weezeralfalfa The penultimate of a series of musicomedies that Warner produced with the title Gold Diggers of.....or in...... . Only those produced in the '30s are still available. They may be purchased, along with 5 other films, in the Busby Berkeley 9 Film DVD Collection. It's commonly concluded that these films declined in interest with progression over time. However, to me, the 1935 installment is least interesting. Certainly, the screen plays in the last 2 are at least as interesting. The finale musical production was more interesting to me than in the '35 film or "Gold Diggers of Paris".During the credits, Dick Powell sings "With Plenty of "Money and You", which would be reprised. Then, during a life insurance salesman conference, he sings "The Life Insurance Song". When the meeting adjourns, a horde of female gold diggers are waiting outside to follow the men when they board the train outside. One remarks "Ï Like fat men. You can always outrun them" Joan Blondell(as Norma) pairs up with Powell, and asks for a job in his insurance company. They get further acquainted in his office, as the wind from a storm blows his desk papers all over the room, and Powell sings "Speaking of the Weather".J.J. Hobart(Victor Moore),a stage producer, is always in a bad mood, especially complaining about his body. He has innumerable bottles of pills on hi desk. He wants to produce a new show soon but, unknown to him, his 2 assistants lost the money he gave them on a stock market gamble. Powell shows up to sell him life insurance, but he says he doesn't need any because he has no dependent, and enough money. However, his crooked associates convince him to take out a $1 million policy, with his company as the beneficiary. But can he pass the physical?. Four doctors examine him, and, amazingly, pass him. Now, Powell wants JJ to have a long life, as the longer the policy is in force, the more commission he gets. In contrast, JJ's crooked assistants(Hugo and Morty) want him to die soon so they can replace the money they lost. They talk showgirl Genevieve(Glenda Farrell) into trying to stress his heart by vigorous dancing and seduction. But JJ feels much younger with the attention of a young woman. He's playing ping pong and leap frog in his office. This is not working, so his assistants discretely bump him into the swimming pool, hoping he will drown. But Powell is nearby and dives in to save JJ and his future commissions. Genevieve finally tells JJ that his associates lost all his money for the show. He faints and is taken to the hospital. Powell gets a call from the hospital saying that JJ is 'gone', which Powell interprets as meaning he died. But it really means he left the hospital, and shows up at his office.Meanwhile, Powell and Joan have taken time out occasionally to romance. Powell sings "With Plenty of Money and You", and later "Let's "Put Our Heads together". He organizes a fund raiser for the show. His boss invests significant money in it. The chorus girls try to blackmail their boyfriends into investing in it, and finally, enough is collected to put on the show, which features the song "Äll's Fair in Love and War". Against a pitch black background, a mass of rocking chairs appears, with a couple in each. This transforms into a single huge rocking chair, which is blown up by a chorus girl. A white cannon and stacks of white cannon balls appears in its place. Each ball that is fired turns into a circular close up of one of the chorus girls, until the cannon is blown to bits. A lineup of male dancers in soldier uniforms, with rifles, is in a trench. Parallel to them is a trench filled with female dancers, who charge into the no man's land between, wielding spray bottles: presumably squirting perfume as they advance. This scene turns into a drum corps, then a bugle corps, then a flag corps, all of whom march around, doing various maneuvers. To me, the funniest character was bald, pudgy, Victor Moore, who played JJ. Powell also provided some laughs. Joan was cute and personable, this being her 3rd leading lady role in the Warner musical series including Busby Berkeley.

JLRMovieReviews Victor Moore and his partners are putting on a Broadway show, but they are virtually broke, so his partners' plan is to get Victor Moore some life insurance and then get the old man to croak so they can get the insurance money to pay the bills, in this 1930s movie musical. Dick Powell and Joan Blondell (real life husband and wife) star as the leads, who meet and fall in love and Glenda Farrell is on hand for some fine wisecracks and for being used to dupe Victor Moore. Joseph Crehan and Osgood Perkins (Psycho star Anthony Perkins' father) are Victor's partners who have this secret plan. The film on the whole is very enjoyable and pleasant, but is not terribly inspired or original; it's not that it's a bad film, it's just not that great of a film to write home about at all, along with the fact it's a tad long given for such a paper-thin plot. It's nowhere as good as its predecessors "Gold Diggers of 1933 and 1935", which featured some show-stopping musical numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It's also not as funny as "Gold Diggers in Paris" with Hugh Herbert. So all in all, if you like the stars and this type of movie musical, you'd probably like it, but you won't be wowed too much by some pretty forgettable songs. Period.

MartinHafer If you're going to watch a Busby Berkeley-choreographed film, this is a very good bet. That's because it's a lot of fun aside from the weird singing and dancing at the end.The film starts off with one of the weirdest singing numbers I've seen in an old film. At a meeting of insurance agents, Dick Powell sings the sweet ditty 'You'll Get Pie in the Sky When You DIE, DIE, DIE'! And, not surprisingly, the maudlin words are quite funny! A bit later, Powell makes a HUGE sale--insuring a rich guy (Victor Moore) for $1,000,000--an enormous sum for 1936. What Moore and the insurance company don't know is that Moore is no longer rich at all--his two very dishonest partners have plundered Moore's production company that bankrolls Broadway shows. And, once he's insured, these two lovely men HOPE that Moore soon meets an untimely end so they can cover up that they've embezzled the company's funds. Fortunately, they are stopped but Moore is ruined. Can Powell and his friends manage to STILL put on 'the big show' and save poor Moore? The film has the usual final production number that Berkeley was famous for, though you wonder just HOW such a number can be arranged considering they have no money! In today's money, this final number would cost millions to create--and it's eye-popping, that's for sure. You just have to see this giant tribute to the joys of war to believe it! It is exceptionally well done and silly--exactly like most of the famed choreographer's other musicals.So why did I give this film an 8? Well, because aside from the weird songs, the plot itself was quite cute and worked well. Victor Moore was great and it helped that there was nice support from the likes of Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell--two great Warner Brothers 'dames'! Overall, a lot of fun.

Maliejandra Kay Busby Berkeley musicals are always great fun to watch regardless of the storyline because of the outstanding musical sequences. Berkeley's Gold Diggers series contains some of the most exciting. Gold Diggers of 1937 is possibly the worst of the lot, but it still isn't bad. With a great cast and an interesting finale, this film is a must for fans of early musicals.Dick Powell stars as an insurance salesman with a terrible record. He bumps into Joan Blondell on a train one day and finds his luck steadily increasing from there. Soon, he gets a client (Victor Moore) to open a million dollar insurance policy, which makes him begin to hear wedding bells. However, his client is not very young, nor is he very healthy. His business partners are counting on this. They've gambled his fortune away and now have no other way to cover their backs. With plotting from both sides, poor old Mr. Hobart is in for a heck of a ride.Unfortunately, this film reads much more like the b-pictures that Powell and Blondell made during the slump in their careers than like the instant classics they were teamed up in at the beginning of their careers.There are only a few songs used throughout this film, and none of them are as catchy as the ones from past installments. Still, they're created quite well visually. "Speaking of the Weather" features two stagings, the first in an office as a tet a tet between Powell and Blondell and the second at a big party. This version features an excellent tap routine. The big finale is "All is Fair in Love and War" which features a bevy of beautiful girls rocking in rocking chairs and bombing their beaus from across a largely black screen.