The last of the extensive Don O'Connor + Peggy Ryan musical comedies, before Don was called into military service.It's a bit different from the others in that it has a different director, and there is no young prima dona 'good girl' singer to serve as Don's 'official' girlfriend: a competitor in this department with Peggy when she isn't cast as his sister. This is not to say that Peggy has no competition as Don's girlfriend. Far from it. Although she begins the film as Don's pinning girlfriend, as usual, Don regards her more like a kid sister than a lover. She tries at times to act like a sexy sophisticate, but it doesn't really work. Her prolonged attempt to act like a 'siren' when the director calls for 'a real siren'(think fire siren) is painful to watch and falls flat. Don, then, meets a single woman in her '30s(Frances Dee, as Lynn), whom he regards as beautiful and apparently sophisticated, if with no obvious acting or singing talent. She secretly regards him as just an ambitious kid, but plays along with his infatuation for a while, not wanting to hurt him.(This is the reverse of the melodramatic situation in "This is the Life", with costar Suzanne Foster falling for an older man). Lynn's really interested in his single father(played by Donald Cook): a famous dramatic actor and singer, nicknamed Patrick the Great, whom Don is trying to emulate. Nonetheless,she acts as Don's inspiration when he practice sings the love song "For the First Time", out in a forest, in preparation for a Broadway play role he has been offered. Trouble is, he finds out that his father is hoping for this part, and he graciously defers to his father's wishes, not mentioning that the show producers think his father is too old for the part.
Don wants his father to get to know Lynn as his hoped for bride, but eventually this backfires, as Lynn gradually realizes that Don's father is the man for her. There is much scheming behind the scenes by Lynn, her wisecracking secretary(played by Eve Arden), Don's father and the show producers, to get the 'right' people together romance-wise and the 'right' male lead for the show. Problem is Don keeps deferring to his father's wishes until his father announces that he is marrying Lynn and has decided not to seek the role Don wants. Don reluctantly goes back to Peggy as his apparent girlfriend. They star in a couple of stage productions, with Peggy receiving a hug, but not kiss in the fade out. Yes, it's all rather corny.
Aside from Don's nice solo in the forest, he teams with Peggy in a practice vaudeville-like number for a local show , to "Don't Move" It begins with them 'accidentally' hooking their arms together while hurrying in opposite directions, falling flat. This gag was reused in the much later MGM film "I Love Melvin", in which Don and Debbie Reynolds initially meet by a similar collision when rounding a hedge row and finish the film with a similar collision. In fact, preliminary pieces of Don's famous "Singing in the Rain" 'Make 'em Laugh' routine can be recognized in several of his '40s Unversal films: the rag dummy dancing partner in "Top Man", the terminal jump through the wall in "Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'" and the behind-the-couch bit plus acrobatic tap dancing and falls in the 'I Love a Mystery" number in "Something in the Wind"... Back to the present film, Don and Peggy later do the "Don't Move" number in full on stage, but it seems different than the part we saw before. They again star in the finale Broadway extravaganza with a Latin theme.
I should point out that the statement of one reviewer that Gale Storm was the main contested love interest in the film is incorrect. They are confusing this film with the later "Curtain Call at Cactus Creek", which did costar Gale Storm and Eve Arden, the latter also being in the present film. Frances Dee played the contested love interest. Her film career spanned back to the beginning of talkies. Although regarded as a noted beauty, she was mostly cast in supporting roles. She was also the wife of noted leading man Joel McCrea. Reportedly, she was favored to play Melanie in "Gone With the Wind", but it was feared she might outshine the female lead, whom she rather resembled.
Donald Cook, who played Don's father, was a veteran actor, in his '40s, married to Princess Gioia Tasco di Cuto, of Sicily. He reminds me in looks and personality, of Humphrey Bogart. I don't know if his two brief singing roles were dubbed, but the singing sounded impressive. He also costarred in the previous "Bowery to Broadway", which included Don and Peggy in a cameo appearance.
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