Main Cast: Eleanor Powell, Robert Young, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Rita Johnson
Release Year: 1939
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
George Burns and Gracie Allen made their last screen appearance together in the 1939 MGM musical Honolulu; indeed, it would be Burns' last film until his 1976 "comeback" in The Sunshine Boys. The nonsensical plotline is carried by Robert Young as famous movie star Brooks Mason, who wants to go to Honolulu for a long rest but can't shake off his throngs of adoring female fans. As luck would have, Mason has an exact double, a Hawaiian plantation owner named George Smith. Mason convinces Smith to switch identities, with the expected comedy-of-error complications as a result. Things get really complicated when Smith, posing as Mason, proposes marriage to lovely Dorothy March (Eleanor Powell), who then can't understand why the real Mason seems to be so fickle. Clearly in support, Burns and Allen are cast respectively as Mason's personal manager Joe Duffy and Dorothy's scatterbrained friend Millie de Grasse. The film contrives to separate George and Gracie for most of the footage, bringing them together in the last reel for a characteristic comedy routine about Gracie's dizzy relatives. Also on hand in a minor role is another comedy giant, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Highlights include a masquerade-party production number in which Gracie Allen is serenaded by the King's Men Quartet (disguised as the Marx Brothers), and Eleanor Powell's blackface stair-tap tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (Powell also performs a tap-dance hula, which scores on its novelty value alone!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Honolulu is hardly a great musical; in fact, overall it would have to qualify as a very middling one. That said, however, there are a number of elements in Honolulu that are far more than middling. Foremost among these is star Eleanor Powell. Most Powell films exist as a showcase for the star's dancing talents, and this one is no exception. Those glorious taps and dizzying swirls and captivating bends and dazzling arms are very much in evidence here, and watching her go through her routines provides the viewer with a great deal of pleasure. The "hula tap" is especially noteworthy, the Bill Robinson tribute is equally good (even if the blackface is hard to watch) and the jump rope dance is quite delightful. But there are too many stretches between these numbers when the by-the-numbers script intrudes, and Powell's strength is in her dancing; her acting is fine, but not something that can add zing and zest to lackluster dialogue and situations. As the romantic interest, Robert Young is quite enjoyable, dealing with the hoary "identical twins" mix-ups with ease. But Young is not a musical performer like Powell, and so there's an imbalance to the film that's damaging. Fortunately, Gracie Allen and George Burns are also on hand to enliven the proceedings, with an especially fine sequence late in the film that shows the duo off in a particularly good light. The score is jaunty and enjoyable, if not one of Harry Warren's greatest. The script and unimaginative direction -- and lack of color, which the film cries out for -- keep Honolulu from soaring, but those Powell specialty spots are well worth catching. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Inspired by stories about dopplegangers and identical twins such as The Prince and the Pauper, Honolulu features Young in a dual role as Brooks Mason—a top movie star—and as Hawaiʻi-based businessman George Smith. Mason is tired of being in the public eye, so when he discovers that Smith is close enough to be his twin, he arranges to switch places with Smith temporarily. When Mason steps into Smith's life, he finds himself in a tug-of-war between Smith's fiancée, and a dancer named Dorothy March (Powell), with whom he has fallen in love. Meanwhile, Smith discovers that being a famous movie star is not all that it is made out to be.
Eleanor Powell's dance routines, here given a mostly Hawaiian flavor, are the highlights of this film. One of her routines is performed in black face in tribute to Powell's idol, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson. The comedy of Burns & Allen is also featured, although the two actors work separately for much of the movie. The film is also notable for offering a somewhat rare cinematic look at pre-World War II Honolulu.
Footage of one of Powell's dance routines (done in a hula skirt to a tiki drum orchestra) would be reused in the later comedy, I Dood It, while another dance performance that was cut from the film appeared seven years later in the "hodge-podge" production The Great Morgan.
