Starring Bing Crosby, Joan Blondel, Mischa Aurer, and Irene Hervey
Directed by David Butler
Music by James V. Monaco; Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Since we did a Bob Hope movie on Tuesday, we'll do one featuring his old friend Bing Crosby today, and one many of you might not have heard of. Bing was so popular in the late 30's, he was able to wrangle a deal that allowed him to make movies away from his home studio Paramount. We've already seen the first and the last, Pennies From Heaven and If I Had My Way. How does this one compare to them, and to the other movies Bing made at Paramount at this time? Let's begin in New York, as singing telegram boy Denny Martin (Crosby) delivers a message to a wealthy family, and find out...
The Story: Denny has already postponed his marriage to switchboard operator Mary Wilson (Blondel) three times. Mary's hoping the fourth time is the charm, but the day they're to marry, he loses his job after he stands up for his friend Cyrus Barrett Jr (Robert Kent), an alcoholic whose father (C. Aubrey Smith) wants to take custody of his baby son (Baby Sandy) from him and his wife Mona (Hervey). Mona's had enough of Cyrus Jr and wants a divorce, something his father thoroughly disapproves of. Denny does manage to get a job as a singing cab driver, and even convinces Cyrus Jr. to go into rehab. His father, however, takes advantage of his absence to move against his wife on kidnapping charges.
Desperate, Mona leaves her son at the one place she figures no one will ever look - Denny's apartment. He and his Zodiac-obsessed Russian friend Nicky (Aurer) find themselves hiding the infant from the detectives Barrett Sr. hired to find the child. Mary hears them talking baby talk and thinks Denny's talking to a woman. She reports this to her gossip columnist friend Claudius DeWolfe (Jerome Cowan), who would like nothing more than to discredit Denny in her eyes. He first gleefully parrots her item about him seeing someone else, then decides he wants to deliver the baby to Barrett Sr. himself...
The Song and Dance: There's some charm to be had in this sweet melodrama with music. Crosby and Blondel work better together than you might think; her sarcasm plays well off his breezy manner. It makes you wish they didn't usually work for different studios and got to do more movies together. Smith also comes off well as the worried grandfather who thinks he can give his grandson a better home than with his liquor-addled father, and Baby Sandy is too cute for words as the infant in the center of Barretts' legal battle. There's nifty Art Deco sets, too, especially at the streamlined Frying Pan Cafe.
Favorite Number: Our first number is "Happy Birthday to You," which Denny sings as he discovers Mona and Barrett Junior and Senior arguing over their child's future. He auditions for a job with the jaunty "Sing a Song of Sunbeams," which somehow lands him the Singing Cabdriver gig. "Hang Your Heart On a Hickory Limb" is the big number at the Frying Pan Cafe. Denny performs this one to sober up the very sloshed Barrett Jr, while waitresses become a makeshift chorus and the owner Mrs. Kelly (Jane Jones) joins two cooks as his backup singers. Denny sings about "The Sly Old Gentleman" to a lady in a cab eagerly listening to his every word. He performs the title song twice, as a lullaby to Baby Sandy and Mary as they look out over the rooftops of New York in the nighttime, and in the finale.
What I Don't Like: The entire legal battle over the baby comes off sounding more like one of Shirley Temple's movies than one of Crosby's and gets very annoying after a while. Aurer's Russian astrologist is dated and a little too goofy. Some of his gags with the baby seem to be more there to pad out the film than anything. In fact, the movie really takes a while to get where it's going. The plot with Denny and Nicky doesn't kick in until nearly 40 minutes into a 90 minute movie.
More surprisingly, the songs are among the weakest from any Crosby film. None of the music really stands out in any way. "Sing a Song of Sunbeams" was a minor hit at the time, but even Crosby was disappointed with his songs in this outing. (Though he apparently otherwise enjoyed making it, later calling it one of his favorites.)
The Big Finale: Not one of Bing's best films; mainly recommended for major fans of him, Blondel, or Temple's family melodramas.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD, both solo and as part of two Crosby sets.
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