(92 min) Released 1939-01-25
Director: Frank Tuttle
Stars: Bing Crosby, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Shirley Ross, EE Horton, Akim Tamiroff
Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031787/
Watched online. Good print for small screen, fuzzy when on TV.
If you watch this again, check Soundtracks against reality. IMDb lists only 3 songs. I didn't find this very musical, but that sounds like too few.
In the plot, Shirley Ross gets the fuzzy side of the lollipop twice: her soon-to-be-ex-husband insults her, and well, spoiler alert, she doesn't get a 2nd husband here.
The actress playing the peasant girl is unfamiliar to me; this is her penultimate film, and many of her titles look non-English to me. And she ain't no girl: b. 1904, less than a year after Bing. But she's playing a girl, vaselined lens with hot white light and all.
I didn't watch closely enough to see if they illuminated the reason for BC to fall for the "girl" when he had a perfectly lovely SR as his intended. Don't know if people like to see "love conquer all" when it includes jilting a civil, honorable woman. Did they portray her as unworthy somehow? I certainly saw her as gallant when she let him off the hook (of their engagement) in favor of the new woman. That is psychologically healthy on her part: you really don't need someone who is so easily distracted while you're engaged.
Borderline 5-6, I didn't give it a fair viewing, but it's too long to attempt again without more music and a better print, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
Paramount, dir. Tuttle; 6-
