Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

'Shipmates Forever' shares the same flaws and strengths of 'Flirtation Walk' with the same lead actors and director, but due to having better pacing and choreography 'Flirtation Walk' is the better film if only just.Like 'Flirtation Walk', the weak link is the story, which is wafer-thin and goes well overboard on the simplicity. One says that musical-comedies shouldn't be seen for the story, but as 'Shipmates Forever' is heavier on story rather than on the musical material and production numbers it is harder to ignore it. Again, like 'Flirtation Walk', Frank Borzage tends to make heavy weather of it, meaning that the pace does drag outside of the songs and the energy is not as light-on-its-feet as it should have been. The patriotic tone is sometimes laid on too thick too.The songs are very pleasant, with the highlights between "Don't Give Up the Ship" and particularly "I'd Rather Listen to Your Eyes", but there are more timeless and more memorable songs. The film is very scant on production numbers and what little there is is literally crying out for the involvement of Busby Berkeley who would have directed them with much more energy and imagination.However, 'Shipmates Forever' while not lavish still looks handsome and colourful as well as skilfully photographed. The script is smart and amusing, if a little too frothy in places.Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are immensely likable and their chemistry is incredibly charming and a large part of the film's appeal. The rest of the performances are also good, with a fine supporting turn from John Arledge and a nicely quirky one from Ross Alexander.On the whole, a lesser Keeler-Powell film but still very much watchable. 6/10 Bethany Cox

An enjoyable if slightly sappy movie with a fairly standard plot line. Notably, the song from this film "Shipmates Stand Together" is still performed as part of a medley by the US Naval Academy Men's Glee Club.Speaking about the music from the film, the US Military Academy's Alma Mater (that's Navy's gridiron rival West Point!) is used as background music at least three times, including in the closing scene. Interesting goof, possibly intentional?The scenes dealing with the upperclassmen "rating" the Plebes are fun; they are different in detail but not in quality from what goes on at the Academy even today.Of the movies available on VHS or DVD about the Naval Academy, I would rank this about in the middle:1. Navy Blue and Gold (1937) 2. Midshipman Jack (1933) 3. Shipmates Forever 4. An Annapolis Story (1955) - pretty bad. 5. Annapolis (2006) - truly dreadful.

Frank Borzage is my favorite American director of the thirties (and of the twenties).His movies have worn so well ,his heroes are so endearing that I'm deeply moved every time I watch one of them.But this one....It may be "flirtation walk 2" but it has nothing of the greatness that shows in almost every work of the director:is it the same man who made "the mortal storm" ,"three comrades " (a paean to friendship which is far superior to "Shipmates forever") "Little man,what now?" "man's castle" ?It seems the negation of such works as "no greater glory" or " a farewell to arms" .Borzage 's heroes have to fight against an hostile world ("seventh Heaven" "street angel" "little man what now?") they are sweet rebels whose weapon is love and only love.Borzage's girls are not bimbos ,they are sometimes stronger than their male co-stars (see "the river" or "stranded" or "After tomorrow").Dick Powell's Richard is terribly bourgeois ,terribly conformist.Either he is stupid not to follow his dream (crooning) or he is the worthy (Hollywoodian) son from the start .Even more unpleasant is Ruby Keeler's June :not only she lost her father and her brother (in the navy) but she would not accept to marry Richard if he gave up the academy;an user smartly pointed out that it was exactly the subject of Taylor Hackford's "an officer and a gentleman" (1981),but it does not make "shipmates forever" a movie ahead of its time.Sorry to write this ,but this well-meaning jingoistic couple has nothing to do with most of all Borzage's lovers.Since it's a musical,Dick Powell sings four or five songs (depending on the version you're watching,the restored one lasting 2 hours+).Borzage's touch can be felt in one short sequence: the shipmate who failed his exams in the officer's office and his harsh words to the hero (who gets what he deserves anyway).To make a movie about the navy just after another one called "stranded " (in the figurative ,of course) is it a bit ironical on the director's part?In spite of its title,in "stranded" ,the heroine is not a passive sluggish navy girl "who comes second" like June who is nothing but a human medal.

SHIPMATES FOREVER (Warner Brothers, 1935) cashes in on the recent success of FLIRTATION WALK (1934), set in West Point, reuniting Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Ross Alexander, John Arledge, Frederick Burton,  with Frank Borzage as their director, in a Navy themed product filmed on location at Annapolis, Maryland. As with FLIRTATION WALK, SHIPMATES FOREVER centers mostly upon Powell, not so much for his crooning, but his ability as a serious actor and ladies man. Although labeled a musical, the movie emphases more on plot than tunes, and contains more tearful/ sentimental moments than comedy, thus being a true departure for both Powell or Keeler, best known for their backstage musicals with Busby Berkeley dance numbers and gold digging chorus girls.The scenario has Powell playing Richard John "Dick" Melville III, singer at the Sky Club in New York City, who would rather be entertaining than serving in the Navy as traditionally expected of him by his admiral father (Lewis Stone). Dick meets and immediately falls in love with June Blackburn (Ruby Keeler), a dancing teacher for little children, who also comes from a long line of Navy relatives. With the intention of taking his Navy entrance exam to show his father he can pass it, and not entering the academy, Dick has a change of heart and enters the academy anyway, but with the intention of throwing away his commission in the end. Dick soon resents the friendship of his fellow roommates and rooms alone after plebe year. Basically a loner and a disappointment to his father, Dick's only companion happens to be June. After risking his life saving a fellow shipmate, Johnny "Coxwain" Lawrence (John Arledge) from an exploding boiling room, Dick becomes a hero to his fellow shipmates, but it will be at graduation to show whether or not Dick has the making being a true Navy man.Also in the cast are Robert Light (Ted Sterling); Eddie Acuff ("Cowboy" Lincoln); Dick Foran (Gifford); and Mary Treen (Cowboy's Girlfriend); Of the supporting players, it's Ross Alexander who adds some good doses of comedy as Lafayette "Sparks" Brown from Arkansas. His one scene where he successfully sneaks in a radio into his room during plebe year under the noses of his superiors should gather up few chuckles, especially when being too close to call.When I first watched SHIPMATES FOREVER on Memorial Day weekend on Turner Network Television (TNT) back in 1989, I actually didn't care for it mainly because I was expecting a big song and dance/ flag waving, military musical in the tradition of BORN TO DANCE or FOLLOW THE FLEET (both 1936), or possibly an overblown lavish scale production in the manner of MGM's ANCHOR'S AWEIGH (1945) with Keeler tap dancing galore and Powell leading a parade of singing sailors, but after repeated viewing whenever shown on Turner Classic Movies, I find that SHIPMATES FOREVER breaks away from the usual military musical clichés, and truly believe it holds up better than FLIRTATION WALK mainly due to its realistic way Navy life is depicted.With tunes by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, including "Don't Give Up the Ship," "I'd Love to Take Orders From You" and the charming "I'd Rather Listen to Your Eyes," the songs grow tiresome after being re-prised two or three times. While Keeler never tap danced in FLIRTATION WALK, she doesn't sing a note in SHIPMATES FOREVER, yet shows off her dancing skill in two brief sequences, one in a dancing school to the amazement of her students (The Meglin Kiddies), and another at the Sky Club. In spite of several time outs for a song, there are no production numbers at all. Reportedly distributed in theaters at 124 minutes, it's the 109 minute print that's currently in circulation on the TV markets. While Powell recruited to military duty as THE SINGING MARINE (1937), he would make a return engagement into the Navy once again, co-starring opposite the popular comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello for IN THE NAVY (Universal, 1941).  Trivia: The theme to SHIPMATES FOREVER was reworked as a 1939 military programmer titled ON DRESS PARADE (WB, 1939) starring The Dead End Kids, with Leo Gorcey assuming the role originally enacted by Powell, but minus the singing. (** Bells)