Jack Ahoy

• Watchlist

• 1934
• 1 hr 10 mins
• Comedy

• Watchlist

• Watchlist

"Hilarious comedy hit with Jack Hulbert" is the way the ads describe it. This may be quite true from Southampton to the Shetland Islands, or is it the Orkneys ? Hulbert, no doubt, has a following from the banks of the Thames to Clydeside. He may even have a following some place between South Ferry and Yonkers, but the rain kept most of it out of the Roxy at the first US showing. The music is catchy, the story moves along rapidly from the time the navy gets under way in England until it reaches China and complications develop through the efforts of Jack to get back a submarine stolen by Chinese pirates and to win the admiral's daughter, Mary O'Neil. There's plenty of atmospheric naval stuff. Money has been spent freely on the production angles. Hulbert's burlesque characterization, his smirking and exaggerated gestures probably would be fine for a short sketch, but an hour or more of it with no change of pace, no softening of mood even in the romantic moments, little timing of gags is likely to prove a handicap in those sections of this country where Hulbert's name is just a name.