Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-town music college that he works are of equal mindset. When Don visits his black-sheep aunt in New York in order to find a buyer for his Rhapsody he is exposed to her shocking swing music crowd. His life begins to make dramatic changes after drinking a "lemonade" that turns out to be a Hurricane.
Acting
Dick Powell's pratfall from prude to party animal.
Score
Actual 1939 swing arrangements slap harder than expected.
Director
Ray Enright
Ann Sheridan
Zelda Manion
Dick Powell
Professor Donald Hardwick
Gale Page
Linda McKay
Helen Broderick
Aunt Martha Hogan
Ronald Reagan
Eddie
Allen Jenkins
Joe Dirk
Zasu Pitts
Aunt Penelope Hardwick
Maxie Rosenbloom
Killer
Jerry Colonna
Allie Gray
Luis Alberni
Stanislaus Pysinski
Vera Lewis
Aunt Annabella Hardwick
William B. Davidson
Samuel 'Sam' 'Simsy' Hudson - Music Publisher
Granville Bates
Judge Kennith B. Walters, Superior Court
Halliwell Hobbes
Dean Burton, Winfield College
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ann Sheridan was literally marketed as 'The Oomph Girl' by Warner Bros—this title leans so hard into studio branding it hurts.
The 'classical vs. swing' war here mirrors real 1939 battles—Benny Goodman had just played Carnegie Hall, and squares like Don were losing everywhere.
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