Murder in the Fleet

A navy boat becomes a co-ed lodge for the suspects in a rather uninteresting movie that occurs after an argument between naval lieutenant Robert Taylor and civilian equipment inspector Raymond Hatton. Following the stabbing of a crew member, everybody is forced to remain aboard, including Taylor's socialite fiancee (Jean Parker) and the overly chatty Una Merkel, girlfriend of typical dumb sailor Nat Pendleton. Comedy relief between Merkel, Pendleton and Ted Healy just gets more annoying with each scene they have, and leading man Taylor is pretty underwhelming. There are far too many supporting actors including Jean Hersholt, Walter Byron and Mischa Auer, creating far too many suspects and red herrings. A few good fight sequences gives this a higher rating from me, but I felt that this ship ran out of steam early on, making this often dull and uninteresting. By the time the murderer and motive were rebealre, I just found I didn't really care anymore.

This movie makes me wonder anew how it was that Robert Taylor became such a star. It has to be his looks as his screen persona is, to me, always bland. That said, I'm glad I saw this movie. I found the best part to be the verbal sparring between Nat Pendleton and Ted Healy. Although I recognized many in the cast (especially fun seeing Keye Luke and Ward Bond), I missed reading the opening credits and quite frankly did not recognize Ted Healy and even had I seen his name, I would not have recalled the Three Stooges connection. I remember thinking during the movie "Gee, this guy is really good." So my favorite part of the movie is the one another reviewer found most annoying. Una Merkel as Toots was good but too overtly grasping and Jean Parker was inadequate to the task. I liked Parker in the Kitty O'Day movies but not in this one. The mystery itself is uninspired and basically uninteresting – the culprit was unexpected but logical.

This poorly made film should never have been made. It is not a Navy film (although Taylor's Navy film, 'Stand by for Action', was boring), and it is not a murder-mystery. I don't know what it is, but I do know that it is not a movie. It fails to provide any interesting characters or a compelling storyline. Taylor's performance is good, but good performances don't necessarily make a good film. You need more than a good performance. You need a good script, and this poorly written script lets the film down. All I can say is that this must have been made to add to Taylor's credit list rather than making a worthwhile film. Don't bother watching it if you're a Taylor fan as it comes nowhere near the quality of his later films.

Someone aboard the USS Carolina is attempting to sabotage an important, secret gunnery system's field test... by murdering those installing it. Plenty of suspects abound as there are many visitors aboard the ship while it is in port. Overall an entertaining mystery set aboard a US naval cruiser. Robert Taylor stars as Lt. Randolph, in command of the gunnery test, with Jean Parker as his rich, spoiled love interest. Nat Pendleton plays Randolph's CPO, who, with the aid of Una Merkel and Ted Healy (of stooges fame), provides the comic relief. Look for an uncredited Ward Bond as a sailor-murder victim and Keye Luke as aid to the visiting Manchukan Consul.