What today's stars could get with and the alibis they could come up with in order to avoid bad publicity. Willing to take there place at any minute to take abuse from stalking fans (who back in the glory days of Hollywood were stereotyped as clothes-ripping, screaming, stampeding herds of privacy ignoring sociopaths), here the look-alike is of a popular matinée idol (Robert Young in a dual role) who goes to Hawaii while the other ends up in a New York hospital and romantic confusion ensues. On a ship to Hawaii, the star meets a pretty dancer (Eleanor Powell) whose wacky friend (Gracie Allen) spots him and thinking he's the star (which he is in spite of denying it) approaches him a bit more gently than the type of fan I mention above. Tuning her ukulele with a song "My Dog Has Fleas", Allen gets Powell dancing & together, they do a neat little routine. Young, the star, takes over the look-alike's life in Hawaii, and romantic complications concerning a fiancée and movie star Young's sudden love for Powell ensues until the look-alike can make it back and explain everything.
It gets a little confusing in spots, so much so I was tempted to create a diagram to remember who was who, who was in Hawaii and who was in New York, who was involved with who, and finally, why nobody told the important people involved why they were doing what they were doing. And then there are Burns and Allen who only are on screen together for a brief bit (concerning Gracie's brother, of course) at the end. George, indeed, is wasted in this film, but Gracie gets a lot more to do even than leading lady Powell.
The highlight of the film is a shipboard costume party where everybody shows up as their favorite movie star. Young doesn't want to come as himself so he dresses up as famous frizzled-haired conductor Leopold Stokowski. Allen, hysterically costumed as Mae West, greets some passengers dressed as the Seven Dwarfs, "Come Boys, It's Off to Work We Go", as only West could say it. Look-alikes of the Marxx Brothers (with for some reason two Grouchos), Oliver Hardy (minus Laurel), W.C. Fields, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Frank Morgan are part of the big musical number surrounding Allen's Mae and Young's Leopold entitled "The Leader Doesn't Like Music". This leads into an eye-raising dance number with Powell in blackface as Bill Robinson. Powell is more successful when she does a tap hula. Look for a very funny denouncement at the end that reminded me of the gag at the end of the Bette Midler/Lily Tomlin look-alike comedy "Big Business".
It gets a little confusing in spots, so much so I was tempted to create a diagram to remember who was who, who was in Hawaii and who was in New York, who was involved with who, and finally, why nobody told the important people involved why they were doing what they were doing. And then there are Burns and Allen who only are on screen together for a brief bit (concerning Gracie's brother, of course) at the end. George, indeed, is wasted in this film, but Gracie gets a lot more to do even than leading lady Powell.
The highlight of the film is a shipboard costume party where everybody shows up as their favorite movie star. Young doesn't want to come as himself so he dresses up as famous frizzled-haired conductor Leopold Stokowski. Allen, hysterically costumed as Mae West, greets some passengers dressed as the Seven Dwarfs, "Come Boys, It's Off to Work We Go", as only West could say it. Look-alikes of the Marxx Brothers (with for some reason two Grouchos), Oliver Hardy (minus Laurel), W.C. Fields, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Frank Morgan are part of the big musical number surrounding Allen's Mae and Young's Leopold entitled "The Leader Doesn't Like Music". This leads into an eye-raising dance number with Powell in blackface as Bill Robinson. Powell is more successful when she does a tap hula. Look for a very funny denouncement at the end that reminded me of the gag at the end of the Bette Midler/Lily Tomlin look-alike comedy "Big Business".