Metal worker James Cagney is humiliated by naval officer Pat O'Brien. So he joins the Navy to get even with him. Naturally. Then he falls in love with Pat's sister, only he doesn't know it's Pat's sister. Their romance may be short-lived, however, because Jimmy and Pat can't stand one another.Cagney and O'Brien made a lot of these types of movies. This was the first and one of the best. Usually Jimmy's the cocky jerk and Pat's the nice guy. That's sort of the case here, too, but I actually found myself liking Cagney more than O'Brien. He's fun and likable, even if he's not always right. Pat, on the other hand, is a sour puss throughout the movie. Gloria Stuart plays O'Brien's sister who Cagney falls in love with. She's very pretty and does a fine job in a part that requires very little. Historically important for being partially filmed on board the USS Arizona, which was destroyed at Pearl Harbor seven years later. Also some footage of the dirigible USS Macon, which crashed the year after this film was released. It's a fun movie that fans of the stars will certainly enjoy. The climax is implausible but exciting. There is a blackface gag that will set some today back on their heels, so be prepared for that.

The only existing (to my knowledge) motion pictures of the USS Arizona BEFORE December 7, 1941. For that alone, this movie rates 15 stars. Cagney and O'Brien aren't bad either...but I was fascinated by the ship and the crew, man of whom lost their lives (and are still aboard)several years later. I do have a DVD of this movie (B&W of course) and I treasure it greatly. I wish this was widely available to modelers who now have an opportunity to make a replica of the Arizona in the large 1/200 scale! (also 1/526, 1/700, 1/350). The details of armament, decks, structure, hull, etc. are an extraordinary opportunity for research.What an incredible opportunity to see this piece of history!

For me, it's always cool to come away from a picture with something that was entirely unexpected. In the case of "Here Comes The Navy", I literally did a jump in my seat to see and hear mention of the U.S.S. Arizona, the famed battleship that went down during the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought our country into World War II. I had only seen this huge ship before in documentary footage covering that historical event, so it was a rare treat to see aspects of daily routine occurring aboard ship during the film's run.The other treat of course, is catching Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien in the first of their many team-ups for First National/Warner Brothers. You know, I still can't get over the fact that some of their best work together took place over seventy years ago! In this one, the duo is at odds with each other, as Cagney's character Chesty O'Connor, signs up for a stint in the Navy just to get aboard the ship commanded by his nemesis Biff Martin (O'Brien). There's not a whole lot of credibility to the timing and coincidence necessary for that particular circumstance to take place, but that's no problem for the movies. Complicating matters further, wouldn't you know, is that Martin has a sister (Gloria Stuart) that Chesty goes for, so right there you've got the makings for an even more heated rivalry.Speaking of which, that seemed to be a common plot element in many of the early Warner Brothers flicks of the era. In the 1937 prison movie "San Quentin", inmate Humphrey Bogart had a sister that the warden fell for, thereby giving the impression that Bogey's character was getting preferential treatment. The warden - Pat O'Brien! You really have to catch one of Cagney's early films to get a sense of where all that enormous talent came from. This picture offers a dance scene, part of the 'Iron Workers' Frolic', that allows Cagney to strut his fancy footwork. I got a kick out of the poster advertising the dance contest; I've never seen one before that promoted 'Big Doings'! Just another one of the visual treats you can appreciate from a picture from the 1930's. Another was catching Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams as the dance floor manager looking almost impossibly young, but in checking, I was shocked to learn that by the time of this movie's release, he had already been in over eighty pictures!!! Learning something new every day.Anyway, story wise, you won't find anything resembling an Oscar contender here, but you can still have some fun with this first Cagney/O'Brien team up. Character actor Frank McHugh, a frequent Cagney supporter is on hand to lend comic relief. His gimmick has to do with buying his mother a pair of false teeth - and to think, back then you could do it for twenty dollars! Now that's the good old days!

This review is so glowing because this film is one of the most important films, historically speaking, I have ever seen. While it is yet another Jimmy Cagney film in many ways, it shocked me when I saw that the film was set aboard the USS Arizona--the famous ship that was completely destroyed with most of its crew at Pearl Harbor just a few years later. Seeing Cagney and crew walking about this doomed ship is a rare opportunity to see the ship that still rests at the bottom of Pearl.Later, to my utter amazement, the USS Macon (one of the US Navy's dirigibles) makes an appearance as well! This huge airship was to be destroyed in a storm only a year later, and once again the real ship was used in parts of the film. This is once again an amazing opportunity to see the ship.So, combining the two rare opportunities with a pretty decent Cagney film gives you a film well-worth seeing. For those who don't care about the historical aspects of the film, I give it a 7--it's still pretty good and worth a look.