RKO purchased the rights to the play for $15,000 ($254,000 in 2022), specifically to star Frank Sinatra, and the four songs he sings by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson were written to accommodate his singing style. He was billed third because the contracts with Michèle Morgan and Jack Haley prevented higher billing.
Only one Rodgers and Hart song, "Disgustingly Rich," was incorporated from the stage version. While it was standard practice in the 1940s to jettison stage scores for a handful of new songs, often contributed by various songwriters, in the case of Higher and Higher (1943), RKO actually commissioned an entirely new, full-length score from Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson that proved to be a distinct improvement on the Rodgers and Hart original, one of their lesser stage efforts.
In an ironic twist, Frank Sinatra, who would go on to have a successful career as an actor, portrayed himself for the first and last time in a motion picture, while Victor Borge, who would go on to have a successful career playing himself, was asked to play a fictional character for the first and last time in a motion picture.
While regarded as a pedestrian vehicle in every other way, Higher and Higher (1943) produced more song hits for Frank Sinatra than any of his other films -- three in all: "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night," "The Music Stopped" and "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening."
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