She Loves Me Not

Did any movie idol have less sex appeal than Bing Crosby? (Okay, Robert Young comes close.) What a problem the studios had with Bing--that voice that drove the women mad, combined with an attitude toward women that could best be described as "courteous." Unlike Fred Astaire, the diffident Bing was not lucky enough to find a partner to give the act sex appeal--at least, not until he teamed up with Bob Hope, whose inept wolfishness made Bing's coldness look cool.

In this picture, as in Here Is My Heart the same year, the studio (why?) gave him Kitty Carlisle, the ponderous actress who acts comedy by making like a middle-aged good sport who's being good-naturedly informal with the kids. Even the number Bing adopted for his theme song, "Love in Bloom," doesn't whip up a romantic mood, even when Bing and Kitty, weirdly, sing it as two disembodied heads in a cloudy sky. But a youthful is rather foreclosed by a star who, more than ten years too old for his role, looks like a college professor rather than the undergrad he is supposed to be.

Kitty is further minimised by being sited outside the main plot, one that might have been the inspiration for Some Like It Hot. Miriam Hopkins, as a nightclub dancer (and can she shake a leg! who knew?), witnesses a gangland rubout and, fleeing the gangsters who want to do away with her, ends up at Princeton, where Bing helpfully cuts off her hair and gives her boys' clothes to hide in. Miriam turns out to be the most ungrateful damsel in distress ever rescued, constantly lying, mischief-making, and rather undermining the idea of hiding out by becoming a glutton for publicity. But her antics, rather than pepping up the show, fade away in this staid atmosphere.

Thirties character comedians Warren Hymer and Lynne Overman have some funny business, but the pace sags and the dialogue lacks invention. Fortunately, though, Bing ends up with Kitty without having to kiss her. How he must have been relieved!

Miriam Hopkins is the whole show here as a nightclub singer who witnesses a murder and gets out of town. She ends up in Princeton, NJ and is taken in by students, Bing Crosby and Edward Nugent. They cut her hair and pass her off as Crosby's nephew. Meanwhile Bing falls for the dean's daughter, Kitty Carlisle and they sing "Love in Bloom" and "Straight from the Heart." Lots of plot twists but the film runs out of steam before it's over, still it's fun.

From the hotcha number Hopkins sings and dances during the opening credits to the sequence where the movie studio head and crew descend on Princeton to put Hopkins in the movies, she proves herself a delightful comedienne.

Despite first billing, Crosby has little to do outside of his songs. Hopkins steals every scene she's in (not unusual) and is terrific in the singing and dancing numbers. Carlisle is solid in her second film and so is the underrated Nugent.

Henry Stephenson, Henry Kolker, George Barbier, Warrem Hymer, Lynne Overman, Judith Allen, Maude Turner Gordon, Vince Barnett co-star.

Basically remade in 1942 with Judy Canova and again in 1955 with Betty Grable.

SHE LOVES ME NOT (Paramount, 1934), directed by Elliott Nugent, based upon the hit play by Howard Lindsay, is a college farce with music that has comic similarities to play and motion picture titled CHARLEY'S AUNT, only in reverse, where a girl in this production, played by the unlikely Miriam Hopkins, hiding on campus disguised as a boy.

The movie begins with the opening titles and credits over the view of a Princeton University in which off-screen students are heard singing "Three Cheers for All, That's All." Then while the credits are still imposed on the screen, the scene changes focus to a nightclub in Philadelphia where Curly Flagg (Miriam Hopkins) is singing and dancing to a jive number, "Put a Little Rhythm in Every Little Thing You Do." While she is doing her tap dance, gun shots are heard and a man falls dead, causing excitement and screaming among the patrons. Because Curly happens to be the closest one to witness it, and not wanting to get mixed up in a gangland killing, she sneaks away from the nightclub and heads straight to the nearby train station. With only 75 cents to her name, Curly uses it to buy a ticket going as far as Princeton University. After arriving at the university, Curly, quite hungry, comes upon an open window where she finds Paul Lawton (Bing Crosby), a student who not only writes songs, but is studying to become a surgeon. Paul then encounters Curly, and with the help of his roommate, "Buzz" Jones (Edward J. Nugent), the two young men decide to help Curly by cutting her hair and dressing her up as one of the boys. Complications ensue in trying to keep Curly from giving herself away. Later, Lawton meets Midge Mercer (Kitty Carlisle), the dean's (Henry Stephenson) daughter, and becomes very much interested in her, in spite of he being engaged another girl, the snobbish Frances Arbuthnot (Judith Allen). The rest of the plot focuses on the gangsters who, after learning of Curly's whereabouts, coming to Princeton to try and kidnap her, and Lawton and Jones trying to prevent themselves from getting expelled shortly before graduation after the dean learns of what's happening.

SHE LOVES ME NOT was a highly successful comedy upon its release, but for now, comes somewhat forced, especially by Miriam Hopkins who is sometimes hilarious in her role, but then again her occasional screeching and screaming growing tiresome after a while. Aside from the usual college hi-jinx, the movie is presented with some nice tunes, mostly sung in good voice by Bing Crosby on the piano. In the supporting the cast are Lynne Overman, George Barbier, Ralf Harolde, Vince Barnett and Warren Hymer. Barnett and Hymer play gangster stooges hired by Harolde to kidnap Curly. Hymer's kidnapping methods comes off a bit strange here, for which he not only tries to get his victim unconscious by strapping a pillow over the girl's face, but for the men, forces them at gunpoint to drop their pants and leaving them in boxer shorts! Judith Allen, who was Crosby's featured co-star in TOO MUCH HARMONY (Paramount, 1933), appears in a secondary role as his fiancée as well as a kidnapping victim mistaken for Curly (Hopkins).

The songs composed for the movie include: "Put a Little Rhythm in Every Little Thing You Do" (by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel); "Cocktails for Two" (by Johnny Burke, Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston, instrumental/ danced by Miriam Hopkins); "Straight From the Shoulder, Right From the Heart" (by Gordon and Revel); "Love in Bloom" (by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, both sung by Crosby and Kitty Carlisle); "I'm Humming, I'm Whistling, I'm Singing" (by Gordon and Revel, sung by Crosby); "Love in Bloom" (reprise); "Three Cheers for All, That's All," followed by other traditional college songs; and "I'm Humming, I'm Whistling, I'm Singing" (reprise by Crosby). Of all the melodies heard in this production, only "Love in Bloom" became a solid hit. So popular, it was nominated for an Academy Award for the initial Best Song category of 1934. While it did not win that honor, losing to "The Continental" from THE GAY Divorcée (RKO), it soon became comedian Jack Benny's lifelong theme song in both his radio and television shows. Plugged twice in the story by Crosby and Carlisle, the reprise comes off quite memorable as the couple converse on the telephone in a split screen view with a telephone pole between them as the two decide to sing their love song together.

SHE LOVES ME NOT was remade by Paramount in 1942 as TRUE TO THE ARMY starring Judy Canova, Allan Jones and Ann Miller, in the Hopkins, Crosby and Carlisle roles; and again by 20th Century-Fox in 1955 as HOW TO BE VERY, VERY POPULAR with Betty Grable, Robert Cummings and Sherre North. All three are seldom seen these days, but to watch and compare all three, start with the original. (***)

Bing Crosby had done one previous film with a college setting in College Humor. In that one he was a music teacher. Now he's on the other side of the classroom as student/composer in She Loves Me Not.

He's about to graduate and get married when a complication in the form of Miriam Hopkins comes into his life. She's fleeing from gangsters who think she's seen a shooting. The doer, Warren Hymer, is hot on her trail. She's a dancer in a nightclub in Philadelphia and she flees abruptly, not even changing her costume. She has just enough money to get to Princeton where she tells her sad tale of woe to Bing. And of course Bing and pal Eddie Nugent take her in.

What follows is a lot of fast paced humor involving Crosby's fiancé, the college administration, a Hollywood publicity man, and the gangsters Hopkins is fleeing from. Along the way Bing makes the acquaintance of Kitty Carlisle who is the daughter of Princeton's Dean of Students played by Henry Stephenson. They sing beautifully together and would do so again in Crosby's next picture, Here Is My Heart.

Songwriting chores were split on this film. Mack Gordon and Harry Revel contributed two songs, Straight from the Shoulder and I'm Humming...I'm Whistling...I'm Singing which were good. But the hit song of the film comes from Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, Love In Bloom.

1934 was the first year that the best song category was put in the Academy Awards sweepstakes. Bing Crosby with Love In Bloom had the first of 15 nominations, the most by far of any artist introducing an Oscar nominated song. Love In Bloom lost that year to the beautiful music and heavenly rhythm of The Continental.

Love In Bloom served also as the title tune of one of Dixie Lee Crosby's last films before she retired from the screen to raise Bing's first family. But the song finally got a home being heard as the squeaky violin introduction for Jack Benny for almost forty years on radio and television. It became identified with him so much that many people don't know Bing Crosby introduced it as a serious ballad.

Bing and Kitty sing Love In Bloom well together although the main weakness of the plot is that their romance gets a bit sappy at times. It does detract from the comedy.

Nevertheless She Loves Me Not is pretty funny and the inimitable Mr. Crosby is in excellent voice on some excellent tunes.

One of the many little 1930's musical comedies that Bing made in his first decade in films, not the best, to me that would be 'Sing You Sinners' a few years later, but this is still enjoyable fare. I disagree with another reviewer who claimed Bing had no sex appeal, and I think a couple of million girls from the era would too. He certainly had a great sense of comedy timing, and was a more than competent actor. But, most people went to hear him sing, and when he does he never disappoints, Although 'Love in Bloom' is the big hit from this movie, I like 'I'm Humming, I'm Whistling and I'm Singing' best, no one could put over a rhythm song as well as Bing! Thankfully, Universal have finally released this film on DVD, so I applaud them, but they still have a few to go from Bing's 30's catalogue!