Put On Your Sailor Suit

Mickey Rooney and Crew Go All Ashore (1953)

The canard of gobs on leave was ground to powder before and after MGM's success with On The Town, every major's costume department hung with sailor suits. You couldn't blame a public for presuming any Navy man could sing and dance. All Ashore was Columbia's sailing vessel, manned by fading names. Mickey Rooney had left Metro "by mutual consent" after pay dropped to $25K per vehicle; he wrote later that Dore Schary was embarrassed to keep him around for so little money, letting Mick go altogether a better option. Tie-up with neophyte writer-director Richard Quine yielded a series of Columbia-based projects for Mick, the first a service farce, Sound Off, to which All Ashore would follow up. Rooney regarded Quine "like a brother," and brought Blake Edwards to the creative mix. A little more seasoning, which they'd have by the late 50's, and these two might have put Mickey back on top.

In tandem with All Ashore were continued efforts to put Rooney across on continuing TV, one pilot having stalled before Quine fashioned another for NBC placement. That one sold, but only lasted a season. All Ashore tendered Dick Haymes and Ray McDonald as Rooney shipmates, a misjudged script leaving chump Mickey to mercy of louse Haymes and tag-along McDonald. What was funny about a character so ill-treated as Rooney here? Age 32 was late to play goats, even as the one-time #1 boxoffice champ more or less kept boyish appearance. All Ashore has advantage of Technicolor and Catalina Island as location site, the latter affording glimpse of recreational high-life circa 1953. Vet of numerous Universal teen musicals Peggy Ryan acquits well with song/dance; she was accustomed to budget backdrop for performing. All Ashore led bills in smaller situations, supported in others; a Chicagofirst-run saw it in back seat to The Mississippi Gambler. Columbia took $697K in domestic rentals, probably about what was expected. All Ashore is available as a very nice Columbia On-Demand DVD.

NOTE: Leonard Maltin is talking about Greenbriar and Showmen, Sell It Hot! at his INDIEWIRE column today.