When "Paramount on Parade" (1930) was released the big surprise was Clara Bow. She could really sing!!! This film "True to the Navy" took it's title from the musical number Clara sang in the Paramount revue. There is a moment in "True to the Navy" when Clara is singing a song to radio accompaniment - "There's Only One Who Really Matters to Me". Mid way through the song she changes tempo slightly - a jolly hard thing to do!!!!
Solomon Bimberg (Harry Green) runs a drug store frequented by the Navy - the chief attraction being the winsome Ruby Nolan (Clara Bow). On the boss's orders she is particularly chummy with the sailors and when the fleet comes in they all descend on the drugstore at once and a brawl occurs.
Ruby swears off sailors forever - until she sees "Gunner" McCoy (Frederic March) then she is smitten for real. They go across the border for the afternoon, where her boss is hoping to put across a business deal with a couple of gangsters (Maurice Black is one of them). The crew follow and tell "Gunner" the truth about Ruby. Gunner and Ruby decide to get married at a "public wedding" put on by the dance hall but he humiliates her and goes off with the gangsters for a drink. They are hoping to get him drunk so he can't participate in a Navy shooting competition. Ruby is coaxed by the other sailors to put things right which she does but another brawl erupts.
Everything turns out alright. Clara looks slim and radiant and the sailor in the first scene is Rex Bell, who was soon to be her husband. Frederic March did not look at ease but he was soon to go on to bigger, more intense roles ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931)). Worth seeing for Clara Bow alone.
Solomon Bimberg (Harry Green) runs a drug store frequented by the Navy - the chief attraction being the winsome Ruby Nolan (Clara Bow). On the boss's orders she is particularly chummy with the sailors and when the fleet comes in they all descend on the drugstore at once and a brawl occurs.
Ruby swears off sailors forever - until she sees "Gunner" McCoy (Frederic March) then she is smitten for real. They go across the border for the afternoon, where her boss is hoping to put across a business deal with a couple of gangsters (Maurice Black is one of them). The crew follow and tell "Gunner" the truth about Ruby. Gunner and Ruby decide to get married at a "public wedding" put on by the dance hall but he humiliates her and goes off with the gangsters for a drink. They are hoping to get him drunk so he can't participate in a Navy shooting competition. Ruby is coaxed by the other sailors to put things right which she does but another brawl erupts.
Everything turns out alright. Clara looks slim and radiant and the sailor in the first scene is Rex Bell, who was soon to be her husband. Frederic March did not look at ease but he was soon to go on to bigger, more intense roles ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931)). Worth seeing for Clara Bow alone.