Hooray for Love

Gene Raymond graduates college and heads to the Big Apple to make a smash on Broadway. It's a lot slower than he expected. Then he meets up with songbird Ann Sothern, her deadbeat dad Thurston Hall, who get him to put his last buck in a stage show.

It's 1935, and across the lot Astaire, Rogers and Sandrich were redefining the musical, a book musical. This one has a book, which is ok, but the musical numbers are specialty acts.... but what specialties! Pert Kelton has a very funny routine as a ridiculous singer, Maria Gambarrelli, soon of the NYC Met, offers some ballet. The standout number has Bill Robinson and Jeni Le Gon singing and dancing to Dorothy Fields' and Jimmy McHugh's "I'm Living in a Great Big Way" while Fats Waller plays the piano. How are you going to do better than that?