Vinte Milhões de Namoradas

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.

This is a pleasant little romantic musical comedy in the tradition of 1930's Warner Brothers, minus Busby Berkeley and minus some of the rougher precode elements of some of Warner's musicals from 1933 and before.

Dick Powell plays Buddy Clayton, a singing waiter in a beer garden discovered by the slippery fast-talking talent scout Rush Blake (Pat O'Brien). Rush takes Buddy back east where he becomes a radio singing sensation and heartthrob, although it does take awhile and a few odd quirks of fate. In the meantime, Buddy has started up a romance with singer Peggy Cornell (Ginger Rogers) that is leading to the altar, but the sponsor of the radio show on which Buddy sings says that a married heartthrob is no heartthrob at all, and instructs Rush to talk the pair out of marriage. This split is at first amicable and temporary, but then Rush dreams up a publicity stunt that misfires hilariously.

The film features the music and lyrics of Warren and Dubin, the comic support of familiar Warner contract player Allen Jenkins, and the direction of Ray Enright who managed to get this one right - it's funny in all the right places without being inane.

They really put a damper on Ginger Rogers' performance this time. After playing the tough precode chorine in the earlier Berkeley musicals, here they've turned down the volume on her sauciness a couple of notches. Plus, in anticipation of the production code, the romance between Peggy and Buddy is squeaky clean. There is no taking a can opener to metal bathing suits or checking into the Honeymoon Hotel in this musical as there was the previous year.

Highly recommended as a pleasant way to spend 90 well-paced minutes.

This is one of the early Hollywood musicals that retained some of the characteristics of vaudeville and stage shows like the Ziegfeld Follies. It has a plot that is more than the usual thin plots of most such films that just tie the song and dance numbers together. This one has some historical value in its portrayal of radio productions and the era in which radio ruled the waves and the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

Modern audiences won't be very taken by what passes as the comedy in "Twenty Million Sweethearts." Most fans from the mid-20th century on didn't care much either for the fast-talking, bombastic personas such as Pat O'Brien sometimes played, as he does here. That was something that apparently enjoyed a short stint of popularity in early sound pictures, but quickly died out within a few years. O'Brien's Rush Blake is as much a cad as he is a good guy, and while his boisterous character is just tolerable, his last tirade toward the end of the film is way overboard. It's not only unnecessary, but it would have improved the film to have left that on the cutting room floor. The only real comedy is in the short scenes with Allen Jenkins who plays Pete, host of a children's afternoon radio show.

But for most of this movie, audiences are in for a treat, seeing the singing that was popular at that time. Dick Powell had a very good tenor voice, and he plays a very likeable Buddy Clayton. And opposite him is a very young Ginger Rogers as Peggy Cornell, who shows that she could sing a nice tune. And, another special reason for seeing and enjoying this film is the Mills Brothers. This was just the second of a dozen films the famous singing foursome would be in. This is in their early years with some of the humorous tunes they sang then. By the 1940s, they would skyrocket on the music charts with many hit tunes over three decades. Performing until the early 1970s, the Mills Brothers would record more than 2,000 songs that sold more than 50 million records.

No other artists or groups could sing their top hits tunes as well, and no others even tried to record some of their best tunes. The lasting talent and quality of the Mills Brothers is proven as some of their top tunes are still heard on radio music programs and in occasional modern films. Once one heard these songs, they'd be remembered forever as sung by the Mills Brothers - "Paper Doll" of 1943, "St. Louis Blues" of 1944, "You Always Hurt the One You Love" of 1944, "Glow-Worm" of 1952, "Memory Lane" of 1956, "Say Si Si" of 1964, "Dream a Little Dream of Me" of 1968, and "Dream" of 1969.

This is a movie to enjoy the old-fashioned type of stage shows, the heyday of radio entertainment, and a look at top and upcoming musical talents of the time.

The best humorous line in the fine was by Pete, when actor Jenkins says, "I hate kids. I think every child should be born at the age of 20. Maybe they'd have some sense."

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.

What a fun film, and what an education about the entertainment field, taking us back to the early '30s and the importance of radio.

Pat O'Brien has one of his wheeler-dealer roles as Russell Blake, an agent who's not delivering the great talent he's promised his boss but keeps getting pay advances nonetheless. Finally he's fired. However, at a restaurant, he hears a singing waiter, Buddy Clayton (Dick Powell) do a goofy "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" and brings him to the attention of the radio station. Reluctantly, his boss (Joseph Cawthorne) gives Buddy an audition - and is immediately sorry. Admittedly it's hard to hear Buddy's real voice singing the Flying Trapeze song.

Eventually, however, everyone hears Buddy sing and a radio show sponsor wants him. The current singer, Peggy Cornell (Ginger Rogers) clicks with Buddy, which makes for complications.

The score by Dubin and Warren is very good, as well as other songs, and there are performances by the Mills Brothers, bandleader Ted Fio Rito, Ginger Rogers, and The Radio Rogues.

The versatile Dick Powell had a beautiful tenor voice, showcased here, and Rogers is delightful. They made a cute couple. Besides his in front of the camera talent, Powell was a very astute businessman and had a keen eye for talent himself. During his career, he acted, produced, directed, and was responsible for giving Aaron Spelling and Sam Peckinpah their starts. Rogers of course would go on to do her films with Astaire.

Fun film, some good music, loved the cast.