Copyright 13 November 1942 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York release at the Capitol: 10 December 1942. U.S. release: 15 October 1942. Australian release: 14 October 1943. Copyright length: 87 minutes. Australian length: 8,019 feet. 89 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Soldier needs to marry socialite within seven days to get $100,000 inheritance.COMMENT: Not a highly-rated musical by most critics, but I found it vastly entertaining. Its fast-paced highjinks are of special appeal to nostalgia radio buffs: Harold Peary does his Gildersleeve - complete with fatuous giggle - and the script takes in no less than two radio shows, including the hilarious "Truth Or Consequences",As for the songs: Beyond an obviously dubbed voice handling Mature's chores as a crooner, there's a great line-up including Ginny Simms' "Can't Get Out Of This Mood" - a wonderful solo number which is then delight¬fully reprized by Marcy McGuire and Arnold Stang. Miss McGuire (who is supposedly a puckish sixteen but actually looks somewhat more mature) also has the delightfully zesty "Touch Of Texas" song and dance. The dances themselves are most energetically staged - and here Mature is in unbelievably rhythmic form, particularly in the rousing opener, "Please Won't You Leave My Girl Alone?", which is lavishly reprized at the conclusion by the whole cast.As if this were not enough, both Les Brown's and Freddy Martin's Orchestras strut their stuff; and there's also an hilarious spoof contributed by Lynn, Royce and Vanya of the de rigeur nightclub number of numerous "B" musicals where a top-hatted Fred Astaire second-rater whirls a girl around the dance-floor for an inordinate amount of cheap footage. If these skillfully mistimed acrobatics don't raise a few laughs, Peter Lind Hayes is on hand with some maliciously accurate Ronald Colman, Lionel Barrymore and Charles Laughton impersonations.You would think there was not much left for Miss Ball to do, but as usual she proves herself an expert comedienne, handling both slapstick and wit with equal dexterity - and so attractively photographed and costumed as to make Mature's interest totally believable. Her "punishment" on "Truth Or Consequences" is a gem.Anyone who fails to be entertained by at least some aspect of this film is mighty hard to please. I liked it all, just about. True, the fast gallop slows to a canter now and again, but Tim Whelan is as sure-footed a director as they come. All told, Seven Days' Leave is breezy, zestful, escapist, nostalgic if juvenile entertainment, presented with craftsmanship and style, and enacted by a marvelous cast.Mature joined the Coast Guard for the duration of the war after this one. An amiably dashing fellow when he was young, Mature had an unexpected gift for tongue-in-cheek. Alas, when he returned to Hollywood in 1946 he began to take himself all too seriously. Producers obliged by casting him as Doc Holliday, Samson, Demetrius, Horemheb, Chief Crazy Horse, Zarak Khan, Kasim Khan, Hannibal, etc. His talent for self-parody was not utilized again until After the Fox (1966).

"Seven Days' Leave" is a piece of wartime propaganda fluff--pure and simple. Much of it consists of lots of soldiers singing and dancing and putting flowers in their hats--and it makes you wonder HOW the US managed to win the war if these guys are like the soldiers they fielded during WWII! After a whole lot of singing and dancing, the plot FINALLY is introduced. Johnny Grey (Victor Mature) will inherit a fortune. He's thrilled and plans on marrying his girlfriend. HOWEVER, he soon learns that there is a stupid codicil to the will. He MUST marry a descendant of General Allen. It seems, in a VERY contrived plot twist, that Johnny's grandfather, General Grey, fought against General Allen during the Civil War. And, the will wants a descendant of Allen to marry a descendant of Grey to heal up these old wounds. And, this woman is NOT the lady he plans on marrying but Terry Allen (Lucille Ball)--a woman who HATES the Greys.So, you've got a VERY contrived plot, lots of silly and superfluous singing and Victor Mature doing comedy. All in all, it sounds pretty bad...and it is. Even worse is when a fourth-rate guy does imitations of various celebrities. They announce each one before he begins--and you really need to be told who they are supposed to be because you really cannot tell by listening to him! A silly and forgettable film.By the way, there is a very strange character in the film. Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) is the lawyer who handles the estate, right? Well, this same character (and actor) played Gildersleeve in quite a few other films. Plus, Gildersleeve was a very popular radio character who appeared regularly on "Fibber McGee and Molly" and later had his own spin off radio show starring, who else, Peary!

Lucille Ball may get the guy (Victor Mature), but her teenie bopper sister Mickey (Marcy McGire) gets the songs. In her film debut (the first of half a dozen she would do during the coure of World War II and briefly after), McGuire steals the scene as the typical bubbly bobby-soxer. In fact, McGuire would even get to sing with Frank Sintra in his acting film debut ("Higher and Higher") at the height of his fan craze, but here, she's with the future Queen of TV Comedy.The plot line surrounds a soldier (Mature) who must convince Ball to marry him in order to receive an inheritance. The problem is that they are both engaged. But this is Hollywood in its golden age where reality didn't matter, and we all know what that means. McGuire gets the guy too (Arnold Stang, remembered more as the voice of TV's Top Cat), a squeaky voiced squirt who knits. Appearances by "The Great Gildersleeve", Band leader Les Brown and radio host Ralph Edwards ("Truth or Consequences") round out the cast, plus a nice collection of second rate but enjoyable 40's songs keep the rhythm hot.After a nice opening ("Please Won't You Leave My Girl Alone"), we meet McGuire singing "Take Me Back to New York" (not to be confused with Cole Porter's "Take Me Back to Manhattan") who then sings "I Get the Neck of the Chicken" after attracting helium voiced Stang. After a rendition of "Can't Get Out of This Mood" by former Kay Kyser vocalist Ginny Sims, McGuire speeds it up to a chase between her and Stang. An acrobatic dance team gives an amusing performance, while Lucy briefly sings "Pop Goes to Weasel" in the "Truth or Consequences" sequence, and another soldier gives hysterically funny impressions of Ronald Colman, Lionel Barrymore and Charles Laughton.

Glamorous WW2 comedy is an RKO fest of musical talent with believe it or not, those contract singing and dancing stars Lucille Ball and (yikes!) Victor Mature! He even sings with someone else's baritone too! It is like seeing GlennClose and Sylvester Stallone in a remake of HIGH SOCIETY...or maybe even Jungle Jim and Betty Grable in an imitation PHILADELPHIA STORY. It is an assembled musical with familiar but oddly placed actors and sets: RKO musicals of the 40s had MGM production values but with Republic talent. They have superb art direction and music but somehow out of place actors. HIGHER AND HIGHER is like this: lavish mansions with beautiful furniture and chandeliers, big orchestras, patios, modern nightclubs etc.....and then all these un-together actors placed in roles you might feel better if MGM or Paramount stars were there instead. Lucy is exceptionally beautiful in this film and dressed to impress. Marcie Gray, that teenage Shirley Temple of hep and jive is along for the dancing and comedy as well...so it looks totally like out-takes or a rehearsal for HIGHER AND HIGHER even more so. Good music and fun and quite expensive looking, SEVEN DAYS LEAVE is a patriotic musical of its day...but with Lucy and Victor? It all works in spite of itself.