Humphrey Bogart plays Chips Maguire, a gangster, and Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn) is a pianist in his club. When Chips kills somebody with a gun registered in Tommy's name, then Tommy is obligated to help him hide out, or else he will be on the hook for the murder. They hide out in Tommy's mother's (Jessie Busley's) boarding house which she runs with Una O'Conner. O'Conner's daughter, Sarah Jane, played by Ann Sheridan, has also returned home since she is low on cash. Chips' hopes of laying low are put in jeopardy when Sarah Jane recognizes him, and although she doesn't know about the shooting, she does know his true profession. She stays mum because she doesn't want her mother or Tommy's mother in trouble with the law.
The two mothers have always hoped that their kids would get married, and - this is where my eyebrows raise - the original synopsis says "but Tommy seems indifferent to Sarah Jane". Oh, Warner Brothers, who got so many things right, why did you have so many of your pretty pre-war song bird actresses falling for this bland scarecrow, Jeffrey Lynn? Actually the disdain between the two is mutual .Let's just say complications ensue.
The fun of this film is seeing Bogie, on the verge of stardom but of course not knowing that because it will require several consecutive bad career moves by George Raft, acting in a very un-Bogie like manner. He wears a fedora the entire time he is locked up in his boarding house bedroom, including when he is in pajamas. He is in bed with a cigar in his mouth. He is fed soup in bed - under protest - by the two matronly boarding house owners. And he laughs out loud when the eccentric boarding house residents put on a show for him.
Ann Sheridan is a stand out here too, and got to demonstrate considerable more range than in previous films she had been in. And let's face it, you'd have to be a good actress to convince me you are in love with Jeffrey Lynn. Zasu Pitts is excellent as a resident of the boarding house who reads too many crime magazines for her own good.
This is just a fun comedy/drama with both a gangster and a musical angle with Bogie in a role that he would never have agreed to just two years later.
The two mothers have always hoped that their kids would get married, and - this is where my eyebrows raise - the original synopsis says "but Tommy seems indifferent to Sarah Jane". Oh, Warner Brothers, who got so many things right, why did you have so many of your pretty pre-war song bird actresses falling for this bland scarecrow, Jeffrey Lynn? Actually the disdain between the two is mutual .Let's just say complications ensue.
The fun of this film is seeing Bogie, on the verge of stardom but of course not knowing that because it will require several consecutive bad career moves by George Raft, acting in a very un-Bogie like manner. He wears a fedora the entire time he is locked up in his boarding house bedroom, including when he is in pajamas. He is in bed with a cigar in his mouth. He is fed soup in bed - under protest - by the two matronly boarding house owners. And he laughs out loud when the eccentric boarding house residents put on a show for him.
Ann Sheridan is a stand out here too, and got to demonstrate considerable more range than in previous films she had been in. And let's face it, you'd have to be a good actress to convince me you are in love with Jeffrey Lynn. Zasu Pitts is excellent as a resident of the boarding house who reads too many crime magazines for her own good.
This is just a fun comedy/drama with both a gangster and a musical angle with Bogie in a role that he would never have agreed to just two years later.