Ankles Aweigh (music & lyrics by Sammy Fain & Dan Shapiro; book by Guy Bolton & Eddie Davis) made a few miscalculations. It used a thoroughly uninspired score. It settled for extremely commonplace lyrics. It paid little attention to the dancing. Its book floats, on a rusty keel, all over the Mediterranean and unloads benumbing wheezes at every port of call. Nor are Betty and Jane Kean among Broadway's leading leading ladies. Betty can be funny, and both at moments are fun, but theirs is distinctly a rationed, or nightclub, charm.
With what is left, Ankles Aweigh cannot easily become the big...