SOUTH SEA ROMANCE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22242, 5 November 1937, Page 16

SOUTH SEA ROMANCE

A comedy of love and music in romantic Waikiki brings Bing Crosby, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, and Shirley Ross to the screen in “Waikiki Wedding,” which will begin to-day at the Mayfair. The story deals with the romance of a contest winner, played by Shirley Ross, who wins a trip to Waikiki with < a pineapple recipe. She doesn’t like Waikiki and is about to walk out on the whole business when Bing Crosby, who is press agent for the pineapple concern and who conceived the contest as a publicity stunt, is prevailed upon to take her in hand. He proceeds to make Waikiki romantic and glamorous for her—so much so that he falls under the spell himself. The climax comes when reality clashes with fantasy and Bing Crosby has to produce a Waikiki which doesn’t exist. Being a resourceful press agent, he produces it. Vocal and instrumental music for “Waikiki Wedding” was written by Robin and Rainger, creators of more than a dozen musical pictures, and

Bing Crosby in “Waikiki. Wedding”

there are several solos by Bing Crosby and Martha Raye, creating something of a sweet versus swing situation. The songs include “Blue Hawaii,” “Sweet Is the Word For You,” and “In a Little Hula Heaven,” which are sung by Crosby and Miss Ross. The picture also includes “Okolehao,” which the team wrote in collaboration with Don Hartman, and which is sung by Martha Raye, and “Sweet Leilani,” written by Harry Owens and sung by Bing Crosby. The barbaric “drum dance,” once practised by the Polynesians before making a human sacrifice, is performed by Miri Rei in “Waikiki Wedding.” It is the first time the famous dance has been recorded by the motion picture camera. The story also contains a native Hawaiian wedding ceremony, performed just as it is in the South Seas.

“Waikiki Wedding’ ’is from a story by Frank Butler and Don Hartman. It was directed by Frank Tuttle, who directed “College Holiday,” and has a number of dance sequences which were staged and directed by Leßoy Prinz.