LUXURY LINER
US, 1948, 98 minutes, Colour.
Jane Powell, George Brent, Lauritz Melchior, Frances Gifford, Xavier Cugat.
Directed by Richard Whorf.
Luxury Liner is a pleasant, minor M.G.M. musical of the late 1940s - one of the earliest vehicles for Jane Powell: after A Date for Judy and before Nancy Goes to Rio. Producer Joe Pasternak had discovered Deanna Durbin and Jane Powell is given similar kind of cinema treatment: comedy, singing both modern and operatic, family complications and sentiment. Jane Powell shows that she is an attractive and lively screen personality. She is supported by an ageing George Brent as her Captain-father and an attractive Frances Gifford. Xavier Cugat is there and he is given some imaginative numbers, especially with lighting and mirrors. The supporting cast is minor. Direction is by former actor (Keeper of the Flame) Richard Whorf (Till The Clouds Roll By).
The film is entertaining and is a precursor of the popular television series especially in the style of The Love Boat. For that reason it could be popular with audiences of later decades. There is a verve about the film, especially with opera singers Lauritz Melchior and The plot is familiar material: widower Captain on the sea is not able to see his teenage daughter often enough, he is shown admiring her in the Finishing School play. Daughter stows away on ship and is set to work scrubbing floors and peeling potatoes - and putting notes in the potatoes. She admires famous opera singer who is being hounded by his female star doing a very humorous imitation of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Teenage girl is befriended by war widow who is running away from a decision about marriage. Precocious teenage girl interferes and does not realise what she is doing, especially when father falls in love with widow. All ends happily with daughter singing with opera star, widow settling marriage problem, father marrying widow. The opera soprano gets her comeuppance - although she is in cahoots with a naval officer at the end. The film treats basic themes of family relationships, adolescents growing up in a pleasant American manner.
