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IMDbPro

Hooray for Love

  • 1935
  • Approved
  • 1h 12m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
283
YOUR RATING
Gene Raymond and Ann Sothern in Hooray for Love (1935)
ComedyMusical

A young man with money falls for singer Pat Thatcher, and her con man father makes the most of it.A young man with money falls for singer Pat Thatcher, and her con man father makes the most of it.A young man with money falls for singer Pat Thatcher, and her con man father makes the most of it.

  • Director
    • Walter Lang
  • Writers
    • Lawrence Hazard
    • Ray Harris
    • Marc Lachmann
  • Stars
    • Ann Sothern
    • Gene Raymond
    • Bill Robinson
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.0/10
    283
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Walter Lang
    • Writers
      • Lawrence Hazard
      • Ray Harris
      • Marc Lachmann
    • Stars
      • Ann Sothern
      • Gene Raymond
      • Bill Robinson
    • 11User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos16

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    Top cast36

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    Ann Sothern
    Ann Sothern
    • Patricia Thatcher
    Gene Raymond
    Gene Raymond
    • Douglas Tyler
    Bill Robinson
    Bill Robinson
    • Bill Robinson
    Maria Gambarelli
    Maria Gambarelli
    • Maria Ganbarell
    Thurston Hall
    Thurston Hall
    • Commodore Jason Thatcher
    Pert Kelton
    Pert Kelton
    • Trixie Chummy
    Georgia Caine
    Georgia Caine
    • Magenta P. 'The Countess' Schultz
    Lionel Stander
    Lionel Stander
    • Chowsky
    Etienne Girardot
    Etienne Girardot
    • Judge Peterby
    Fats Waller
    Fats Waller
    • Fats Waller
    Jeni Le Gon
    Jeni Le Gon
    • Jeni LeGon - the Ballerina
    • (as Jeni LeGon)
    Sam Hardy
    Sam Hardy
    • Mr. Ganz - aka Abbey
    Hooper Atchley
    Hooper Atchley
    • Nightclub Manager
    • (uncredited)
    Lucille Ball
    Lucille Ball
    • Chorine
    • (uncredited)
    Bonnie Bannon
    Bonnie Bannon
    • Chorine
    • (uncredited)
    Reginald Barlow
    Reginald Barlow
    • Doug's Lawyer
    • (uncredited)
    The Cabin Kids
    • Group Child Performers
    • (uncredited)
    Lynne Carver
    Lynne Carver
    • Jane - with College Boy
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Walter Lang
    • Writers
      • Lawrence Hazard
      • Ray Harris
      • Marc Lachmann
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews11

    6.0283
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    Featured reviews

    6csteidler

    Uneven comedy with musical interludes

    Brash college man Gene Raymond is a would-be producer of musical shows. Ann Sothern sings in a nightclub. Thurston Hall is Sothern's father, another would-be producer looking for some money to put on his show, Hooray for Love, which will star his daughter. Raymond manages to borrow a bunch of money to finance the show, and the trio set about putting on an extravaganza.

    Along the way, the show is off-again, on-again. The producers may be wanted by the police. Raymond gets to be great pals with Sothern and they exchange silly dialog. ("If this hadn't have happened, I'd have never discovered what a sap I am, would I?" "Oh yes, you would. I would have told you.")

    The action slows way down for a series of musical numbers shown in rehearsal. A ballet bit with the famous Maria Gambarelli is impressive but feels out of a place. It's followed by a comic relief song delivered by Pert Kelton while her manager Etienne Girardot looks on fondly and musical director Lionel Stander makes rude comments. Sadly, it's just not too funny.

    Later on, we do get a real musical highlight called "Living in a Great Big Way," with Bill Robinson, Fats Waller, and an almost forgotten dancer named Jeni Le Gon who is sensational. Again, it has nothing to do with the story but it sure is fun.

    The plot, such as it is, finally reaches its conclusion and provides the expected answers to questions like, Will the show go on? And Will the stars get together? Overall, it's not great but has some good moments.
    6boblipton

    Hooray For Bill Robinson

    Gene Raymond graduates college and heads to the Big Apple to make a smash on Broadway. It's a lot slower than he expected. Then he meets up with songbird Ann Sothern, her deadbeat dad Thurston Hall, who get him to put his last buck in a stage show.

    It's 1935, and across the lot Astaire, Rogers and Sandrich were redefining the musical, a book musical. This one has a book, which is ok, but the musical numbers are specialty acts.... but what specialties! Pert Kelton has a very funny routine as a ridiculous singer, Maria Gambarrelli, soon of the NYC Met, offers some ballet. The standout number has Bill Robinson and Jeni Le Gon singing and dancing to Dorothy Fields' and Jimmy McHugh's "I'm Living in a Great Big Way" while Fats Waller plays the piano. How are you going to do better than that?
    7planktonrules

    Part of the film...formulaic and ordinary. Part of the film...priceless.

    "Hooray for Love" is a film where most of it is very ordinary and familiar. But there's also a part that is pretty amazing and it is well worth watching the movie just to see these performances.

    Douglas (Gene Raymond) is a struggling performer and Broadway wannabe. He tries working at the bottom for a local radio station and is soon fired. Shortly after, he meets a bombastic braggard. 'Commodore' Thatcher (Thurston Hall) claims to know people and can get Douglas in touch with some Broadway producers. In reality, Thatcher is a schemer and he mostly is interested in Douglas' money! The Commodore's daughter, Patricia (Ann Sothern) is a singer for this production....and early on there is a meet cute with Douglas and she can't stand him...at first. The rest of the film is about the ups and downs of putting on this show despite the odds.

    If all this sounds familiar, well...it is! I have seen many films like it...including various musicals from Warner Brothers (such as "42nd Street") and the MGM Rooney-Garland films. But what makes it stand out are the cameos by Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson (one of the great tap dancers of his era), Jeni Le Gon (a great tap dancer and singer) and Fats Waller (one of the finest pianists...and quite the singer). Seeing the film just for their performances wouldn't be a bad thing! Overall, I give this one a 7....the story is okay and the dancing and music is tops.
    5richard-1787

    Don't waste your time on this one, unless you need to see EVERYTHING Bil Robinson appeared in

    TCM presented this the other day as a forgotten gem from the RKO vaults. Forgotten I'll give you, gem not really.

    It could have been a lot better, because there's lots of talent here, all pretty much wasted. I very much enjoy seeing Ann Sothern in musicals. She had a fine voice and was a decent dancer. (See her in Follies bergère with Maurice Chevalier, for example, where she appears with him in the number that inspired the *Singing in the rain* number in the 1950s movie of that name.) Here she has no one to dance with - though Bill Robinson was on the set - and not a single decent song, though Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh had and would produce good songs for other movies.

    Just to put things in perspective: rhe same year RKO released this musically-forgettable picture, 1935, they also released Top Hat and Roberta with Astaire and Rodgers, the first with songs by Irving Berlin, the second with songs by Jerome Kern. Both pictures contain standards that remain part of the Great American Song Book.

    Sothern's co-star, Gene Reynolds, couldn't dance or sing, evidently, so he is of no help to her. (That hadn't kept RKO from putting him in *Flying Down to Rio* a few years before, where he did no damage to a great movie musical. But there you had Astaire and Rodgers and others for singing and dancing.)

    Raymond and Sothern make a nice romantic pair, but that alone can't save this movie.

    Then there r the specialty numbers. Bill Robinson was a great dancer, certainly, but he doesn't get very impressive choreography here. His partner, Jeni Le Gon, gets even less. Fats Waller gets even less chance to show off his piano playing.

    The other side shows make even less effect. Maria Gambarelli may have gone on to be prima ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera - not as big a deal back then as it is today - but again, like Sothern, she has no one to dance with here. She is limited to an uninteresting series of pirouettes, and so makes no impression. Pert Kelly's number is equally forgettable.

    No point in summarizing the plot. It's not interesting, and previous reviewers have covered it.

    I wanted to get a lot out of this movie, since it has some real talent who did great stuff elsewhere. But they don't here, so, since the music is instantly forgettable, there's no point in bothering with this.
    6bkoganbing

    Fats and Bojangles

    A not very memorable score from Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields characterizes Hooray For Love. But Gene Raymond and Ann Sothern have every reason to believe the title. And where else will you get to see Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson dance and Fats Waller sing and play piano in the same number. That in itself is worth setting aside some time to see this.

    But the real star of this film is Thurston Hall who usually plays stuffy establishment types in films and on television. But here he's a larcenous old conman who fleeces earnest young Gene Raymond who is trying to put on a show.

    Raymond wants to put it on with Ann Sothern and Hall who sees that his daughter who is the only thing that really means anything to him makes some heavy sacrifices with society matron Georgia Caine. Over at Paramount WC Fields would have played this part to perfection.

    I'm surprised at the number of people who don't know about Ann Sothern's theatrical background. Under her real name of Harriet Lake, Sothern was in any number of shows on Broadway, she in fact starred in one of Rodgers&Hart's musicals before coming to Hollywood. It was only in television that she seems to have given up the musical part of her performing persona.

    Hooray For Love is an enjoyable piece of Thirties backstage fluff with the main features being Robinson and Waller and a different kind of role for Thurston Hall.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In this RKO picture, note an uncredited Lucille Ball as a chorus girl. In 22 years, she and her husband Desi Arnaz would own the studio.
    • Quotes

      Pat: Oh, I hate the country. I'm afraid of the wildflowers.

    • Connections
      Featured in No Maps on My Taps (1979)
    • Soundtracks
      Hooray for Love
      (1935) (uncredited)

      Music by Jimmy McHugh

      Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

      Played during the opening credits

      Performed by entire company at the show

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • June 14, 1935 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Viva el amor
    • Filming locations
      • RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • RKO Radio Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 12m(72 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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