Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken were so well liked in Miracle of Morgan's Creek that Paramount decided to reunite them in this musical. Then Hutton went off on another film so the studio went "what the hell" and replaced her with Diana Lynn, the younger sister from Morgan. Lynn was pretty, bright and talented (she can play the piano and sing) but her casting throws the movie off - she's only 19, too young to be romantically matched with Bracken in a non-icky way, too pretty to be matched in a believable way, and too fresh faced and smart to be believably enmeshed in wacky schemes.
The plot of this involves Lynn putting singer Bracken under contract for a cheap rate then over-selling interests in said contract - like The Producers. That sort of silliness makes more sense with Hutton - she's an older woman, she seems dumb, desperate. Lynn comes across as too sensible, with too many years ahead of her.
Not that the plot makes sense. Bracken is meant to have this superb voice (Bing Crosby dubbed) - no one's noticed before? Why does Lynn listen to him and go "oh he's not going to make it, I'll over sell his contract"? He can sing! No one's interested until Veronica Lake whips up publicity? I get that they're making fun of the bobby soxer craze (the lust for Frank Sinatra etc)... but Bracken can sing. Why not have him as a singer who's tried to get noticed for a while, but is too shy or something and it's not until the girl fainting thing comes along that people go for him? Or something that made sense?
A spoof of the bobby soxer craze would be fun - you could have stunts, girls paid to fall for Bracken who genuinely do, irate boyfriends and fathers, publicists in cahoots. But the film ignores these possibilities, forgets the satire focuses on a plot where Lynn sells off excess interest in the contract, thinking Bracken will flop. Even that could have been fun - as The Producers showed - but it doesn't make sense because Bracken's character has talent... and the writers don't do anything much with it except Bracken finding out he hasn't got money and Lynn didn't believe in him.
Veronica Lake is completely wasted. Apparently Paramount were punishing her by casting her second to Diana Lynn... But she could've been used for a good purpose. She's set up as this unscrupulous PR person who hypes Bracken... but then completely disappears from the movie for the middle section. The film is crying out for her character to be used more - for her to be a rival to Lynn, to romance Bracken, to cause trouble... But they don't. There were a few movies around this time where Lake's character should have been bad but wasn't eg Hold That Blonde. I'm assuming this was due to Lake's whingeing - "I don't want to be unsympathetic". But it meant she played these weird half and half roles - people who shouldn't have been bad dramatically but weren't, but weren't that sympathetic either.
As if aware of the script and casting problems, the filmmakers shove in heaps of production numbers - singers, dancers, pianists. There's even a cameo from Bing Crosby's kids. But the movie is crap.
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