4/10
What they've got cookin' seems like yesterday's stew.
2 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
While this Universal musical has many entertainming moments, the storyline is utterly preposterous and makes me wonder how it got past the front office. The storyline concerns small town singer Harriet Hilliard (AKA Nelson) who all of a sudden ends up with her own radio show featuring an unnamed co-star who is actually already a well-known radio performer (Kirby Grant). The publicity of the show surrounds the fact that she has a mysterious singing co-star but wouldn't radio fans notice the similarity in voices? It's also important to mention that even the show's sponsor (Marjorie Gateson) obviously doesn't know who the singer is and when Grant is arrested for alleged assault, Hilliard must find someone to step into the unknown singer role. That puts the beard and wig on Hilliard's small-town pal, Eddie Quillan, a radio studio tour guide who got Hilliard to come to Hollywood on fake news he wrote in his letter.

There are some popular mid-1940s songs here including "I'm Going to Buy a Paper Soll That I Can Call My Own" and specialty performances by the Delta Rhythm Boys. Franky, I didn't care much for Hilliard and Grant's singing which seems a bit off key and at times like they've been blowing and helium gas instead of oxygen. Quillen provides the comic relief and is somewhat amusing but Hilliard and Grant really don't share much chemistry. Ironically, Hilliard's Future Husband, Ozzie Nelson, plays himself as the leader of the radio station band so the few people who remember their TV show of the 1950s might be a bit perplexed.
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