Blonde from Brooklyn

Everyone in this THE BLONDE FROM BROOKLYN has a scam, except the blonde from Brooklyn (Lynn Merrick). The soldier (Robert Stanton) musters out and wants to do a singing act as a southerner. He enlists the jukebox girl, who is the blonde from Brooklyn, to be his partner, a southern belle. She thus has her scam.

They meet a southerner, 'Colonel' Hubert Farnsworth, whose probably never was a colonel. He gave the blonde from Brooklyn her story, makes her the granddaughter of an old girlfriend from the South. It happens that the blonde from Brooklyn, as the fiction granddaughter of a real family, is heir to that family's fortune, and they spend the film trying to dodge the lawyer and the fraud charges which would ensue were she to accept the fortune. But she also cannot reveal that it's a scam, as then she and the soldier would lose their lucrative radio gig.

This was not the best film I've seen this year. It could well have been the worst, but that's a relative term. We watched the entire thing and my wife didn't mutter afterward, so if you like old pictures with song, you might go for it.

Nothing special here. Robert Stanton plays a crooner looking for a gig singing on the radio for a sponsor named "Plantation Coffee." Considering the name of the company, he figures playing a "southerner" will get him the job, and he ropes singer Lynn Merrick into the idea with him (since he'd accidentally helped her lose her job earlier as a jukebox girl). But they find they need a coach and that's where Thurston Hall comes in as "The Colonel." He's a hustler himself and is willing to coach them in Southern ways in exchange for a "stipend." It looks like the kids get the gig, but complications ensue when the phony Southern-style name that the Colonel has given Merrick, "Bellwether", turns out to be mistakenly attached to an $800,000 inheritance. Merrick can't live with the fraud, so frantic farce ensues as she and the Colonel and Stanton attempt to find a way out of it, including a phony heir-for-hire (Matt Willis--an actor with a very goofy-looking puffed-out mouth). Of course everything works out in the end for all concerned. The title of the film is off: it should be called "A Southern Belle from Brooklyn" since the actual title is meaningless with regards to the story. Incidentally, Stanton is the brother of famed vocalist Dick Haymes and is also sometimes credited as Bob Haymes. He had a good speaking and singing voice, and okay looks, but his film and singing career never took off. But he did write the beautiful and successful song "That's All." As for this film, it certainly didn't help his career and for today's audiences it's dated and trivial (the jukebox-girl job especially a head scratcher for present-day viewers). It's a passable entertainment, nothing more.

I really enjoyed this one. It came on GET TV the other day out of the blue and i have it on my TIVO. I have since ordered a DVD to have my own copy. I have watched this one twice already and really enjoy the songs.

The premise is a bit routine but its just a fun movie to watch if you like 40's singing. I think its really great and I enjoyed it no matter what. The "Colonel" reminds me of foghorn leghorn in his antics and manner of speaking.

Everyone that enjoys old movies should watch this one.

This now ranks as one of my two favorite old movies, Imitation of life, the 1930's one and now this one.