constructed, Latino-looking babe. The aforementioned broad humor by Burns, Raye, and a platoon of wacky character actors led by George Barbier and a bespectacled Leif Erickson, demonstrating that he had more than a serious side.This little movie coughed up two hit songs: Accademy Award-winning Sweet Leilani, written by Harry Owens and sung by Bing and chorus, and Blue Hawaii, written by Ralf Raigner and Leo Robin and sung several times by Crosby, Ross, and chorus. While Sweet Leilani got the honors in 1937, Blue Hawaii has proved the more durable, going through several revivals the next three decades, and remaining popular even today. Miss Ross only got one solo song, A Little Hula Heaven, in which to really show what a good voice she had.Bob Burns' folksy, humorous philosophizing and Martha Raye's mugging slapstick will not be appreciated by all, especially those too sophisticated to have a good belly laugh. I liked Burns, but then I'm a hick, too. I tried not to like Martha, but I found myself laughing at her anyway. But the funniest and most charismatic character in this enjoyable picture was, without doubt, Burns' pet pig Wolford! Yours truly usually hates cutesy animals in movies (see my review of We're Not Dressing), but with two exceptions: pigs and chickens, both of which are funny no matter what they are doing. This little Wolford guy was a riot all the way! Surely that porker must have been the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Arnold Ziffel. As you listen to Bob Burns and watch the antics of Wolford, you may start feeling like you have gone to Green Acres.But never mind, there is a lot for everyone in this entertaining, well turned out Crosby musical comedy Waikiki Wedding.

In 1937 Bing Crosby made a celebrated trip to the Hawaiian Islands and stayed about a month. Of course being the mega star he was at the time, the trip was accompanied with the usual fanfare and publicity and when he got back Paramount took full advantage of the publicity with Waikiki Wedding.It would have been nice if in fact they'd sent him back to Hawaii and did some beautiful color location photography, but I assume that Adolph Zukor felt that for the studios own homegrown South Sea island gal, Dorothy Lamour never got off Paramount's backlot, they wouldn't do more for Bing.However they did give Crosby a good, amusing plot and some nice songs to sing. Crosby plays a publicist for a Pineapple company who has had the idea to sponsor a Miss Pineapple contest with the winner getting an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii and to send back articles about the great time she's having and hawk the virtues of Hawaiian Pineapples. But the winner, Shirley Ross, ain't havin' such a good time, she's bored. So Bing concocts this elaborately staged adventure involving a stolen idol, a volcano, some natives and Shirley loves it and him. It all resolves itself in the end. George Barbier who's a favorite character actor of mine from the 30s plays Bing's boss at his choleric best. Crosby gets good support from Martha Raye and Bob Burns. Martha Raye was doing the second of three films she did with Bing. Bob Burns, who is forgotten today was a regular on Bing's Kraft Music Hall radio show. He played a hillbilly type character with a touch of Will Rogers without the topical humor. He did two films with Bing and retired from show business in 1941.Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin did the score which includes the classic Blue Hawaii, reprised later by Elvis Presley. However the number one song in the movie at the time was Sweet Leilani, word and music by Hawaiian composer Harry Owens. Bing heard the song while in Hawaii and insisted it be included in the picture. It won an Oscar that year for best song and Crosby had a big hit record of it. Nice Entertaining movie in the Crosby manner.