The penny pinching Alice Brady is financially backing a fund-raising musical show for "the milk fund" in one of the best resorts for the rich and famous, but there are problems because she wants the finaces cut down to the bones. Daughter Gloria Stuart and son Frank McHugh have their own agendas which doesn't include mommy's attempts to squeeze sweat out of the presidents on her cash, and that includes romance which they don't seem to care may cost them (or her) money.
As the resort prepares to open, manager Grant Mitchell informs the crew that some of them aren't being paid because they will receive more than their share of gratuities. Brady gives the three bellboys a quarter to split (an insult, even in 1935), and when she finally does agree to let the pretty Stuart go shopping, it is with the agreement that resort employee (and musical show leading man) Dick Powell will oversee every purchase she makes. So after a make-over comes lingerie, the millinery, evening gowns, shoes and hair, and mother is definitely going to need a doctor when she gets the bill. Stuart and Powell go to the resort's shopping area with a delightful musical number ("I'm Going Shopping With You"), and you begin to wonder who the real gold digger here is.
To keep her money safe, Brady has Stuart in an arranged marriage with the eccentric Hugh Herbert who becomes the victim of a blackmail scheme by resort secretary Glenda Farrell. This leads to lots of comic interludes and racy dialog that barely escapes the Hays code laws. Adolph Menjou is the eccentric Russian director in charge of the production, and he too seems to be digging for gold, being much in the rears with his hotel and restaurant bills. To watch him choreograph the musical numbers with a certain "Russian military flair" is comedic heaven.
Two gigantic musical numbers add to the fun of this second installment of the Berkley trio of "Gold Diggers" musicals. "The Words Are in My Heart" utilizes white grand pianos as giant puzzle pieces to form a giant piano (much like the giant violin in "Gold Diggers of 1933'" "Shadow Waltz" number), and the lengthy "Lullaby of Broadway" number shows the life of a Broadway baby who literally does say goodnight. Winifred Shaw leads this musical number with Powell as the romantic escort, with dozens of extras aiding in making the musical number stand out as Berkley's last humongous extravaganza. He would have a few big numbers in "Gold Diggers of 1937", but nothing that could top this in length and the extravagance. Berkley would return to outrageousness just under a decade later with a certain Brazilian bombshell taking center stage.
As the resort prepares to open, manager Grant Mitchell informs the crew that some of them aren't being paid because they will receive more than their share of gratuities. Brady gives the three bellboys a quarter to split (an insult, even in 1935), and when she finally does agree to let the pretty Stuart go shopping, it is with the agreement that resort employee (and musical show leading man) Dick Powell will oversee every purchase she makes. So after a make-over comes lingerie, the millinery, evening gowns, shoes and hair, and mother is definitely going to need a doctor when she gets the bill. Stuart and Powell go to the resort's shopping area with a delightful musical number ("I'm Going Shopping With You"), and you begin to wonder who the real gold digger here is.
To keep her money safe, Brady has Stuart in an arranged marriage with the eccentric Hugh Herbert who becomes the victim of a blackmail scheme by resort secretary Glenda Farrell. This leads to lots of comic interludes and racy dialog that barely escapes the Hays code laws. Adolph Menjou is the eccentric Russian director in charge of the production, and he too seems to be digging for gold, being much in the rears with his hotel and restaurant bills. To watch him choreograph the musical numbers with a certain "Russian military flair" is comedic heaven.
Two gigantic musical numbers add to the fun of this second installment of the Berkley trio of "Gold Diggers" musicals. "The Words Are in My Heart" utilizes white grand pianos as giant puzzle pieces to form a giant piano (much like the giant violin in "Gold Diggers of 1933'" "Shadow Waltz" number), and the lengthy "Lullaby of Broadway" number shows the life of a Broadway baby who literally does say goodnight. Winifred Shaw leads this musical number with Powell as the romantic escort, with dozens of extras aiding in making the musical number stand out as Berkley's last humongous extravaganza. He would have a few big numbers in "Gold Diggers of 1937", but nothing that could top this in length and the extravagance. Berkley would return to outrageousness just under a decade later with a certain Brazilian bombshell taking center stage.