Sing Me a Love Song

This is a strange movie, in a way. It's only 75 minutes long, yet the supporting cast - a lot of familiar Warner Brothers comedians, like Hugh Herbert and Walter Catlett - have more screen time than I have ever seen them allotted in other pictures.

I think what that means is that Warner Brothers, after James Melton's first, undistinguished movie from the year before, *Stars over Broadway*, realized that, to put it kindly, he needed some help bringing off a feature-length film.

He sang well, certainly, so he was given a LOT of songs in this picture. Unfortunately, while Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote a lot of very popular and still remembered songs, none of their contributions here is at all memorable. As a result, Melton really doesn't make much of an impression. His co-star, Patricia Ellis, gets a few duets with him, but makes even less of an impression.

Compare Melton to Dick Powell, for example, who was also at Warner Brothers at that time. Powell projected personality that Melton does not convey. There was also chemistry between Powell and Ruby Keeler, for example, that is completely absent here between Melton and Ellis.

So we are left with the supporting cast, who are given more screen time than usual and, as a result, do really get to shine. I don't generally like Hugh Herbert, but he gets some good scenes here. Walter Catlett gets to develop a whole character here, and does it well. Zazu Pitts and Alan Jenkins do their usual professional jobs.

That doesn't make this a great picture, but it saves it from being the forgettable zero that it could have been with no memorable songs and two pleasant but uncaptivating leads.