Greetings from VKMfanHuey!!!

Welcome to the Gingerology blog for the 1931 RKO / Pathe film, Suicide Fleet!!!

Ginger plays the role of Sally, the Candy-Hawking Babe on Coney Island... who has the attention of three different dudes who also make their living in the island - "Dutch" (Robert Armstrong), "Skeets" (James Gleason), and, most notably, "Baltimore" (William Boyd). When the call of WAR sounds, the three dudes decide to enlist in the Navy for the cause. This obviously does not sit well with Sally, who is left waiting for the results of the trio's ultimate 'suicide mission'...

Please note the 'menu' above, which has various information regarding the film; to the right (just below the Gingerology link) there are additional links regarding the film.

Please feel free to leave a comment with any general info, links, pics, or just to say hi!

...And be sure to check out our 'main' site, Gingerology - just click on the Ginger pic to the right. There you'll find a list of ALL of Ginger Rogers' films; click on any one, and you will be directed to a 'dedicated' blog about that film (not unlike this blog).

Keep It Gingery, y'all!

VKMfanHuey

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Monday, July 4, 2016

GingerBinge Summer 2016 continues...

...with Suicide Fleet!
...this one has had a 'proper' HueyReview, so... just a few notes upon another viewing...

Ginger is MAYBE 20 years old here... it's the last 1931 film on the 'list' of Gingerfilms... so... for a young lady just out of her teens, she really presents herself well here, quite 'mature' and self-supporting... honestly, her first role where she truly emits that persona... maybe Sap from Syracuse saw some of that 'maturity', but not as complete as we see here.
the story line isn't too bad... of course it's purt near impossible to weave a 'love story' totally within a war pic, especially when it's seagoing... and communications were not quite what they are currently...
but there are some 'check-ins' with Sally at the port (Sally-port?) regarding 'updates' of sorts... but just not much... which really drives home just how little the ladies waiting at home had to go on during wartime...


...a bit fuzzy - but a pretty well laid-out scene when the boys find out that WAR is what all the hubbub is about... and Sally's reaction caught from behind the lineup of the future gobs... (see the original HueyReview for a better understanding of 'gob'...)

...and a few more screencaps from that scene... not sure WHY I didn't get these from the original review... I might have thought it was too fuzzy... or Ginger wasn't in the foreground... but anyway, here they are...



...yeah, guess I was on the sauce to leave these out... I LOVE that last scene where she is running off, but tells the dudes to wait there... yeah, I'd STILL be standing there, y'all...

The story is pretty good, if a bit uneven... for example, the deal where they are 'imitating' a Norwegian vessel... wouldn't everyone on that mission be required to speak German? And please don't try to tell me that three German U-boats couldn't sink a sailing ship in 30 seconds flat... I guess the movie wouldn't have lasted as long otherwise...

A final deal which was noted in the original review... James Gleason, who played 'Skeets', was actually 49 years old when this film was made... and he looked every day of it, and then some... but it's kind of ironic that Hu just turned 49... also interesting was the scene where they were enlisting had a sign in the background which said - taking ages 17 to 35 or something like that... um, this dude wasn't even close...
 

...Anyway... here's a Suicide Fleet Float... ...which appears to be just rolling down a street in early 30's suburbia... no doubt some type of parade... a Fourth of July one, perhaps???

This is a pretty fair film, if not a 'major role' for Ginger... it is worth checking out, just to see the old ships and how stuff was done back in the day...

Until later...

KIG, y'all!!!

Hu
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1 comment:

  1. Agree with you completely, Huey. It is so much fun watching Ginger's acting skills grow with every film she makes. Your examples are a perfect illustration of this. A couple moments during the scene where Gleason is proposing to her gives us a glimpse into her future beauty. (Am wondering how she felt during that scene.... Bet she had a few heart twinges through it all, as she was newly divorced from her first husband, Jack Pepper.) The biggest failing of this film is the lack of Ginger in the last 2/3 of the film. Wish she could have had a song and dance break in there somewhere... (They could have cut some of those silly scenes from the guys getting a short pass.) She made a couple short appearances, but those were both too brief and poorly directed. For every supporting role she played, the director should have expanded her role. ;-) Her closing scene with Boyd was cute. Overall a generally enjoyable "B" picture.

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