Twenty Million Sweethearts

Pushy talent agent (Pat O'Brien) makes a radio star out of a singing waiter (Dick Powell). Powell's new heartthrob status means he has to remain single in the public eye but he wants to marry Ginger Rogers. So O'Brien schemes to break them up. Pat O'Brien talks so fast in this I'm surprised he was ever able to catch a breath. Dick Powell's singing is good and he has a rootable quality about him. Ginger's likable and fun. Not one of her better roles but okay. This is an amusing musical comedy. Some laughs and nice songs. One of the best parts is singing quartet The Mills Brothers. This may not be a highlight in the careers of the stars but it's an entertaining way to pass the time. Any movie with Allen Jenkins in it can't be bad.

Rush Blake (Pat O'Brien) is a cash-strapped radio promoter. After six months of failure to find new radio talent, he gets fired. He does find singing waiter Buddy Clayton (Dick Powell) and promises to make him a radio star. Peggy Cornell (Ginger Rogers) is a singer on a failing radio show.

This is a fine musical. The story is fine. I wish it has a better meet-cute. The stars are fine. Their singing is fine although their songs are not my taste especially the big song. What I really like is watching The Mills Brothers. Maybe I've seen them before. I don't know anything about them. Today, they would be a novelty act. That's why I like them. Nobody does that anymore and it feels fresh.

I found this film to be light hearted and great fun musically. Grant Mitchell almost steals the show as the near apoplectic manager of the radio station. It's always fun to see radio settings in old movies, as it's a form of entertainment (in this manner) long gone. Dick Powell displays the boyish charm that made him a hit in movies. Ginger Rogers, often overlooked as the great film actress that she was, gives her usual excellent performance as does Pat O'Brien. The opening of the film, with The Radio Rogues doing horrible impersonations of then celebrities (some of whom are long forgotten), gets off to a wobbly start, but things manage to pick up with O'Brien's character setting the pace. The Mills Brothers lend a wonderful contribution with their smooth effortless song style. I liked this film and would urge anyone who enjoys the music of the early and mid 1930s to tune in when it's scheduled.

When Lee Tracy plays a promoter who gets fired but tries to promote a nobody anyhow, that's chutzpa; when Pat O'Brien is in the role, it just seems like failure with bluster. If Tracy tried to break up the happy couple it would be playing the "game" too far, and he'd really regret it later. O'Brien just seems like a heel, and there's no sense of his remorse even when he belatedly fixes things up. RKO's similar PROFESSIONAL SWEETHEART, also with Ginger Rogers and made the year prior, is a much better, much funnier film, although even it doesn't have the timing and ensemble playing of the very best Warners films. Unfortunately, TWENTY MILLION SWEETHEARTS isn't one of the best Warners films by a long shot; it's too long, too flabby, not smartly written, and with a weaker cast than the RKO film (Cawthorne is not Ratoff). The story has Powell singing several songs more than once, and he sings them all the way through each time. And they're not great songs. The Mills Brothers are great, but their two numbers are placed back-to-back (perhaps to more easily excise them in the South). And the plot doesn't really make much sense. One has to assume that this was made LATE in 1934, after the stringent implementation of the Production Code. (But Ginger is splendid anyhow.)

Fast-talking agent (O'Brien) promotes radio career of promising crooner (Powell) despite obstacles.

The first half is very enjoyable with a behind-the-scenes look at radio, the Mills Brothers, O'Brien's matchless chutzpah, and Powell's knockout rendition of "I'll String Along with You". Apparently, however, the screenwriters had another 30 minutes to fill, so they recycled much of the first half. The trouble is that unlike love and the old song, the plot etc. is not better "the second time around". What's really unfortunate is that the fine signature tune is repeated to the point of tedium. Too bad the film didn't quit while ahead.

Of course, watching Rogers at this career stage remains a treat even if she's more subdued than usual. While O'Brien machine guns out more words per second than a dragster spits out rpm's. His promotional drive almost amounts to a force of nature. At the same time, Powell does his tuneful tenor bit as a "Lochinvar from California" heart-throb". However, some of his facial expressions while crooning the musical's last number are borderline clownish.

All in all, the impression is of a pleasant lower-end musical whose repetitive material over- stretches a solid core of performers and a great signature tune.