Kid Nightingale

Don't be mislead by all those promising George Hurrell promotional photos released for this film showing beefy John Payne in very noir boxing ring poses. This boxer is a bird-brain singing waiter who gets discovered by a promoter when he loses his job for brawling in frustration. There are lots of annoying developments involving a hyperactive romance with a blond, brassy Jane Wyman while on his way to becoming "Kid Nightingale" ,the boxer who gets on a winning streak by singing when he's hit. Altogether a silly exercise but Payne, always watchable, is entertaining both as a singer and as a boxer. The film is almost a criminal waste of John Payne. Boxing sequences should have been extended; they are way too brief and would have added much more interest.