Buddy Rogers is set to inherit $25,000,000 soon. His uncle, Richard Tucker, thinks he spends too much time at the office staging musical numbers, so he ships him off to New York to get some seasoning, and includes an introduction to Kathryn Crawford, Josephine Dunn and Carole Lombard, three chorines who share a penthouse apartment, figuring there's safety in numbers. Rogers spends all his cash buying a gift for his hostesses, so he settles down to write a musical, get them better pay, and fall in love with one.
The songs were written by Richard Whiting and George Marion Jr. They're all right, but not particularly well staged or performed, except for one verse by Louise Beavers. In fact, the whole movie is stodgily staged, except for one number involving a big chorus of silhouetted women and an optical printer. The soundtrack is filled with crowd noises, and the pacing of lines is a bit draggy.
This poor pacing is odd because it's directed by Victor Schertzinger, a composer and film director who had been at the latter job since 1917. One would expect the man who composed "Tangerine" (albeit with Johnny Mercer doing the words) to have a better sense of pacing and aural focus. However this was 1930, Hollywood was still in chaos from the switchover to sound, and Schertzinger was probably worried about his job; 1930 was the year that movie musicals collapsed. Despite Rogers' pep, musicals like this, with their risque 1920s-style plots, were rapidly losing favor.
The songs were written by Richard Whiting and George Marion Jr. They're all right, but not particularly well staged or performed, except for one verse by Louise Beavers. In fact, the whole movie is stodgily staged, except for one number involving a big chorus of silhouetted women and an optical printer. The soundtrack is filled with crowd noises, and the pacing of lines is a bit draggy.
This poor pacing is odd because it's directed by Victor Schertzinger, a composer and film director who had been at the latter job since 1917. One would expect the man who composed "Tangerine" (albeit with Johnny Mercer doing the words) to have a better sense of pacing and aural focus. However this was 1930, Hollywood was still in chaos from the switchover to sound, and Schertzinger was probably worried about his job; 1930 was the year that movie musicals collapsed. Despite Rogers' pep, musicals like this, with their risque 1920s-style plots, were rapidly losing favor.
