Review of Murder in the Fleet

A navy boat becomes a co-ed lodge for the suspects in a rather uninteresting movie that occurs after an argument between naval lieutenant Robert Taylor and civilian equipment inspector Raymond Hatton. Following the stabbing of a crew member, everybody is forced to remain aboard, including Taylor's socialite fiancee (Jean Parker) and the overly chatty Una Merkel, girlfriend of typical dumb sailor Nat Pendleton. Comedy relief between Merkel, Pendleton and Ted Healy just gets more annoying with each scene they have, and leading man Taylor is pretty underwhelming. There are far too many supporting actors including Jean Hersholt, Walter Byron and Mischa Auer, creating far too many suspects and red herrings. A few good fight sequences gives this a higher rating from me, but I felt that this ship ran out of steam early on, making this often dull and uninteresting. By the time the murderer and motive were rebealre, I just found I didn't really care anymore.