Hit the Deck

Based on his athletic dancing in films such as this one and Tom Thumb (1958), most audiences assume that Russ Tamblyn was a trained dancer. In fact, the actor had no history of dance training. He was a skilled tumbler, and that was originally slated to be his singular contribution to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), but his natural movement ability was so accomplished that he was incorporated more and more into the dance sequences. This would ultimately culminate in his being cast as Riff in West Side Story (1961), one of the most dance-heavy musicals in Broadway history.

The undisputed highlight of this film is the battleship finale reprise of "Hallelujah!", which was featured prominently twenty years later toward the climax of That's Entertainment! (1974). The sequence dazzled audiences not only with its scope and movement but also with Jeff Alexander's intricate vocal arrangements for the soloists and a battalion of men's voices. Astonishingly, this number was not included on the MGM Records soundtrack album from the film, nor was it released commercially until nearly twenty years later on the soundtrack album of That's Entertainment.

The funhouse sequence featuring Debbie Reynolds and Russ Tamblyn lasts four and a half minutes on screen and took three days to film.

A funereal air surrounds this film, as it was made during the final flowering of the MGM musical, at which point the studio was canceling its contracts with nearly all of its legendary contract players. This film marked the final MGM appearances of Jane Powell, Tony Martin, and J. Carrol Naish. Ann Miller would make only two more films for the studio - The Opposite Sex (1956) and The Great American Pastime (1956) - and Vic Damone would make one, Kismet (1955). Only Debbie Reynolds and Russ Tamblyn survived the cut; both stars would remain at MGM through the early-1960s.

Although he appears in a nominal, non-singing role, Gene Raymond performed in many movie musicals during his tenure as one of the most recognizable matinee idols of the 1930s, including Hooray for Love (1935), Walking on Air (1936), Smartest Girl in Town (1936), That Girl from Paris (1936), The Life of the Party (1937), and, most notably, Flying Down to Rio (1933) and Sadie McKee (1934), in which he introduced "All I Do is Dream of You".