HERE COME THE WAVES

Release Date: December 18, 1944 | Production Date: May - August 1944 | Color: Black & White
Running Time: 99 minutes | Studio: Paramount Pictures



PRINCIPAL CAST
 
Bing Crosby
as "Johnny Cabot"
Betty Hutton
as "Susan / Rosemary Allison"
Sonny Tufts
as "Windy Windhurst"
Ann Doran
as "Ruth"
Gwen Crawford
as "Tex"
Noel Neill
as "Dorothy"
Catherine Craig
as "Lt. Townsend"
Marjorie Henshaw
as "Isabel"

CREW
 
Original Screen Play by
Allan Scott, Ken Englund and Zion Myers

Songs by
Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen

Music Direction
Robert Emmett Dolan

Vocal Arrangements
Joseph J. Lilley

Music Associate
Troy Sanders

Ensembles Staged by
Danny Dare

Costumes
Edith Head

Makeup Supervision
Wally Westmore

Director of Photography
Charles Lang, Jr., A.S.C.

Art Direction
Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson

Special Photographic Effects
Gordon Jennings, A.S.C. and Paul Lerpae, A.S.C.

Process Photography
Farciot Edouart, A.S.C.

Edited by
Ellsworth Hoagland

Second Unit Director
George Templeton

Sound Recording by
Hugo Grenzbach and John Cope

Set Decoration
Ray Moyer

Produced and Directed by
Mark Sandrich


PUBLICITY IMAGES AND STILLS
 



POSTERS AND ADVERTISEMENTS
 



POLLS
 



SYNOPSIS
 

Women all over the United States give up their jobs to contribute to the war effort and join the WAVES, the Women's Reserve branch of the Navy. One night, after New York nightclub singers the Allison Twins (Betty Hutton) perform a rousing version of "The Navy Song," Rosemary, the smarter of the pair, tells her dizzy blonde sister Susie that she is tired of just singing the song, and intends to join up. Susie reluctantly enlists with her sister and they join the other recruits at the United States Naval Training School in the Bronx.

After five weeks of training, Rosemary and Susie use their night off to see the performance of Susie's heartthrob, singer Johnny Cabot (Bing Crosby). Rosemary is appalled by the screaming and fainting women who comprise Johnny's audience. Later, at a nightclub, they are introduced to Johnny by their childhood friend Windy (Sonny Tufts), and while Rosemary snubs Johnny because he is still a civilian, Susie faints when she dances with him. Unknown to Rosemary, it is Johnny's fervent wish to follow his father's footsteps in the Navy, but he has been rejected because he is color blind.

When the Navy lowers their physical requirements, Johnny enlists and is stationed at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California, where Susie and Rosemary are also stationed. Windy and Johnny compete for Rosemary's affections, but Rosemary falls in love with Johnny. When Johnny receives orders to ship out on the same ship on which his father served, Susie, unaware of her sister's affection, forges Johnny's name on a letter in which she suggests that Johnny's talents be used to recruit more WAVES. Johnny is mystified when he is then assigned to produce, stage and appear in a theatrical production to recruit WAVES, and angrily blames Windy for keeping him from active duty. To punish Windy, Johnny makes him his assistant, and Windy vengefully convinces Rosemary that Johnny has willfully sidestepped active duty. Susie confides in Windy, who keeps the ruse a secret, and they destroy her original letter.

Johnny casts Susie and Rosemary in the show, but Rosemary, now disenchanted with Johnny, drops out and is reassigned to the air traffic control tower. Rosemary changes her mind, however, so that she can convince her infatuated sister of Johnny's cowardice. When Windy learns that Johnny intends to propose to Rosemary, he and Susie formulate a plan in which Susie impersonates her sister, and successfully drives a wedge between Rosemary and Johnny. Disgusted by his situation, Johnny goes AWOL, hoping to rejoin his ship for active duty, but Windy and Susie forestall him, confess the truth, and trick him into missing his plane. Johnny goes on with the show and Rosemary apologizes for the misunderstanding, and is then responsible for Johnny's reassignment to his ship. After Susie discovers there is no "magic" to kissing Johnny, he reunites with Rosemary. Susie then kisses Windy farewell, and faints.


MUSICAL NUMBERS
 
"The Navy Song (Join The Navy)"
Performed by Betty Hutton

"There's A Fella Waitin' In Poughkeepsie"
Performed by Betty Hutton

"I Promise You"
Performed by Bing Crosby and Betty Hutton

"My Mamma Thinks I'm A Star"
Performed by Betty Hutton


AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
 
Academy Award: Best Music, Original Song (Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer - "Accentuate the Positive") (Nomination)


TRIVIA
 

"Here Come The Waves" was the first film Betty did under her revised contract with Paramount, which paid her $5,000 weekly.

Betty's production number entitled "My Mamma Thinks I'm A Star" was filmed but not featured in the final cut of the movie.

The evening gown worn by Betty in "The Navy Song" performance carried inch and a half bands of real gold. Before the war, they would have been aluminum gilded to simulate gold. But the war had made aluminum too precious.

The official Navy WAVE uniform had to be re-modeled by Paramount studio stylist Edith Head because film censors said Betty's test shots of her wardrobe fittings were too suggestive and not in compliance with the Hays Code.

Although Variety Magazine noted that Vera Marshe was billed as Betty's double, she did not receive onscreen credit, but was credited on the billing Paramount released to the press.

Betty's hair dresser, Doris Harris, was inspired to join the WAVES after setting Betty's hair for this film. She left her Hollywood job for Hunter College to begin her basic training.

Betty would later appear with Sonny Tufts in the film "Cross My Heart" (1946).

Mark Sandrich consulted with Capt. Mildred Helen McAfee, the director of the Women's Reserve of the Navy, on his plans for this film.

Yvonne De Carlo has a small cameo appearance in this film.


MEDIA