The "Great 5" 1930s Busby Burkely productions, which were fabulous, were "42nd St", "Footlight parade", "Dames", "Gold diggers 33", and "Gold diggers 35". Then came a few where the levels of beauty and magic started lessening some. Gold diggers 37" was a step down from the great 5, but still better than "Hollywood hotel", "Varsity show", and "Gold diggers Paris". They represented a temporary slump in Busby's career, which he did recover from and then made the wonderful Judy Garland / Mickey Rooney films such as "Strike up the band", "Girl crazy", "Babes in arms", and "Babes on Broadway". I'm not sure if Judy's 1938 film "Everybody sing", the films "Broadway melody 36", "38", and "40", "Born to dance", and "Rosalie" were all Busby's but they were fabulous also. Also wonderful films were "The great Ziegfeld" and "Ziegfeld girl". All of the films I've listed in this paragraph are wonderful Golden Age magic.
Anyway, about "Gold diggers 37"; there were a couple numbers not as great as the songs in the "Great 5". One of them was "Speakin of the weather" which did have an inferior lacking. But there were two great numbers. "Love and war" which was closer in visual style to the show numbers of the earlier films, very good Then was the beautiful number in the middle at the dance by the pool "Let's put our heads together" which had the wonderful passion and very nice singing of the numbers in the previous films. I loved the sweet old fashioned singing and all those pretty girls in their beautiful floor length dresses, and swimming in the pool too. There was just one brief not very good few seconds in that number, and that was two very nerdy guys at the bar singing with their arms around each other and singing in stupid annoying voices, which bared resemblance to more characters in Busby's next not so great films, such as the stupid annoying band players in "Gold diggers in Paris". But that display of those two annoying characters here only lasted a total of 4 or 5 seconds and then went back to the rest of that number which was more of the old fashioned magic which made the song as a whole very nice.
Not helping this film any was the miserable, whiny character of Victor Moore. I know he was not supposed to be happy, but he could of toned it down a few notches and still presented his problems to the viewers as convincing. Victor played the same kind of miserable whiny character in "Ziegfeld follies" in his "Just pay em the two dollars!" skit. But we only had to endure him there for ten minutes, not for a large portion of a film like here. I can't figure out what beauty Glenda Ferral saw in him when he had an attitude like that. I know that her kindness was just an act at first but she then started falling for him for real. She was initially going along with the two shady bad guys of the film who were wanting to try and "hurry up" on Victor's demise so they could cash in on a life insurance plan. Dick Powell and Joan Blondell were employees at the life insurance firm. Joan met Powell in another "meet cute" situation on a train when a bunch of "wolves", the slang term for overly eager male preditors in the 1930s, were chasing her (that being another minute I didn't like). Joan then accidentally walked in on Powell in his room while he was getting ready. Ring any bells? I remember a near duplicate scene in "42nd St" where Ruby Keeler accidentally walks in on Powell in his room while he was getting ready. I'm sure that was where the film makers of this film stole it from.
Anyway, about "Gold diggers 37"; there were a couple numbers not as great as the songs in the "Great 5". One of them was "Speakin of the weather" which did have an inferior lacking. But there were two great numbers. "Love and war" which was closer in visual style to the show numbers of the earlier films, very good Then was the beautiful number in the middle at the dance by the pool "Let's put our heads together" which had the wonderful passion and very nice singing of the numbers in the previous films. I loved the sweet old fashioned singing and all those pretty girls in their beautiful floor length dresses, and swimming in the pool too. There was just one brief not very good few seconds in that number, and that was two very nerdy guys at the bar singing with their arms around each other and singing in stupid annoying voices, which bared resemblance to more characters in Busby's next not so great films, such as the stupid annoying band players in "Gold diggers in Paris". But that display of those two annoying characters here only lasted a total of 4 or 5 seconds and then went back to the rest of that number which was more of the old fashioned magic which made the song as a whole very nice.
Not helping this film any was the miserable, whiny character of Victor Moore. I know he was not supposed to be happy, but he could of toned it down a few notches and still presented his problems to the viewers as convincing. Victor played the same kind of miserable whiny character in "Ziegfeld follies" in his "Just pay em the two dollars!" skit. But we only had to endure him there for ten minutes, not for a large portion of a film like here. I can't figure out what beauty Glenda Ferral saw in him when he had an attitude like that. I know that her kindness was just an act at first but she then started falling for him for real. She was initially going along with the two shady bad guys of the film who were wanting to try and "hurry up" on Victor's demise so they could cash in on a life insurance plan. Dick Powell and Joan Blondell were employees at the life insurance firm. Joan met Powell in another "meet cute" situation on a train when a bunch of "wolves", the slang term for overly eager male preditors in the 1930s, were chasing her (that being another minute I didn't like). Joan then accidentally walked in on Powell in his room while he was getting ready. Ring any bells? I remember a near duplicate scene in "42nd St" where Ruby Keeler accidentally walks in on Powell in his room while he was getting ready. I'm sure that was where the film makers of this film stole it from.