Romance on the High Seas

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

I’m having trouble differentiating this film from Road to Rio which I watched just before this. The plots were very dissimilar but they still had a lot in common. They both involved time on a cruise ship and a trip to Rio de Janeiro. And as amazing as it was for Road to Rio to feature no footage of Carnaval, my mind was blown when I realized Romance on the High Seas also featured no Carnaval footage! What gives!?! I know it’s probably cliché NOW to include Carnaval footage and not every plot taking place in Rio is going to be filmed during the time Carnaval happens but why else choose to set it there if not to include Carnaval footage! It’s the location equivalent of writing a shotgun on the mantle. You know it’s going to be used! But these film makers are like “Hey! What should we do with all this stock footage we insert into every Rio movie? Should we insert it into this Rio movie too?” And the response was “But we’re filming in December! Shouldn’t it be snowing in Brazil?”

I’m sorry. I’ll settle down. It’s just weird.

Much to my surprise this was a Doris Day and Jack Carson film. I was not privy to the box art so I assumed Romance on the High Seas was some kind of pirate film. Nope. It’s about a couple overly jealous with each other. The lady of the couple hires someone to take a cruise under her name so she may stay home and spy on her husband unobserved. The husband meanwhile hires a private investigator to spy on his wife while she is on this supposed cruise. This story follows the imposter (Day) and the private eye (Carson) who eventually fall for each other with hilarious results.

I enjoyed it quite a bit but a couple of the musical numbers felt tacked on. And yet others flowed well with the plot. This film couldn’t seem to figure out if it was a musical or just a film with some songs in it. 

One song that stood out though was “The Tourist Trade” sung by Avon Long, an accomplished singer and dancer from The Cotton Club. If you don’t see this movie, at least watch this scene. And please do yourself a favor and look up this guy’s career. He is fantastic to watch and has quite the story.

Avon Long (left) with Jack Carson (waiving around his foldin’ money) and Doris Day (clawing Jack in excitement).

A lot of Doris Day films are decent. Jack Carson is beginning to grow on me as a comedy actor. Even amongst several good films though, Romance on the High Seas stands just a bit taller than the rest.