LUXURY LINER (MGM 1948) Warner Archive Collection

Producer, Joe Pasternak, famous for his light-hearted excursions where people are just people shortly before truly magical circumstances befall them, is in peak conditioning with director, Richard Warf's Luxury Liner (1948), a buoyant – if minor, movie musical that greatly benefits from MGM’s answer to Deanna Durbin - Jane Powell - as Polly, the headstrong daughter of ship's captain, Jeremy Bradford (George Brent). Throughout the 1940’s MGM’s assembly line churned out such delightful confections of the cotton-candy ilk; Luxury Liner, among them, carried on waves of repurposed songs, sung by new and rising stars, meant more to market a personality than the property on which future moneys could be endlessly derived. For Powell, the transition from winsome ingenue to profit-center had just begun; L.B. Mayer, putting all of his studio resources at Pasternak’s disposal for the young soprano’s debut in 1946’s Holiday in Mexico. Luxury Liner is not nearly as lavish as that auspicious premiere, and yet, the picture has great heart – thanks to Powell’s ability to convey wholesomeness at a glance. Having missed the boat on Deanna Durbin, a teenager Universal wasted no time in exploiting to their full advantage after MGM allowed her contract to lapse, Mayer’s keen eye for acquiring talent like the rest of us do paperclips – by the handful – led him to sign Powell to a lucrative 5-year contract after she first appeared in United Artist’s 1944 musical, Song of the Open Road.

In years yet to come, Powell would view her tenure at Metro through somewhat rose-tinted spectacles, reflecting on studio chief, L.B. Mayer’s ousting from power in 1950 as a terrible loss, while suggesting in an interview with the late Robert Osborne that she never felt entirely ‘a part’ of this great entertainment-producing machine, while remaining circumspect in her desire to share her studio-bound experiences with old friends from her native Portland, Oregon, who might view them as boastful gloating. Hence, Powell, who at present is still very much with us - age, 91 - spent her formative years in a rather curious isolation. Her husband, Dickie Moore (one of five) once astutely pointed out Powell never made a picture in which she was not considered its star. Ironically so, Powell escaped Metro’s usual ‘proving ground’, by which a contract player was first ‘tested’ in cameos in movies to feature other, more evolved stars; gradually, to rise through the ranks until such time as the studio felt she could carry the whole load. Instead, Mayer’s formula for Powell was to surround her with well-established stars of yore, and a few up-and-comers, setting her as the pearl in a Tiffany setting of pure escapist fantasy.  

In Luxury Liner, Powell is given the lion’s share of the score to warble – and this, she does, trilling beautifully the ballad, ‘Spring Came Back to Vienna’ (written by Janice Torre, Fred Spielman and Fritz Rotter), the traditional ‘Alouette’ – given a more spirited rendition here, Manon’s ‘Obéissons quand leur voix appelle’ – eloquently showing off the depths of her soprano, and, the utterly charming ‘The Peanut Vendor’ (written by L. Wolfe Gilbert, Moïse Simons and Marion Sunshine) for which Powell, repeatedly challenged by conductor, Xavier Cugat to stick to the song – as written – nevertheless finds several ingenious ways to infuse the light-hearted pop tune with an operatic fanfare. Luxury Liner’s plot is slight, scripted by Gladys Lehman and Richard Connell with just enough complications to make the transatlantic crossing enjoyable fluff and nonsense. Seems our Polly is not content to let her father have all the adventures without her accompanying him. To this end, she stows away on dad’s next cruise - much to the dismay of Jeremy, who exiles Polly to the galley to teach her a lesson about hard work and obeying her elders.

To broker an audience with one of the ship's more prominent passengers, famed opera star, Olaf Eriksen (Lauritz Melchior) and get him to listen to her sing, Polly befriends another passenger, Laura Dene (Francis Gifford) who just happens to have the cabin next to Eriksen. In the meantime, and much to Polly's chagrin, Eriksen's alto soprano, Zita Romanko (Marina Koshetz) has developed a romantic crush on the Captain. Polly, however, wants dad to fall in love with Laura instead. In between these charmingly conventional plot twists scripted by Lehman, Connell and an uncredited Karl Kamb, Pasternak and Warf fill their studio-bound ship to its keel with engaging musical delights. In addition to the aforementioned songs, Lauritz Melchior – who often appeared in Metro’s product of this vintage as the white-haired sage - thrills passengers with his ear-shattering Die Walkure Manon and more 'pop' friendly Helen Gar - accompanied by Xavier Cugat and his orchestra, who also contribute The Walter Winchell Rumba to the ship's festivities.

In terms of musical offerings from MGM's heyday, the blending of the light and the heavy by Pasternak here, gets distilled into A-1 schmaltz. Luxury Liner is often referenced by the critics as comparatively 'less than' some of MGM’s more intricately evolved musicals from producer, Arthur Freed. What can I tell you? Pasternak's approach to picture-making celebrated the more devil-may-care, much less loftier pursuits put forth by Freed to elevate the movie musical to a viable art form. Luxury Liner is not about art – but rather, how best to exploit artistry for commerce’s sake and get away with it. As his pictures also made money – and, indeed, rivaled in audience popularity with Freed’s more sophisticated fare, Pasternak was not all that ‘off the mark’ in assessing that what the public desperately needed during the war years was not intricately plotted drama, but a chance to simply cut loose and have a little disposable fun, forgetting their woes inside a darkened theater. Luxury Liner certainly fits the bill. While Freed’s efforts charted a new course for the Hollywood musical, Pasternak’s were merely contented to set sail for a blissful escapism that could anesthetize the mind, even as it sincerely warmed the heart. Bravo to each aspiration. Kudos to Mr. Pasternak for this one in particular.  

The Warner Archive edition of Luxury Liner owes something to restoration work probably begun earlier with plans for a Jane Powell box set or some such offering on legitimately authored standard DVD. As such, the image quality on this burn-on-demand title is gorgeous and virtually free from flaws. The Technicolor positively glows. Flesh tones are perhaps a tad too pink at times, but this is a minor quibble. Contrast levels are bang on and fine detail is evident throughout. There are only minor instances of age-related artifacts for a very smooth and satisfying transfer. The audio is Dolby Digital 1.0 mono as originally recorded but sounding quite crisp and clean. Recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

0