A music professor is fired from his job for not knowing enough about modern "swing" music. He goes to Chicago to learn more about the subject in hopes of getting his job back, but he winds up getting mixed up with gangsters.(62 min) Released 1937-03-13
Director: Marshall Neilan
Stars: Pinky Tomlin, Paula Stone, Milburn Stone
Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029628/
Watched online, fuzzy faded print.
Yes, Milburn Stone was Doc on Gunsmoke (1955-75, 605 episodes for him). He also has 153 movie credits ('35-'57); 15 are music/musicals, only 2 were also westerns. Only 20 Western genre films overall. Here he plays a gangster involved with a swing club (night spot). 2nd billed Paula Stone was Milburn's cousin. She has 12 credits, and will appear in at least 1 more film in this quest.
The songs here are not penned by Pinky Tomlin. The professor gets involved with the gangster's nightclub through a very circuitous route (and we never again see the hobos who had helped him when he was down.) He seems to have been swayed off the idea that swing music is bad, which cost him his job(!), by a single tap dance. If he came "to Chicago to learn more about" swing, I missed that exposition. Seems like he just drifted there.
Bad acting, mediocre music and dancing, horrible plot, unappealing leads, dreary sets. Another '37 Tomlin film is online. Will I watch it? Probably, but third strike might eliminate others.
Same production company as With Love and Kisses (1936), 5+, also with Tomlin, watched 1 week ago; talked mostly about Toby Wing there. Couldn't find the intervening title online.
Conn Pictures Corporation, dir. Neilan; 4
