A vice-free radio singer wants to experience the dark side of life, so a press agent convinces her sponsor to choose a "professional sweetheart" from her fans.A vice-free radio singer wants to experience the dark side of life, so a press agent convinces her sponsor to choose a "professional sweetheart" from her fans.A vice-free radio singer wants to experience the dark side of life, so a press agent convinces her sponsor to choose a "professional sweetheart" from her fans.
William Bailey
- Reporter
- (uncredited)
June Brewster
- Jim Kelsey's Secretary
- (uncredited)
Kernan Cripps
- George - Radio Station Desk Man
- (uncredited)
Betty Furness
- Blonde Reporter
- (uncredited)
Winter Hall
- Minister
- (uncredited)
Theresa Harris
- Vera - Glory's Maid
- (uncredited)
Grace Hayle
- Fat Reporter
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia"Professional Sweetheart" was Ginger Rogers' first film for RKO and - ironically, since so much of the plot revolves around getting Rogers' character to sign a radio contract - she had not yet signed a long-term contract with RKO when she made this film. She would sign a contract with the studio later in the year, just before making Flying Down to Rio (1933), her first film with Fred Astaire.
- GoofsWhile undressing in her bedroom, Miss Glory complains she's not allowed to wear any makeup when she is very plainly wearing excessive amounts of makeup, including lipstick and heavy black eye makeup, in that scene.
- Quotes
Glory Eden: I wanna sin and suffer, and now I'm only sufferin'.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Love Goddesses (1965)
- SoundtracksMy Imaginary Sweetheart
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Akst
Lyrics by Edward Eliscu
Performed first by Ginger Rogers (dubbed by Etta Moten)
Performed later by Theresa Harris
(who may have been dubbed by Etta Moten)
Featured review
This one's a real gem
"Professional Sweetheart" was Ginger Rogers' first film for RKO studios after she left Warner Bros., and with Allen Jenkins and Frank McHugh in the supporting cast it almost seems like a Warners film in exile. It's a marvelous movie, smart and funny, with a script by "Chicago" author Maurine Watkins that, though it isn't a crime story, takes up another of Watkins' favorite themes: media manipulation and the gap between what we're told about celebrities and what they're really like. In "The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book," Arlene Croce wrote, "Almost any Ginger Rogers role is successful to the degree that it reflects the dualism in her personality (tough-vulnerable, ingenuous-calculating) or plays on her curious aptitude for mimickry or fantasy or imposture." Croce was writing about the major roles of her post-Astaire career "Bachelor Mother," "Tom, Dick and Harry," "The Major and the Minor" but it applies here just as well; by casting Rogers as a wise-cracking hard-bitten orphan girl forced to pose as the "Purity Girl," and having two radio sponsors and a husband (from an arranged marriage!) all with their own ideas of what they want from her, "Professional Sweetheart" gives Rogers an early showcase for the characteristics that would have made her an enormous star even if she'd never set foot on a dance floor with Fred Astaire. I can't understand why some of the other commentators on this film have criticized Watkins' script, since it seems to me to be well constructed and vividly satirical on celebrity and its discontents in a way that rings true even today.
Another thing I liked about "Professional Sweetheart" is that it's one of the Gayest movies Hollywood ever made so much so that I can't understand why TCM isn't showing it in their current "Screened Out" festival of Gay and Lesbian films when some other titles with much more peripheral Gay content did make their list. The supporting actors seem to be competing as to who can be the queeniest, with Franklin Pangborn (not surprisingly) winning: his looks of horror and disgust when any of the other characters suggests that he date a woman are priceless. Also pretty astonishing, even for the relatively liberal "pre-Code" era in Hollywood history, is Sterling Holloway's obviously cruising Allen Jenkins at the reporters' reception imagine a Gay scene involving Jenkins in which he's the butch one!
Another thing I liked about "Professional Sweetheart" is that it's one of the Gayest movies Hollywood ever made so much so that I can't understand why TCM isn't showing it in their current "Screened Out" festival of Gay and Lesbian films when some other titles with much more peripheral Gay content did make their list. The supporting actors seem to be competing as to who can be the queeniest, with Franklin Pangborn (not surprisingly) winning: his looks of horror and disgust when any of the other characters suggests that he date a woman are priceless. Also pretty astonishing, even for the relatively liberal "pre-Code" era in Hollywood history, is Sterling Holloway's obviously cruising Allen Jenkins at the reporters' reception imagine a Gay scene involving Jenkins in which he's the butch one!
helpful•243
- mgconlan-1
- Jun 8, 2007
Details
- Runtime1 hour 13 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Professional Sweetheart (1933) officially released in Canada in English?
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