MOON OVER BURMA (1940)

The Renner teak plantation in Burma is struggling, and the boss (Albert Basserman), an older blind man, relies on his two managers (Preston Foster and Robert Preston) to keep things going. They're low on funds to pay workers, leading to major delays in getting their logs shipped down the river to be sold. Foster and Preston go to Rangoon to see a banker (Frederick Worlock) about loaning them money, offering their shares of the business as collateral. In Rangoon, Preston falls for stranded nightclub singer Dorothy Lamour and brings her back to the plantation, passing her off as his bride so Basserman won't object. (Because of the Production Code, Preston and Lamour don't share a room, which leads to a humorous scene in which workers expect to see the "honeymooning" pair looking out the window of their room, but instead they see Preston and Foster, with Lamour a couple windows down.) Foster, who is dating Worlock's daughter (Doris Nolan), finds a growing attraction between him and Lamour, and when Nolan visits, she senses the love triangle. Meanwhile, Warlock schemes to take over the land by planting an employee (Addison Richards) to spread unrest, partly by scaring the workers with talk of "ghost tigers" in the jungle, then making fake tiger pawprints on the ground around the plantation. Foster and Preston catch on to the shenanigans, and the climax occurs during a rainstorm when the two managers must break a logjam on the river set up by Richards to stop the Renner logs from being delivered. This Paramount B-film is about on a level with the Warners B-films of the era, meaning it's got decent production values, an OK script, and good acting, even if almost every moment of it is predictable. The young Robert Preston is energetic and feisty and likable even though we're pretty sure he won’t get Lamour. Foster is stoic and a bit drab, but he and Preston work well together. I've never quite understood the appeal of Dorothy Lamour except as a visual symbol of exotic (even fairly vanilla) otherness, but she's fine here. Pictured above are Foster and Preston. [YouTube]