Meet the Navy (film)

Meet the Navy is a 1946 British musical comedy film based on the Canadian musical revue Meet the Navy. Filmed in England in November 1945, it was directed by Alfred Travers and produced by British National Films. It starred Lionel Murton, Margaret Hurst and Robert John Pratt.[1] A musical troupe entertain sailors from the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War, and the film shows their personal history and experiences. The film concludes with a Technicolor sequence, with the cast involved in a Royal Command Performance, featuring a young Princess Elizabeth.[2]

Meet the Navy
Directed byAlfred Travers
Produced byLouis H. Jackson
Screenplay byLester Cooper
James Seymour
Story byLester Cooper
StarringLionel Murton
Margaret Hurst
Robert John Pratt
Music byEric Wild
Ronnie Munro
CinematographyErnest Palmer
Geoffrey Unsworth (Technicolor sequence)
Edited byLito Carruthers
Production
company
British National Films
Distributed byAnglo-American Film Corporation (UK)
Release date
  • 2 September 1946 (1946-09-02) (UK)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Cast
  • Lionel Murton ... Johnny
  • Margaret Hurst ... Midge
  • Robert John Pratt ... Horace
  • Robert Goodier ... Tommy
  • Phyllis Hudson ... Jenny
  • Percy Haynes ... Cook
  • Bill Oliver ... C.P.O. Oliver
  • Jeanette De Hueck ... Gracie
  • Oscar Natzke ... Fisherman
  • Alan Lund ... Dancer
  • Billy Mae Richards ... Dancer

Box Office

According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1946 Britain was The Wicked Lady, with "runners up" being The Bells of St Marys, Piccadilly Incident, The Road to Utopia, Tomorrow is Forever, Brief Encounter, Wonder Man, Anchors Away, Kitty, The Captive Heart, The Corn is Green, Spanish Main, Leave Her to Heaven, Gilda, Caravan, Mildred Pierce, Blue Dahlia, Years Between, O.S.S., Spellbound, Courage of Lassie, My Reputation, London Town, Caesar and Cleopatra, Meet the Navy, Men of Two Worlds, Theirs is the Glory, The Overlanders, and Bedelia.[3]

Critical reception

Allmovie described the film as "Virtually plotless, the British Meet the Navy is not so much a film as a musical revue. Which is as it should be, since the film is based on the Royal Canadian Navy stage show of the same name, originally put together by radio musical arranger Louis Silvers and choreographer Larry Ceballos. Like its Hollywood predecessor This Is the Army, Meet the Navy is so smooth and professional-looking that one doubts the publicity claims that the cast was composed entirely of talented amateurs. Few of the cast members went on to illustrious careers, though most were certainly capable of doing so";[2] and TV Guide gave the film two out of four stars, calling it "An entertaining British musical."[4]

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References
  1. "Meet the Navy (1946)". Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  2. "Meet the Navy (1946) - Alfred Travers - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie".
  3. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  4. "Meet The Navy".


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