Kansas City Kitty

Polly Jasper (Joan Davis) opens a piano-lesson school next door to the music-publishing firm of Latham (Robert Emmett Keane) & Clark (Tim Ryan), publishers of a hit song, "Kansas City Kitty," written by a phony cowboy "Chaps" Wiliker (Johnny Bond.)

Actually, the song was written by Walter Donaldson and Edgar Leslie but Bond's character, for purposes of the plot, gets the credit. Latham and Clark sell the business to Polly and her friend, Eileen Hasbrook (Jane Frazee), only an hour before Oscar Lee (Matt Willis) files suit claiming that "Kansas City Kitty" was stolen from his song, "Minnesota Minnie." This leads to about 40 minutes of Joan Davis hysterics, offset by some songs from Jane Frazee, Bob Crosby and The Williams Brothers, featuring the young Andy Williams, when his voice was still at a range in which he could dub non-singing actresses such as Lauren Bacall.

In court, Polly plays several classics to prove that although "Kansas City Kitty" may have been stolen from "Minnesota Minnie," the latter was, in turn, stolen from an old-time composer.

But, with a lot of familiar faces from Columbia's short subjects, the 63 minutes goes by rather rapidly and there were worse films around in 1944 (and 2006) than "Kansas City Kitty."

Bouncy little programmer thanks to a lively turn from comedienne Joan Davis (Polly). She's a piano teacher turned music publisher with a mad crush on her dentist, of all people. Of course, complications ensue of the romantic and even the business kind. But whenever the pace slows, Davis kicks in with a bit of funny business. Catch her mad meal with the ditzy Oscar (Willis) that puts a whole new slant on chicken pot pie. In fact, her rubbery face and physical grace suggest a distaff version of slapsticker Red Skelton whose film career was also taking off. Nice support from Jane Frazee handling the glamour department; plus, a novelty appearance by Les Gotcher (later of the Pied Pipers) as the singing swami. Nothing special here, just an amusingly tuneful 70-minutes, courtesy Columbia Pictures.