Throughout its long and storied history, Hollywood has made countless remarkable films that tell important and impactful stories, provoking thought and stirring conversation with discourse around a range of deep themes. Romance on the High Seas is not one of these films – instead, it is an outrageous, vaguely absurd musical comedy that is about as detached from reality as a film can get before it becomes ridiculous or bordering on speculative. Yet, it is unquestionably one of the most entertaining films of its era, with Michael Curtiz helming a project that was created with the express purpose of being wildly enjoyable as its only intention, and anything deeper that came along with it was merely incidental. Telling the story of a disgruntled wife who believes her husband is having an affair, so she arranges for a random stranger to take her place on a cruise ship she had planned, so that she may stay behind to spy on her husband, whom she is aghast to discover has hired a private detective to go on the cruise as well, as he has similar suspicions about his wife’s faithfulness. A peculiar and offbeat combination of romantic comedy and off-the-wall satire, Romance on the High Seas is an oddity of a film, but one that does everything it is required to do, achieving all it set out to accomplish with enough space to add a few more abstract elements to the proceedings, leading to a wonderfully heartfelt and unquestionably funny comedy that never takes itself too seriously, delivering on every promise it makes at the outset, even if it could have easily have strived to do more with its intriguing premise, which is nonetheless compelling enough to hold our attention for the duration of this delightfully irreverent and offbeat musical revue that just so happens to have a captivating story embedded in-between moments of eccentricity.

We have to give credit to Romance on the High Seas for being a film that knew exactly what it wanted to achieve and worked laboriously to make sure we understood precisely what it was doing, even if it could become too intensely focused on proving its mettle more than actually developing some of its more intriguing ideas. This is a remarkably simple story – like many romantic comedies produced at the time, the premise is straightforward, focusing on the exploits of a group of individuals who all find their way onto a cruise ship, which is heading for South America, and along the way, chaos ensues through several moments of mistaken identity and other factors that are fodder for 90 minutes of comedically-charged entertainment. This is a story that knows exactly what works and what could be securely avoided, especially since there were many different directions in which this film could have gone, the decision to focus on only a few key elements perhaps being the smartest choice, since it allows more focus on these elements more than those that may be more entertaining, but would require too much work to maintain. The formula that went into the creation of this film is extremely effective – a strong premise centred around an interesting idea, which is put on screen by a group of artists fully committed to creating a film that exists more to be a good time rather than aiming to revolutionize a genre that didn’t require anything revolutionary, at least not during this period, where the colourful, over-the-top musical comedy was arguably at its peak, with nothing being there to distract from the pure joy that simmers beneath the surface of this delightful film.

The main argument behind why Romance on the High Seas did not succeed as much as other musical comedies from around this time have to do with the lack of major stars in the leading roles. This is not entirely true, but it is understandable why it was seen as a slight failure in hindsight. Warner Brothers was not on the same level as some of its contemporaries like MGM and Paramount when it came to musical comedies, and while they did have a few, there was a slightly diminished set of performers that could sing and dance on the level required to take on such a story, which is why we have this level of star. None of the actors in this film are necessarily bad, but they don’t have the charisma and skillfulness that was easily being explored by rival studios. The only person who truly emerges as having benefitted from this film is Doris Day, and this was coincidentally her first starring role (and despite being the undeniable lead, she is only fourth billed, which makes the fact that her perspective is the one we see the most all the more surprising), and the character that everyone knows had the most potential, as evident by the director’s lengthy search to find the perfect candidate to play the role, something that was not seen in the other performances, which seemed to be cast with the actors that could be serviceable but not at all remarkable. This isn’t a criticism of the cast of Romance on the High Seas – they all do very well, and handle its various challenges with a lot of skill, which makes for a wildly entertaining and very charming comedy, just one that lacks the attraction that a star would have had in these roles. Luckily, Day would use this film as a major step in her eventual rise to one of Hollywood’s most cherished performers, so even if her co-stars are not all that impressive, she is wonderful and it is worth watching for her performance alone, which is often the case with the majority of her films, where she usually tends to be the most significant performance.

There are essentially two schools of thought when it comes to Michael Curtiz – some view him as a hack, a director-for-hire who received far too much luck and was simply able to take advantage of being chosen as the person to helm Casablanca, inarguably his most impressive achievement that he used as a foundation for his reputation going forward, whereas others look at him as a misunderstood genius, someone who wanted to go in his direction but was stifled by the constraints of the studio system and the various challenges that came with being a director at the time. I think Curtiz is a fine director who rarely achieved greatness on his own, instead depending on the elements brought to his films by his collaborators, whether the strong script or memorable performances. Romance on the High Seas arguably doesn’t feel like a film that has much of a strong directorial vision in terms of being tied to a specific filmmaker, and instead, it has quite an anonymous style in how it was made, almost as if Curtiz merely had the responsibility to shepherding the various elements together and making them cohesive and compelling, with most of the work being done by those in charge of the various departments – the cinematography is terrific (the gorgeous Technicolor is spellbinding), and the music is memorable and captivating. This is an objectively well-made film, and while it may seem overly critical of Curtiz, he does well in putting it together with tact and humour, which is not a skill that should be underestimated in any way. However, there is still some creative power that went into this film, but it didn’t come on behalf of Curtiz, but rather Busby Berkeley, who was hired as the director of choreography – his work in Romance on the High Seas is very distinct and lays quite a solid foundation for a film that is often straightforward in its quieter moments, but becomes explosively entertaining, every moment having the subversive energy of the work he was doing at his peak. It is a peculiar fact that Berkeley wasn’t credited as a co-director, since so much of this film is intrinsically tied to his choreography, which is the most defining of the entire project, and perhaps the reason it is so incredibly successful.

Romance on the High Seas is very entertaining and exists as a film that is more appropriately viewed as nothing particularly major, but rather an upbeat and enjoyable film that offers us a sense of comfort more than it provokes us on an artistic or intellectual level. It has a very simple story, one that draws on classic tenets of the screwball comedy genre, with rapid-fire dialogue centring around mistaken identities and hilarious misadventures experienced by these charming characters. It is important to not downplay the importance of entertaining cinema, since it rarely manages to be anything less than delightful, and Curtiz was a strong director who knew how to cobble together a very memorable set of performances when it was appropriate, putting them in situations where it is impossible to not feel enamoured with what was being done on screen. It is a wonderfully charming comedy, one that delivers an abundance of jokes (and the screenplay, which is cited as having contributions from I.A.L. Diamond, is far wittier and subversive than we’d initially imagine), as well as establishing a solid foundation in terms of the music and performance aspects, which is mostly handled by Berkeley in his capacity as the choreographer. As a whole, Romance on the High Seas is a tremendously charming, captivating and funny film, and what it lacks in nuance it more than makes up for in entertainment, which is not a quality that should ever be underestimated or mistaken as anything less than a truly valuable commodity that can elevate even the most paltry of material.