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Simply Perfect

Crappy film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

RKO cobbled together their contract players and also some other movie sets to come out with this musical comedy. The players were known at that time, but they weren't top tier talent. What came out was a movie, perhaps a second feature, which helped pass the time but was hardly a work of art.My main interest in this film was Wally Brown and Alan Carney. I found a previous comedy of theirs, "Rookies in Burma", hilarious when it was first released, but I was only about six years old. "Zombies on Broadway" still holds up as funny.. They're not very funny in "Seven Days Ashore"; they try a few shtick, borrowing other comedians style, but their routines fall flat. The music and dancing show a lot of energy-Marcy McGuire tries so hard that you that you wonder if the studio is violating some labor laws-but the result is ho- hum.Two gorgeous secondary players, Virginia Mayo and Amelita Ward do a credible job in their share of comic bits. This was an early Virginia Mayo picture and she went on to stardom. Amelita Ward married Leo Gorcey, who didn't want her to work, and her career ebbed away. This trivia might interest fellow movie history nerds.

My Dad saw this film with other American soldiers of the US Third Army in a town in newly liberated France on September 20, 1944. He wrote this in a letter to my Mom on the same day: "At twelve-thirty, a truckload of fellows went into a nearby small town to see a picture show. Today's was the first show I've seen in France. It was Seven Days Ashore, and I found it quite amusing. You may have seen it weeks or months ago. It was the involved plot of boy and girl in-out-and-in love, but of course everything turned out as beautifully as we've known it for five years plus, without the "out" -- just "in"-in-in love. The show was in a large barn; men were crammed in every nook, cranny, and corner. It was quite some sight, and I really enjoyed sharing in the big laughs."

I assume this B picture used some of the sets from the previous RKO opus "Seven Days Leave", which starred Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. Both films feature the talents of Marcy McGuire. The music from "Seven Days Leave" is used as background music for "Seven Days Ashore". The comedy team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney is topped billed, but they are really supporting players. The film's story is centered on the amorous adventures of Gordon Oliver and Elaine Shepard. Brown and Carney play Oliver's buddies. This is one of the few times in their cinema careers when Brown and Carney did not play Jerry and Mike. Obviously, the script was not written with them in mind. There just isn't much comedy here; Brown and Carney don't even get to do a patter routine! Marcy McGuire has a few good musical numbers, but not one number is given to Brown and Carney. Marcy has almost no interaction with the comics. Carney and Marcy would have made a very funny pair. Freddie Slack is on hand and plays the piano. The biggest surprise of the film and the best laughs are supplied by Margaret Dumont (of Marx Brothers' fame), who plays a terrible opera singer. However, she does not have any interplay with Brown and Carney. If you enjoy wartime musicals, "Seven Days Leave" is not bad, but for those looking for some good slapstick, you are better off with "Girl Rush" or "Zombies on Broadway".