4/10
Short cheaply made inane musical comedy
25 December 2022
After all-male university Quinceton holds a singing concert with the male students in drag, singer Virginia (Frances Langford) and her reporter friend Hap (Harry Langdon) come up with an idea to help raise the profile of all-girl school Mar Brynn, run by Virginia's aunt Matilda (Esther Dale). They'll invite a number of pageant winners to join their school and hold a welcoming concert that will get them attention. The Quinceton boys resent the idea, so they send frat boy Bobby (Johnny Downs), once more in drag, to infiltrate the school and disrupt the concert. However, when Bobby falls for Virginia, it complicates matters.

Producer Hal Roach assembles a lot of radio talent from the time, along with silent comedy star Langdon and former Our Gang regular Downs, for this rather terrible trifle. Langford sings several songs, which are okay. The production values are very bad, with obvious stage sets and poorly-done backdrops. The less-than-an-hour runtime means the pain doesn't last too long, though. Kent Rogers, who was a successful radio comedian and impressionist, does some impressions here (Gary Cooper, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy). He would join the Army Air Corps when WW2 started up, and die in a training exercise before his 21st birthday. Surprisingly, this movie earned a pair of Oscar nominations, for Best Score (Edward Ward) and Best Song ("Out of the Silence").
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