And the Angels Sing

And The Angels Sing is apparently Paramount's answer to Warner Brothers Lane Sisters and the series of films that they had starting with Four Daughters. The four of them are musical prodigies, but they're really not into singing. What they are into is earning enough money so their father Raymond Walburn can buy a farm.

Three of Paramount's best female stars, Dorothy Lamour, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn played 3/4 of the Angel sisters, the fourth being given to Mimi Chandler whose father Senator Albert H. Chandler would shortly become baseball commissioner. Betty Hutton is the only one enthused about performing, but given this is Betty Hutton what else would you expect?

They get themselves all tangled up with bandleader Fred MacMurray who's a bit of rat quite frankly taking advantage of Hutton to get some money in order for his band to get traveling money to an engagement in Brooklyn. The sisters are up in arms and trail him to Brooklyn to get their money.

At some point MacMurray has to woo all of them more or less to some degree. The whole thing ends rather conventionally though.

The plot is really an excuse for the musical numbers and the score here was written by Bing Crosby's favorite writers Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke. Although Betty Hutton gets the showier numbers on screen, the hit song from And The Angels Sing was sung by Dorothy Lamour, It Could Happen To You. And of course Paramount prevailed upon Der Bingle to record it and by all means get his record of it if you can find it.

And The Angels Sing provides a nice showcase for the musical talents of the cast. MacMurray who later played some nasty characters shows a bit of what Billy Wilder saw in casting him as a villain in Double Indemnity and The Apartment. The film is a pleasant enough diversion.