Oh, Sailor, Behave!
About Oh, Sailor, Behave!
American reporter Charlie Carroll (Charles King) is sent to Venice to interview a Romanian general (Noah Beery) and falls for the heiress Nanette Dodge (Irene Delroy). Kunegundi (Vivien Oakland), the general's favorite, gets him in the door. Nanette learns that Prince Kasloff (Lowell Sherman) is blackmailing her sister, tries to charm the letters away from him, and is told the price is marriage. The prince hires the general to kidnap her. Charlie, thinking she has eloped, nearly marries Kunegundi, then learns the truth and rescues Nanette. In a second plot, two American sailors in Naples, played by Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson, hunt a wooden-legged thief who robbed a navy storehouse in Venice.
Cast & crew
More about Oh, Sailor, Behave!
Archie Mayo directed. Joseph Jackson and Sid Silvers wrote the script from Elmer Rice's play See Naples and Die. Rice had won the Pulitzer Prize for Street Scene in 1929. Devereaux Jennings photographed it and William Holmes edited it. Warner Bros. produced and released it on 16 August 1930. Trade ads promised an all-Technicolor musical. After the slump in musicals it went out in black and white. The narrative setting is Venice and Naples.
Themes
Background
By mid-1930 American audiences had turned against the first wave of film musicals. Warner Bros. pulled the color and opened Oh, Sailor, Behave! without a prestige run.
Making
Warner Bros. had advertised a Technicolor musical. By the time of release, exhibitors were refusing musicals, so the film went out in black and white and was sold on the Olsen and Johnson comedy rather than on King and Delroy.
Audiences
The studio did not open it in the important houses. Publicity shifted onto Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson because Charles King and Irene Delroy, associated with musicals, were no longer a draw.
Look
Devereaux Jennings photographed it in black and white after the planned Technicolor version was dropped.
Music
Joseph Burke and Al Dubin wrote the songs, among them "When Love Comes in the Moonlight" and "Highway to Heaven." The full track is preserved on Vitaphone discs. Leonid S. Leonardi and David Mendoza share music credits.
Preservation
A complete picture survives. Prints are at the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress. The soundtrack is complete on Vitaphone discs. Warner Archive issued a DVD in 2014.
Notes
- Songs include "When Love Comes in the Moonlight," "Leave a Little Smile," "Highway to Heaven," "The Laughing Song," and "Tell Us Which One Do You Love.
- Joseph Burke and Al Dubin wrote songs for the picture. Leonid S. Leonardi and David Mendoza are also credited with music.
- Olsen and Johnson, billed in the campaign as America's funniest clowns, carry the sailor subplot.
- The complete soundtrack survives on Vitaphone discs.
- It is a pre-Code release.
Scenes
- Charlie uses Kunegundi to reach the Romanian general.
- The prince demands marriage in exchange for the letters and has Nanette kidnapped.
- Olsen and Johnson chase a wooden-legged thief through the sailor plot.
Influenced by
- Elmer Rice's play See Naples and Die
Also available
- Museum of Modern Art
- Library of Congress
- Warner Archive Collection DVD (2014)
