Tom Breneman plays himself, the host of a daily radio program called Breakfast in Hollywood. A good chunk of this movie is simply Breneman doing his show—interacting with the guests in his restaurant studio, discussing their breakfasts, searching for silly hats, stepping aside for musical guests, just generally doing what daytime show hosts have apparently always done.
Among the guests are a handful of characters who, one way or another, bring their troubles to the show and whose lives thus become the handful of sub-plots that make up the rest of the film. Zasu Pitts is an eccentric fan who's hoping to win the daily ugly hat contest; her story is humorous if a bit pathetic (though her final scene is hilarious). Beulah Bondi, playing an 82-year-old, is the winner of the oldest guest contest. Billie Burke is a guest who, it seems, doesn't particularly believe in wearing makeup, and whose husband is (thus?) gallivanting around with a pair of wild young babes.
The real featured characters are Edward Ryan as a handsome young soldier on his way home from the war, and the wonderful Bonita Granville, who is in town searching for the fiancé who has neither shown up nor communicated with her. Granville has grown up some from her Nancy Drew days, and gives an excellent performance as a young woman who is bright, attractive, worried, confused, and in love.
Breneman ties together the plot lines and appears to be enjoying himself. And besides the plots, he produces a few other good reasons for watching—his musical guests. Nat King Cole and his trio do a couple of numbers; Spike Jones and his group work their nuttiness; and singer Andy Russell croons a couple of pleasant songs.
One scene is not to be missed: Breneman greeting Hedda Hopper at her table to discuss her hat, which leads to Hopper introducing Breneman to her friends at the table—Gary Cooper's mother, Joan Crawford's mother, and Breneman's own mother! (Hopper herself is very funny in her scenes in the picture.)
Not a great movie
.and it has some slow spots. But overall, it is a neat little curiosity with much to enjoy.
Also note: The two young lead characters are first brought together by virtue of their both hailing from Minneapolis. It had not occurred to me that way back in 1946, the pronunciation of Minnie-soh-ta was already material for jokes
.but apparently it was.
