A Girl in Every Port

source: A Girl in Every Port

Moviecut—A Girl in Every Port

A Girl in Every Port

Benny Linn (Groucho Marx) and dim-witted Tim Dunnovan (William Bendix) are navy sailor buddies. Tim gets conned into buying a lame race horse and Benny is ordered to fix it. The horse has a twin and wacky scheme ensues. Only it gets more and more complicated. Groucho Marx and William Bendix seem to be a good comedic pairing. They do need better writing and more banter to elevate the comedy. It feels like a missed opportunity. The premise is stupid but I'm willing to go with it for a silly comedy. The problem is that the silliness promises a lot but rarely delivers. It has a couple of fun moments but it's not enough.

The racehorse in A GIRL IN EVERY PORT isn't the only thing that's lame. The plot, scripting, pacing and every other facet of this film follow suit. Even the title is misleading, as the ship never sails anywhere, and the only girl involved to any great extent is a stunningly moronic Marie Wilson. This film proves that labored, unfunny "comedies" were being produced long before the current spate of mindless garbage began spewing from our television and movie screens. The characters in this film all appear to have IQ's somewhere in the single digit range. It is indeed sad to see so many talented actors tangled up in this unfortunate yawner. Avoid this film at every opportunity.

Groucho Marx and William Bendix deserve much better material than what they are given here. A bad script with unfunny jokes gives these two talents nothing to work with. Why they ever agreed to do this film is one of the great mysteries of Hollywood!

Groucho Marx made this film for his friend, producer Irwin Allen and they would work together again with co-star Marie Wilson in the overblown epic comedy THE STORY OF MANKIND. A GIRL IN EVERY PORT is an unfunny comedy starring funny people (William Bendix included) that perhaps were a bit beyond their prime (products of the studio system which had fallen apart they were dumped into TV with some success and took what ever they could get in low-budget theatrical garbage like this). Irwin Allen, who showed greatness in adventure and science fiction just didn't have the knack for a full blown comedy and had the good sense to quit producing comedies after making just a couple (though some would argue Irwin Allen's LOST IN SPACE became a camp comedy after the first year). Marie Wilson (best known as MY FRIEND IRMA) starred in another horse racing comedy called SWEEPSTAKES WINNER (1939). If you can catch that film on TCM it's a lot funnier and a much better year for movies.

Groucho Marx and William Bendix play two navy buddies, Benny Linn and Tim Dunnovan, who get a race horse that turns out to have a twin.They try to make a little money with the help of the twin horses.Chester Erskine's comedy A Girl In Every Port from 1952 isn't all that bad of comedy, if you ask me.It has got Groucho Marx in it, who can safe any movie.If course this doesn't reach near the classic stuff he did with his brothers Harpo and Chico, but he still gets to deliver some witty lines that safe a lot of this movie.William Bendix doesn't stay too much behind.He and Groucho make a great team.Marie Wilson plays Jane Sweet, a dumb blonde and isn't at all dumb in her role.Don DeFore does also good job as Bert Sedgwick.This movie may not be a masterpiece, but pretty good anyway.It made my Sunday afternoon a little better.

Groucho and William Bendix made such a wonderful team that it's just too bad that they weren't paired in more films. In this one, they're two navy guys who become involved with horses and horse racing. Working with twin horses can be confusing enough, but when it becomes both advantageous and disadvantageous for the one horse to win and or lose, the film may dip somewhat but is funny to watch nonetheless. Marie Wilson is along as the rightful owner of the horses and she is also a waitress. It's always a joy to watch her confusion and especially what she is able to do to the English language. Don De Fore plays a former horse owner drawn in by the duo in their plot to benefit from the well horse. His fiancé will go to any lengths to prevent him from his horse habit, even if that includes throwing a race and paying off Bendix and Marx in the bargain.

After years of knowing about this movie, I just now finally watched this online. It stars Groucho Marx without either of his brothers with William Bendix, Marie Wilson, and Don DeFore, the latter two I previously saw in My Friend Irma when DeFore was potentially romantically paired with the other leading lady, Diana Lynn. The movie's about a couple of sailors dealing with a horse. I think that's all I'll say about the plot which can be quite confusing but is still quite funny considering some of the lines and the delivery of especially Groucho. By the way, this was only the second of producer Irwin Allen's movies starring that Marx brother, the previous one being Double Dynamite. He'd cast Groucho one more time in The Story of Mankind which also featured his siblings Harpo and Chico, all in separate segments.