''Seven Days Ashore'' is a 1944 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

John H. Auer John H. Auer (August 3, 1906 in Budapest, Hungary – March 15, 1975 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles) was a Hungarian-born child actor who, on coming to the Americas in 1928, became a movie director and producer, initially in Mexico but, from th ...

and written by Edward Verdier,

Irving Phillips Irving Walter Phillips (November 29, 1904 – October 28, 2000) was a noted American cartoonist, playwright, television scriptwriter, author, illustrator and educator. He is best remembered for his daily newspaper comic panel '' The Strange Wor ...

and Lawrence Kimble. The film stars

Wally Brown Wallace Edgar Brown (October 8, 1904 – November 13, 1961) was an American actor and comedian. In the 1940s, he performed as the comic partner of Alan Carney. Early years Wallace Edgar Brown was born in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Her ...

Alan Carney Alan Carney (December 22, 1909 – May 2, 1973) was an American actor and comedian. Biography Alan Carney was born David Boughal in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1909. His parents, Edward and Nellie (Kearney) Boughal, were Irish immigrant ...

Marcy McGuire Marilyn Jeanne McGuire (February 22, 1926 – August 7, 2021) was an American actress and contralto singer who was active in the 1940s. Life and career McGuire was born on February 22, 1926, to James Joseph McGuire, a film projectionist and Anno ...

Virginia Mayo Virginia Mayo (born Virginia Clara Jones; November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Brothers' biggest box-office money-maker in the late 1940s. ...

, Elaine Shepard, Gordon Oliver,

Amelita Ward Amelita Ward (July 17, 1923 – April 26, 1987) was an American film actress. She played supporting roles in over 20 films between 1943 and 1949, generally in B Pictures such as ''Gangway for Tomorrow'' and '' The Falcon in Danger'' (1943). She w ...

and

Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme song " As Time Goes ...

. The film was released on April 25, 1944, by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

Plot

Dan Arland is a fun-loving playboy who has been away at sea in the Merchant Marine for several months. A pair of violinists in Dot Diamond's

all-female band An all-female band is a musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed. While ...

—Carol Dean and Lucy Banning—have no idea that Dan's been romancing both of them. Both end up waiting for him when his ship arrives in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

for a seven-day leave. His actual girlfriend—Annabelle Rogers—finds out about Dan's being on shore leave, too. Dan begins coming up with schemes to get out of his dilemma. First, he uses a hat with three names for his selection process, drawing Lucy’s name and throwing out Carol’s. Then he persuades a couple of shipmates, Monty Stephens and Orval Martin, to pose as millionaires and woo the two musicians. He pretends he is suffering from an old war wound and then asks Monty to take Lucy to the Indigo Club where her band is performing. He’s about to greet Carol but then bumps into his parents and Annabelle (Annabelle is staying at his parents’ home and they hope that their son reconciles with her). He sends Carol off to the club with Orval. There are many other situations causing complications and all the ladies figure out what he’s doing and so try to give him a taste of his own medicine, making him believe he's about to be served with a breach-of-contract lawsuit. The best way to avoid this is to get rid of Carol and Lucy and as such he tells Orval and Monty to pretend to be millionaires and romance the gold-digging violinists. But what he doesn’t know is that Annabelle has joined forces with Lucy and Carol to teach him a lesson. After a series of mixups (including the fact that Annabelle is engaged to Alfred Jones) Dan and Annabelle decide to get married before Dan's seven days ashore are up.

Cast

as Monty Stephens *

as Orval 'Handsome' Martin *

as Dot Diamond *

as Carol Dean * Elaine Shepard as Annabelle Rogers * Gordon Oliver as Dan Arland Jr. *

as Lucy Banning *

as Jason * Marjorie Gateson as Mrs. Elizabeth Arland *

Alan Dinehart Mason Alan Dinehart Sr. (born Harold Alan Dinehart; October 3, 1889 – July 18, 1944) was an American actor, director, writer, and stage manager. Biography Dinehart initially studied to be a priest, but he turned to the theater instead. ...

as Daniel Arland *Miriam LaVelle as Hazel *

Margaret Dumont Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically ...

as Mrs. Croxton-Lynch *Freddie Slack and His Orchestra as Themselves * Freddie Fisher as Himself *

Emory Parnell Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career. Early years Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Parnell trained as a musician at Morningside ...

as Captain Harvey

References

External links

* 1944 films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films RKO Pictures films Films directed by John H. Auer American comedy films 1944 comedy films 1940s American films {{1940s-comedy-film-stub