Million Dollar Legs

Rather lame as college humor/romance/drama/sport pictures go, though one of the few to use crew as the sport.

Those looking for why Betty Grable was so popular probably should look elsewhere.

Not related to the W.C. Fields 'Million Dollar Legs (1932)'.

This is a good B' campus sports romance comedy. Betty Grable is top billed here but she has a minor role as a girlfriend of one of the athletes. The real star is Peter Lind Hayes, Middleton College's student president. Hayes is cast as annoying character (Freddie Fry) who is always on the make for a dollar. Every event is a chance to exploit his friends and the student body. This is all played out in a rather playful way, with everyone just shrugging off Fry's selfish attitude.

The plot centres on the school's athletics program which is on the skids due to the Dean's lack of interest in athletics. The Dean is played by Thurston Hall who delivers who usual solid performance. John Hartley stars as the Dean's son who just happens to be a star rower. Much of the film follows the students as they try and get the rowing program back in the water.

Donald O'Connor is also billed but has a minor role as young jockey. He provides a key tip that allows the student to back his horse and raise some money for the rowing team. Jackie Coogan, also billed, only has a couple lines, is 25 years old and looks 35, which strains credibility as his is suppose to be a student. This marks an interesting point in the movie itself. That being that the older kids are quite horrible to the freshmen, which causes a couple of cringes because some of the "kids" look 35.

The finale has Middleton College up against a rival in a big rowing challenge. Middleton wins; the Dean sees the error of his academics only attitude; and Fry comes through by giving a little back to the student body. A very competent well made Paramount B'.

College escapades featuring burgeoning talent were never so easy to take. Somewhat presaging Best Foot Forward, this was Betty Grable's first top ten grosser. To this day, Betty is the only adult female to score consistently highly in the top 10 grossing performer list -- she did it nine straight years. Aside from Shirley Temple, no other woman has managed to do it more than 3 years in a row. So, the impact she made for her studios in movies like this is greatly forgotten by today's movie scholars who prefer the superior acting and early feminism of Kate Hepburn, Bette Davis, and Ida Lupino. But, make no mistake, in studios where dollars, count, Betty Grable was a bigger star than the other 3 combined. And movies like this were why.

Dorothea Kent wants her boyfriend, Peter Lind Hayes, to have a varsity letter, so he gets the college to revive crew racing, even thought college moneybags Thurston Hall won't give any money except to the sports that pay their own way in late Paramount college movie.

Fortunately, no scene is wasted on actually learning anything in this movie, so the various college hijinx can be spotlighted, along with two shell races and one horse race. Top-billed Betty Grable is still on the college newspaper, but she is reduced to a subplot in her last Paramount movie. I'm not certain whose legs are worth a million dollars, but the cast includes Jackie Coogan, Donald O'Conner and William Holden, who gets two words.

Nick Grinde was replaced as director a week into the shooting schedule by Edward Dmytryk. Although he had directed one movie in 1935, his day job had been in the editorial department since 1930. With this film, he was promoted to a regular director, first at Paramount, then at RKO. He didn't look back until HUAC came calling.