After discovering his star dancer is expecting and can't perform, film producer H.W. Workman and his publicist concoct a scheme to stage a college dance contest to find a new star.
Acting
Turner's early star wattage before she became 'The Sweater Girl'.
Production
MGM gloss on a B-picture budget — fake contest, real studio magic.
Writing
Self-aware Hollywood satire about manufacturing stardom.
Director
S. Sylvan Simon
Lana Turner
Patty Marlow
Richard Carlson
'Pug' Braddock
Ann Rutherford
Eve Greeley
Lee Bowman
Freddy Tobin
Thurston Hall
Henry W. Workman
Leon Errol
Sam "Pops" Marlow
Roscoe Karns
Joe Drews
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Walter Kingsford
President Cavendish
Mary Beth Hughes
"Toddy" Tobin
June Preisser
"Ticky" James
Monty Woolley
Professor Lange
Chester Clute
Braddock
Veronica Lake
Woman on Motorcycle
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Real swing dancers from Los Angeles colleges were hired as extras, making the 'fake' contest sequences oddly authentic.
Released weeks before WWII began, this was among the last purely escapist MGM musicals before the studio pivoted to war propaganda.
US
