To Beat the Band

Hugh Herbert wants to inherit fifty-nine million dollars, but to collect he needs to marry a widow, and he wants to marry his unwidowed fiancée. Fortunately, Roger Pryor wants to kill himself and offers himself as a very temporary husband.

It's a poorly put together farce and you can see the joints of the constructed plots as people with no comic talent run through canned gags. Fortunately, it has three great comics to make it work: Hugh Herbert, Eric Blore (playing Herbert's snide butler) and Helen Broderick. It also has some songs with lyrics written by Johnny Mercer, who gets to perform a solo. Their shticks keep the thing very watchable despite the occasional strange production number.