1h 38min | Comedy, Musical | 31 December 1941 | Color
Director: Irving Cummings
Stars: Bob Hope, Vera Zorina, Victor Moore.
Sam Ledner ... dance supervisor (uncredited)
Eddie Prinz ... dance director (uncredited)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033851/
Watched online, blurry, especially during dancing,
10 Irving Berlin songs (4 used only instrumentally). VZ still doesn't do any leaping in her ballet.
This release date is too soon to feel the impact of 7 Dec 1941. But VZ does mention the Anschluss, Germany's annexation of Austria, which was 12 March 1938. (The Sudetenland was given to them 10 Oct 1938, and the rest of Czechoslovakia was invaded March 1939.) Notice this is released 26 days after Pearl Harbor.
Very frustrating to see Dona Drake singing Louisiana Purchase in the Mardi Gras parade, but she's stuck in a 2'x2' square to wiggle around in, no real dancing. (Even her wiggling is superior, though.) She has no film credits between '36 (Strike Me Pink) and '41, with 1 other film earlier this year. I suspect I remember her because she reminds me of Joan McCracken, but I hope to see her dance again in both the '42 films coming up.
This is a solid light comedy, with a smattering of song/dance.
Paramount, dir. Cummings; 6
