1h 3min | Comedy, Crime, Music | 1 April 1945
Director: Harold Young
Stars: Gloria Jean, Kirby Grant, Milburn Stone, Edward Brophy, Samuel S. Hinds.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037807/
Watched online, miserable print.
The print is so bad that I barely looked at the screen, just listened instead. And then I had to go back a few times to figure out what was going on,
The plot runs something like this: GJ has to leave school right when she turns 18 because her retired father (SH) has been cheated out of his entire fortune. Dad blurts out that he'll kill the guy who "stole" his money (bad investment), but the rest of the board vote to give 30 days for the money's return, and they restrain ailing Dad.
So GJ sets about getting work as a singer. She does an amateur spot on a radio show, and the reaction is enormous, but the guys at the broadcast don't capture her contact info, so they have to hunt for April "Smith", not her real name. A rival radio broadcast finds out what a sensation she was, and tries to find her too, then sequesters her so the original broadcaster can't find her. I forget if they put her on the air or not.
The 30 day, er, deadline arrives, the swindler admits he couldn't raise the funds, the lights go out and he's shot dead. When the lights return, Dad picks up a gun off the floor, and is arrested for murder. The radio guys believe he's innocent and want to report an exclusive about finding the real killer, so the detective work begins.
When they're ready, the "detectives" stage a reenactment of the crime in a restaurant (original occured in a board room), and someone in the "audience" at the restaurant starts to slink away after the lights come up. He immediately confesses and describes how he did it (he was outside the building on window-washer rigging), and his motivation (he invested a bunch too), and that's a wrap.
Yes, we get a few songs, including the title song. We get a few moments of 2 women (twins?) dancing in long diaphanous gowns with tap sounds as the entertainment in a nightclub, but we spend more time cut away than on them. GJ has a terrific soprano voice, and she's usually in musicals, so someone felt compelled to tag this as Music. I wouldn't argue the point in either direction.
The title song is a favorite of mine. I'm sure it was on an album we had when I was a child, maybe sung by Doris Day. This is NOT the original use of the song in film; in fact, its first credit is in Ride 'Em Cowboy ('42), an Abbott & Costello film. This is the SEVENTH film where it's credited, and its most recent credit is Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
I don't think I'd like this much better with a clean print. It's primarily a murder mystery, and not well plotted...to me. The plus is for the song.
Universal, dir. Young; 5+
