Million Dollar Legs

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.