James CagneyHere Comes the Navy (1934)

An interesting film of which a lot was shot on the USS Arizona and the USS Macon. In addition to Jimmy Cagney in one of his cameo appearances, one ends up with a LOT of historical interior and exterior shots of the USS Arizona about 7 years before her sinking at Pearl Harbor. You also get some god shots of the USS Macon about 3 years before it crashed!

I love the back ground corn ball stories of 1930s heros but especially anything about the military. HOWEVER this is documentary footage of the U.S.S. ARIZONA while she was overhauled in Bremerton, Washington then later while Arizona was based in Long Beach, California with the U.S Pacific Fleet.Live footage of life aboard a U.S Battleship in the 1930s is shown and film shots of this Ship are 100% for real, no fake studio shots here. Navy supplied footage of Arizona's 14" Guns and gun crews manning and firing those things are documentary footage of what our Navy did and even a sub scripted tribute to the hazards of that work. This is more or less a tribute of the USS Arizona before her fateful voyage to Pearl Harbor and December 7th 1941.ALSO In HERE COMES The NAVY is the second surprise: The U.S.S. MACON our huge L.T.A. (Lighter Then Air) U.S. Navy Airship and scenes of it's flight operations, launching, and and landing one of the last U.S. Navy airships, and also a true and tragic film of a ground crew's misfortune getting wrapped in their landing rope lines.... Our hero saves the day for one. The story does show the clothing style, old street scenes, Automobiles of the day and of course the language (slang) of the times and it makes for n interesting film. However, the ARIZONA and MACON are priceless scenes from real history.

Absolutely see this movie! I bought this movie on the advice of an aviation historian/author I know for a Navy Veteran friend. We showed the movie at a meeting of Pearl Harbor Survivors San Diego Chapter (thankfully there really are some left!) and a bunch of club friends who support this group and socialize at a small museum here. They loved it. The old time plot with the cocky insubordinate guy (Cagney) who acts the jerk then turns out OK and his nemesis (Pat O'Brien) the true Navy Blue guy was like so many of that age but we all were hooting and hollering for them. The biggest attraction for these men was the fact that it was filmed among other places here in San Diego at the Naval Training Center and on board the U.S.S. Arizona. The deep feelings for the Arizona made it extra nice to she her in her prime and all the scenes on board and real war game footage added were eagerly viewed and commented on. The U.S.S. Macon also makes an appearance. She had been moored in San Diego for a time also. They loved the training scenes declaring them to be exactly as they remembered and some even were at NTC San Diego before being deployed to the Pacific. It was a really great experience and I wound up offering to order 4 more copies from Amazon for the guys who wanted their own copy and don't have computers to order. If you know any "old" Navy vets or really enjoy these old time uncomplicated plot movies this is one to see. Anchors Aweigh!

My wife's father was the son of a Corpus Christie TX pool hall owner hard hit by the Great Depression. When he came of age (actually a wee bit before) he couldn't wait to get the hell out, and joined the U.S. Navy to see the world. In 1941. After boot camp in San Diego, he was assigned to the Pacific Fleet Battleship Arizona stationed at Pearl Harbor in not yet state of Hawaii in August, where he enjoyed the frequently janitorial tasks of a Seaman Second Class, and the delights of Honolulu... until Battle Stations were called the morning of December 7th. His was luckily situated at the top of the rear observation tower, a random or providence chosen spot that nearly everything fore of was blown up when a Japanese bomb hit a main powder magazine. Oree C. Weller and just under 300 guys lived to get their names on the "Survivors" list of the Memorial that straddles the ship now.Here Comes The Navy was filmed just a few years earlier on board the Arizona, and gives us rare insight to what life on board was like before the ship became the starting point of WWII for the America. Glad this film is finally available. The rights were held by Turner Classic Movies, and after Ted sold it, they sat on it for years, ignoring the repeated requests of WWII historians, enthusiasts, and battleship fans. For us...well Jimmy Cagney hangs his hammock much like Oree did. We'll be screening this every December 7th and toasting him with Navy Rum or something. He'd like that.

...a predictably silly maritime romp from what feels like a long, long ago time. James Cagney is more pugnacious than ever when his ongoing battle against authority leads him into the Navy. Campy and ridiculous, as the best of these are -- but also a bit eerie, in that the real USS Arizona would meet its demise at Pearl Harbor seven years later. And look out, snowflake sensibilities, because there is a BLACKFACE comedy sequence that is so far beyond the boundaries of modern permissibility that it's going to make some overly sensitive viewers' heads spin around. But thankfully the film print has not been censored or bowdlerized -- yet. Because this stuff was rife in the 30s and 40s, and we need to pull up our big boy pants when we watch old movies/cartoons/newscasts and not have a shrieking hissy fit.

Shot aboard the USS Arizona years before her loss, as well as one of the two lost airships (Akron or Macron?) mere months before her loss. The main character is not endearing, but entertaining enough. All the Colorado-class battleships, an Omaha-class scout cruiser, and the Saratoga launching biplane fighters. Not to mention the scenes in the turret of the Arizona. Unavailable to watch anywhere, I had to buy the DVD to ever see it. Glorious.

I am a big fan of US naval vessels of the pre-WW2 era, and this movie is a joy for me to watch, given that all the on-board filming was done on USS Arizona. For anyone like me, this is a must own video!

first class