Robert J. Maxwell This is more fun than you might expect. Not the romance, which is dull and familiar. A swabbie (Cagney) falls for the daughter of a Chief Boatswain's Mate (O'Brien) and the two guys hate each other. They always seem to be stationed together. And Cagney's character is equally familiar -- the tough, selfish cynic who joins the Navy on a dare and finds himself stuck. He proves himself a hero, of course, as all these characters do, as Cagney himself was to do a few years later in "The Fighting 69th." That's all boring. What's fun and interesting are the locations. Usually a story like this is shot on relatively cheap cardboard sets with some inserted footage of Navy ships. See "Follow the Fleet", inter alia, for an example.Here, though, as other commentators have pointed out, the shooting was done on the decks of the real USS Arizona and there is considerable footage of the dirigible Macon, which was housed at Moffet Field near Palo Alto, California. The monstrous hangars are still there.The first time Cagney demonstrates his altruism is while the Arizona is on fleet maneuvers off San Diego. It's genuine heroism too. A powder bag leaks and a fire threatens the entire turret. Cagney throws himself on the burning powder to smother it. There was a similar explosion in the turret of the battleship USS Iowa in 1989 that damaged much of the turret and killed 47 crewmen. (The Navy blamed it on a homosexual spat.) I may be biased because I was on a ship that took part in fleet maneuvers off San Diego too. I was a lowly lookout with no real responsibility and enjoyed every minute of watching guns go off in the sunshine. My ship, the Coast Guard Cutter Gresham, was supposed to track a submarine on sonar but couldn't find the submarine in the first place so the exercise was a flop. I won't bother to describe the farce that followed the announcement of "Air action, port!" Where was I? I wish someone would discretely flap a napkin at me when I got off topic like that. I'd do as much for you. Anyway, the second time Cagney indulges in heroics is a charm. He gets the girl, saves O'Brien, and wins another medal, I guess.Cagney is his usual bouncy self, sneering and ready to bop everybody on the schnozz. O'Brien is reliable and unexciting. Gloria Stuart, who passed on recently, is less than inspiring. Frank McHugh lends solid support. I could hardly believe it when I saw Bill Elliot as a Navy officer. Ten years later he would make a series of cheap Westerns and serials as "Wild Bill Elliot," one of my faves when I was a kid.At any rate, and for whatever reason, I expected to be rather more bored than I was. Nice crisp photography.

sbchelldiver This film is an unintended historical document.It shows the daily and very ordinary goings-on aboard a typical battle wagon in the 1930's.Only that, because U.S.S. Arizona was at the moment available for filming,now we can see this as a poignant reminder of a great ship & its gallant crew,some of which would still call her home on Dec 7 1941.Note Also that much of the action on board centers round the vicinity of turret 1,where the big explosion would happen,and which remains to this day the only complete remaining turret aboard ship.Also to watch all the pomp used then,frock coats fore&aft hats&all,leggings in boot camp,full uniform for maneuvering dirigibles(a rigid ship,e/o aboard in full uniform,no jumpsuits mind u,dates the way it was)U.S.S. Macon on Moffet, then on Mines Field(Angelenos dig it up well;that prairie is now LAX!)But a/a BB39.I,m from Ponce in PUR,& in 1931 she visited us bringing Herbert Hoover with her. So for this and the other reasons,and many more,I consider this a priceless historical document.What do YOU think? Carlos Aneiro

MartinHafer This review is so glowing because this film is one of the most important films, historically speaking, I have ever seen. While it is yet another Jimmy Cagney film in many ways, it shocked me when I saw that the film was set aboard the USS Arizona--the famous ship that was completely destroyed with most of its crew at Pearl Harbor just a few years later. Seeing Cagney and crew walking about this doomed ship is a rare opportunity to see the ship that still rests at the bottom of Pearl.Later, to my utter amazement, the USS Macon (one of the US Navy's dirigibles) makes an appearance as well! This huge airship was to be destroyed in a storm only a year later, and once again the real ship was used in parts of the film. This is once again an amazing opportunity to see the ship.So, combining the two rare opportunities with a pretty decent Cagney film gives you a film well-worth seeing. For those who don't care about the historical aspects of the film, I give it a 7--it's still pretty good and worth a look.

Arthur Hausner Besides James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, there's also beautiful Gloria Stuart (63 years before her triumphant return to the screen in Titanic (1997)) as the love interest, and Frank McHugh providing comedy centered around his mother's false teeth. In a fight over a girl with Navy man O'Brien, Cagney is knocked out when his girl distracts him. And when O'Brien later steals his girl, Cagney is so angry he joins the Navy with the hope of getting even. Talk about holding grudges! After 3 months of basic training (shot on location at the Naval Training Station in San Diego, California), Cagney is assigned to the battleship U.S.S. Arizona, the ship O'Brien is on. The Navy allowed location shooting on the actual ship, which is the same one sunk at Pearl Harbor and is now in the harbor as a memorial. It's an impressive ship with unbelievable firepower and we see the big guns being loaded and fired in maneuvers. Meanwhile, Cagney had met and wooed Stuart, but she turned out to be O'Brien's sister! And O'Brien caused a rift, another reason for Cagney to get even with him. Because of a bad attitude problem, Cagney eventually is transferred to the dirigible U.S.S. Macon at Sunnyvale, California. Again, the actual airship is used and it is an awesome sight as it is pulled out of its hangar, dwarfing everything in view. As luck (and the script) would have it, the ship tries to land in windy weather but aborts, with O'Brien hanging on to a mooring line as it gains altitude. Cagney disobeys orders and climbs down the rope with a parachute to try to save the man he doesn't yet know is O'Brien.