Meet the Boy Friend (1937) User Reviews (3)

A melody of looniness.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 11 August 2016]

Robert Paige, the Dick Powell and Bing Crosby of Republic Pictures, is Tony Paige (is that Robert for short in poverty row terms?), a radio crooner who is chased around the city by his adoring fans, tired of being dominated by his contract and forced to appear at ridiculous publicity events. When his buffoon of a boss (Andrew Toombes) sends his Swedish girlfriend (Gwili Andre) off to Hollywood to keep his adoring fans content (who refuse to buy the sponsor's products if he gets married), Paige is furious, and takes up with Carol Hughes who works at an insurance firm hired by the boss to ensure he remains single.

Get over the ridiculous, nonsensical plot and go back to the 1930's sense of comedy when humor was corny. "The Music Man's" Pert Kelton plays against type as the boss's daffy wife who makes Gracie Allen appear like Einstein. If you've seen her in other 1930's movies, she's always the tough blowsy broad who takes no nonsense, but here, she's got the smarts of a feather duster. A variety of other musical acts appear as well, including a hillbilly act who gets on on the plot when Hughes arranges for herself to be kidnapped in order to get Paige back, just as the Swedish ex flues back to marry him just so she can stay in the country.

There are moments of severe belly laughs and a few that are absolute groaners. I actually would like to see the missing 10 minutes not on the Alpha DVD to see what was considered too extraneous to remain for re-releases or later TV packaging. It most likely concerned what happened with Andre, heading back to New York, as that part of the plot is never resolved. Nevertheless, this is an easy (not even) hour time passer that won't test your brain.

Decent Musical Comedy

[boblipton · 5/10 · 21 February 2019]

Robert Paige is 'America's Boyfriend', a radio crooner who likes to slip away to take a day gig as a sign painter or busboy, stealing jobs he doesn't need from the working poor. His boss at the radio station, Andrew Tombes, is worried he'll marry Swedish girlfriend Gwili Andre and ruin his amateur standing, so he decides to get an insurance policy against his wedding. The carrier is interested, so he has niece/investigator Carol Hughes check him out. He's bored with women throwing themselves at him, so they decide the best way to keep him unmarried is to have Miss Hughes pose as a girl who needs his help but holds him off. This works until he finds out the scheme. In the meantime, of course, she's fallen in love with him.

It's a decent musical comedy from Republic, one of those movies in which eccentrics surrounding the boy-meets-girl plot supply the comedy, among them Pert Kelton as Tombles' annoyingly nitwitted wife. the leads can sing well, but the songs sound like they've been pulled out of the trunk.

Robert Paige was born John Arthur Paige, was appearing under the stage name of David Carlyle and his character's name is Tony Page. He was born in 1910 is was made for light comedies. He was good looking, sang well, and didn't fall over the furniture. He broke into the movies in 1934 and his last role was in 1963's BYE BYE BIRDIE. He died in 1987.

Roll with laughter

[breezee118 · 10/10 · 23 June 2007]

This film was very funny if you look into it's humor. I give this a 10 for excellent because it sure made me roll with laughter. You can also watch it because it is now a public domain film. The story starts out with Tony Paige who used to be a truck driver. Now he is America's heartthrob singer also known as "America's Boyfriend". He meets a girl named June Delaney while he was trying to escape from screaming female fans. She helps him escape but the fans still clawed their way to him. Days later his agent comes to place an insurance policy on Tony, in case he ever gets married. It just so happens that Ms. Delaney works at this insurance place. They test Tony out to see if he falls for woman easily, but as soon as he sees June, his heart beats faster. June figures out that Tony only like girls who doesn't fall for his image easily so she tricks him into falling in love with her. He does and she falls for him also. He finds out it was all a con and decides to marry a Swedish actress. She stages a kidnapping to get him back, but that turns out badly and she really does get kidnapped. He goes after her and rescues her and in the meantime they got married to buy some time to get away from the bad guys. The police comes, they stay married and become known as the "American Singing Sweethearts". Everyone lives happily ever after.