Herbert Yates married Vera Hruby Ralston, not Vera-Ellen.

The credits announce that this film "introduces" Gene Autry but Autry's first film was actually "In Old Santa Fe" (1934).

Boy meets girl. Boy seems to lose girl. Boy finds girl again. A timeless plot line that still works.

Very entertaining performances by all.

First of all, some of comments were by film illiterates. Republic Pictures was NOT a poverty row studio. It was owned by Herbert J. Yates, who happened to also own CFI, Consolidated Film Industries, the main film laboratory in Hollywood. That is, CFI processed the films of the "major" studios. Indeed, Yates was a businessman who owned CFI and figured since he had the lab he would start a studio himself--Republic Pictures. Yates was a good bottom line businessman. He bought up a string of smaller companies to form Republic. He KNEW what kind of movies people liked simply from the amount of films CFI turned out. John Wayne, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were three big name actors on his payroll. And, oh yes, Vera Ellen (Ralston), who was his wife!

Now about the movie. It's a fine movie. The actors pick up their cues. My only criticism is Leo Carrillo's hard to understand caricature of a mobster. Those lavish sets were built on Republic
's very own lot. Republic was later sold to CBS.It functions now as the Studio City lot.

Although I agree that this film has problems, it also has much to recommend it. Ted Lewis, Kay Thompson, and Cab Calloway were true American originals and Phil Regan was a good singer. The settings, probably borrowed, were lavish and of course Miss Dvorak turned in her usual fine performance. And a rare chance to see Tamara Geva, what more should we expect from a Poverty Row studio?

The plot concept could have been the basis for an okay comic musical. Instead a scatterbrained screenplay wastes the acting talents of Leo Carrillo, Ann Dvorak and James Gleason (though Gleason and Carrillo do have a few good lines). Directionless directing and second-rate film editing poorly present the brief appearances of musical icons like Cab Calloway and Ted Lewis. The result is a jumble, in the middle of which Joe DiMaggio appears to show a film clip of one of his homeruns. (For me the movie's high point.) The impression is Republic Pictures gathered whatever talent it had on hand, and threw it at the wall to see what sticks. They should have stuck to cowboys and Indians. Unless you're a diehard musicals fan, don’t bother with this one. (a.k.a. "Manhattan Music Box")

Four minutes are missing from this print, which has poor video quality. The audio is a bit distorted.

CAST NOTE: This is one of only three feature film appearances by popular singer/bandleader Ted Lewis. His band was one of the '20's hottest, and second in popularity only to Paul Whiteman. Though his style moderated into the sentimental, he and his band successfully went on into the television era. His solo-act appearances in Los Vegas didn't end until the early '60s. In 1943 Columbia Pictures released a biopic of his life titled "Is Everybody Happy?" which was his well-known tagline.