Bettie Hutton

(On TV, February 2020) I’m not sure you could build a more representative film of 1944 than Here Comes the Waves if you tried. Let’s see—World War II propaganda film exploring a small branch of the US armed forces and delivering a morale boost? Check. Workmanlike plot being used as scaffolding to the musical numbers the film is really concerned about? Check. Featuring no less than the uber-crooner of the era Bing Crosby? Definitely check. Launched a song that became a minor standard of American culture to this day? Also check, with “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.” I’m not saying there weren’t better movies in 1944 (there were!), but that as a blend of propaganda boost and musical comedies, Here Comes the Waves is a slick, professional example of what Hollywood was up to at the time. It also works a bit harder at it than some of its contemporaries—sure, having Bing Crosby play a singer isn’t exactly asking much, but having Bettie Hutton play the roles of twin sisters is a bit of showmanship—and she does rather well at it. It’s all kind of cute whenever no one is singing (although the sexism is… there), and it’s usually better when it gets into the musical number. Why isn’t it better known, then? Well, there’s the vexing blackface bit right in the middle of the movie. Also, the fact that the third act loses steam—but mostly the blackface. (And what musical number comes with the blackface? You guessed it—“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.”) In that too, I suppose, Here Comes the Waves is also an exemplar of 1944 Hollywood.