I knew it would be a step down from the 1933 version, but didn't realize just how steep that step would be. The 1935 installment is watchable only for those final two musical numbers, "The Words Are in My Heart" (with all of those moving grand pianos) and "Lullaby of Broadway" (with that incredible slow zoon and fade in on Wini Shaw's head leading to a marvelous ensemble tap dancing number). Well, ok, a third was seeing Gloria Stuart 62 years before her role as the elderly Rose in Titanic, and if you're a Dick Powell fan, you might like hearing him croon a few numbers.
For me though, I would advise just skipping through the first 66 minutes, bypassing all the lame attempts at comedy (and as a side note, beware any film with both Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh in it...one is enough for any film!). The romance that develops between a rich woman (Stuart) and the hotel employee hired to escort her around (Powell), and how easily his fiancé accepts this is ridiculous. There is a critique of the rich in how miserly the old woman is, but it's mild. And that's the biggest issue in general - it's all so very tepid, and a far cry from the pre-Code sass and the devastating grit from a couple of years earlier, e.g. in Blondell's Forgotten Man number. What we have is a neutered version, quaint in a way, but boring for most of the film. Just enjoy those final big two numbers, the latter of which was Busby Berkeley's favorite from his career.
For me though, I would advise just skipping through the first 66 minutes, bypassing all the lame attempts at comedy (and as a side note, beware any film with both Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh in it...one is enough for any film!). The romance that develops between a rich woman (Stuart) and the hotel employee hired to escort her around (Powell), and how easily his fiancé accepts this is ridiculous. There is a critique of the rich in how miserly the old woman is, but it's mild. And that's the biggest issue in general - it's all so very tepid, and a far cry from the pre-Code sass and the devastating grit from a couple of years earlier, e.g. in Blondell's Forgotten Man number. What we have is a neutered version, quaint in a way, but boring for most of the film. Just enjoy those final big two numbers, the latter of which was Busby Berkeley's favorite from his career.