Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936) User Reviews

"When You're In the Grave, You're Relatives Will Be In Gravy"

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 22 February 2007]

The next to last of the Gold Digger films finds Dick Powell as a rather unenthusiastic insurance salesman who'd rather be in show business, roped into selling an insurance policy to hypochondriac Broadway producer Victor Moore.

Moore's got bigger problems than imaginary illnesses. He's got a couple of crooked partners in Charles D. Brown and Osgood Perkins. They've taken money from Moore and put in some stock that went belly up. Now to get the money back they have a scheme to insure Moore and then maybe push him along into eternity. In fact they almost trip him into it during the film.

Joan Blondell is a former chorus girl now turned stenographer at the insurance company office and she gets her friends together with Powell and Lee Dixon from the company and they help Moore out.

Gold Diggers of 1937 doesn't have quite the madcap lunacy of the 1935 edition, but still there's a lot of entertainment there. Busby Berkeley gets only two numbers here to demonstrate is creativity, Let's Put Our Heads Together and the finale All's Fair in Love and War. Powell solos with With Plenty of Money and You and he duets with current wife Blondell in Speaking of the Weather.

Lee Dixon was a very talented dancer who graced a few musical films and then went east to Broadway and made his biggest splash as Will Parker in the original production of Oklahoma. Dixon died tragically young in 1953. I think he should have gotten some recognition from the Academy for having the nerve to go into this film playing a character named Boop Oglethorpe.

There was only one more round for the Gold Diggers as in their next film they went to Paris and it was ended after that. This version is entertaining enough, even if not up to 1933 or 1935.

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life Insurance

[lugonian · 7/10 · 17 August 2001]

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937 (Warner Brothers, 1936), directed by Lloyd Bacon, is the third musical in the yearly-titled series with the choreography by Busby Berkeley. Released in theaters as a Christmas attraction of 1936, I find it to be a notch below the 1935 edition and no where near as good as the one of 1933, but still acceptable entertainment, highlighted with a show-stopping musical finale.

The story begins at a convention in Atlantic City where Andy Callahan (William B. Davidson) of Good Life Insurance Company tries to encourage his salesmen to go out and sell. Rosmer "Ross" Peek (Dick Powell) and "Boop" Oglethorpe (Lee Dixon, in his feature film debut) are his two top insurance salesmen who lead the men into singing their way to the train station for their destination being New York City. While on the train, Boop becomes acquainted with a Southern gal named Sally (Rosalind Marquis); Ross meets up with Norma Perry (Joan Blondell), a stranded showgirl accompanied by Genevieve Larkin (Glenda Farrell), who in turn meets Monty Wethered (Osgood Perkins, father of Anthony Perkins), a crooked backer of JJ Hobart Productions. Rosmer helps Norma by offering her a position as his secretary at the insurance firm. As for Genevieve, she joins forces with Monty's assistant, Mr. Hugo (Charles D. Brown), another chiseler who has pocketed and lost most of Hobart's investments. They want to get the 59-year-old theatrical bachelor producer, JJ Hobart (Victor Moore) to take on an insurance policy by having Genevieve arrange to have Norma get Ross to meet up with him. After Hobart passes the million dollar insurance policy physical with Ross hired as his agent, Monty and Hugo try their best to see that Hobart meets with an "accident." But when all else fails, Hobart eventually does land in the hospital after Genevieve has a change of heart and tells him the truth. It is then up to the younger crowd, who feel that Hobart might die, to do away with the crooks Monty and Hugo and help put Hobart's upcoming show together.

Songs featured include: "The Life Insurance Song," "Speaking of the Weather" and "Let's Put Our Heads Together" By E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen; "With Plenty of Money and You" and "All's Fair in Love and War" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Dick Powell, with his pencil-thin mustache, sings "With Plenty of Money and You" before the opening titled cast and credits. He reprises the hit money song to Blondell later on in the story as he accompanies her home from their dinner date. "Speaking of the Weather" also gets to be heard twice, first in the insurance office sung by Powell to Blondell, later sung by guests at the pool and garden party with Lee Dixon doing his "puppet on a string" tap-dancing solo. Also sung during the party sequence is "Let's Put Our Heads Together" (a pretty tune introduced by Powell). Of the songs presented, "All's Fair in Love and War" is the only number not part of the storyline. It's a ten minute staged production, part of the JJ Hobart Revue, compliments of Busby Berkeley and his display of chorus girls marching in military fashion and flag waving. This well choreographed finale was nominated for Best Dance Direction, and one of the few highlights of the film.

Victor Moore, a pudgy bald character actor of numerous comedies, comes off best here. Besides being an amusing comedian whose catch phrase if, "Life begins at 59," the scene that stands out most is the moment he gets sentimental in telling gold-digger Genevieve (Farrell) of he being a lonely old man of the theater whose life has now been fulfilled by her presence in making him feel young again, and now wanting to marry her. Even Farrell manages to present herself as a gold-digger with a heart of gold, and she carries this particular scene well without making it appear silly. As for Powell, his character at times appears to be more foolish than funny, but makes up for it during the romantic and singing spots.

THE GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937 became available on DVD in 2008, and can bee seen broadcast on Turner Classic Movies. Look fast for a young Jane Wyman in the early portion of the movie with one line, "Happy days are here again" as she and other show girls watch a parade of insurance men entering the train, and Susan Fleming (Mrs. Harpo Marx) in a small role as a secretary billed as Lucille. (***)

Amusing but not great as a musical

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 27 October 2006]

Dick Powell is an insurance salesman who sells a million dollar policy to a producer in "Gold Diggers of 1937" also starring Joan Blondell, Victor Moore, Osgood Perkins and Glenda Farrell. Due to bad investments by his staff, producer/hypochondriac Hobart (Moore) has no idea that the show he's planning to put on can't be financed. The men responsible for losing his money get Rosmer (Powell), an insurance salesman, to sell Hobart a $1 million policy, figuring he won't live and then the show can be done. The funniest part of the movie is when Rosmer tells his fellow insurance salesmen of his coup and then announces that Hobart is 59. "59!" one of them exclaims. "He'll never pass the physical." "We sold a policy to a 68-year-old last year," someone says, "and he passed." "Yeah," the reply is, "passed OUT." Interesting that 59 was thought of as more than 79 in the '30s. Coincidentally, Dick Powell himself died at the age of 59.

It's Rosmer's job to keep Hobart alive and it's his partners' job to help him to the pearly gates. They send in Glenda Farrell to break his heart, figuring he'll want to end it all, but things don't work out as they planned. They throw him in a pool at a party; he doesn't catch cold, nor does he drown. It's actually pretty funny.

There are some pleasant songs which Powell sings beautifully, and a big Busby Berkeley number at the end, but I imagine as this is part of a series of "Gold Digger" films, audiences wanted something more. The performances are good - chameleon Powell is a great, earnest salesman, Joan Blondell (who was either Powell's wife or about to become his wife) is adorable as a showgirl and Moore is hilarious. Glenda Farrell is a real scene-stealer with her great line delivery.

Pleasant but not much as far as musical values.

Lesser Berkeley, but with one really good number

[SGriffin-6 · 16 November 2000]

The heyday of the Warner Bros./Busby Berkeley musicals was on the wane by 1936. While the key films of the series ("42nd Street" [1933], "Gold Diggers of 1933" [1933]) dealt with putting on a show, and the numbers being parts of that show, Hollywood musicals by the mid-30s were starting to shift to "book numbers," with characters singing and dancing when they should have been talking or walking. "Gold Diggers of 1937" is an attempt by Berkeley to follow this trend, but still hang onto what had worked in the past for him. So there are book numbers and at least one major "show number." The results are middling.

Another factor that gave the WB/Berkeley musicals so much energy was the tough talk and slightly risque innuendo that was sparked by the desperation of the dark days of the Depression. By 1936, there were specific factors in place to reign this in. The Production Code was now enforced, keeping the Hollywood studios from including the overtly sexual material that livened so many of Berkeley's numbers.

Also, with Roosevelt's election to president, popular opinion swayed from cynicism and frustration to hope and support of the system. The early Berkeley films were nothing if not an expression of hard-bitten despair. In "Gold Diggers of 1937," we still have women forced to use their sexuality on oily moneymen in order to survive economically (one actually says at one point, "It's so hard to be good under the capitalistic system"--Imagine!). But, unlike the early films in the series, this film wants you to feel sympathetic for the millionaire (instead of seeing him as the oppressor).

While the studio did give the film some strong stars, the budget seems somewhat lower than usual for Berkeley musicals--except for the final musical number, "All's Fair in Love and War." It's a real stunner--surreal, amazing visuals that stand up to comparison with just about any of Berkeley's greatest numbers. It's probably worth sitting through all of the forced comedy just to get to this one number.

Another in the string of "Gold Diggers" musicals...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 3 December 2020]

...from Warner Brothers/First National, director Lloyd Bacon, and dance choreographer/director Busby Berkeley. A group of showgirls, including Norma (Joan Blondell) and Genevieve (Glenda Farrell), grow tired of struggling with poverty, so they set out to change their circumstances. Norma meets insurance salesman Rosmer Peak (Dick Powell), and he gets her a job at his firm. Genevieve falls in with shady theatrical bookkeeper Morty (Osgood Perkins) who's trying to get out from under the debt of theater owner J.J. Hobart (Victor Moore), and who concocts a plan that brings them into contact with Rosmer and Norma.

The musical format had started to change in cinema by this point. Whereas previous films had largely kept musical numbers confined to the stage on which they were ostensibly being shown to the "audience" within the film's narrative, now more and more songs were being performed out "in the world", with characters breaking out into song while walking down the street or sitting in a park. Berkeley's only major number comes at the very end, an elaborate fantasia that is supposedly being viewed by a theater audience but actual defies all physics of reality. It's interesting to look at, but isn't terribly inspired. Dixon, who I'm unfamiliar with, gets a couple of tap-dancing showcases, including one on a giant rocking chair seat. I enjoyed Moore, and I always welcome Blondell and Farrell, but the movie is only passable. Berkeley earned an Oscar nomination for Best Dance Direction. Look out for Carole Landis and Jane Wyman among the chorus girls.

Enjoyable but a disappointment after 1933 and 1935

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 7 September 2013]

Gold Diggers of 1933 was a terrific film with some of Busby Berkeley's best material. Gold Diggers of 1935 was almost as good too, but this was a little disappointing. Apart from the cracking final number All's Fair in Love and War Berkeley's choreography lacks excitement and has a rather toned down feeling to it(censorship no doubt had something to do with it). While it still looks quite nice, it's nicely shot and the costumes are well-tailored, there is also a sense with the less-than-grand sets and how some scenes are staged that there was a lack of budget. Dick Powell sings beautifully and has a charming appearance but can have a tendency to be a little too sappy and wooden here. The songs are very nice and catchy still, Speaking of the Weather is charming and All's Fair in Love and War is catchy and in all respects the highlight of the film. There's plenty of snappy dialogue to savour also, and while with some silly moments the plot is actually pretty decent and paced well. The performances compliment the film nicely, Victor Moore is very funny and wonderfully cranky, Joan Blondell still charms even when in more subdued mode and Glenda Farrell is deliciously sassy, coming this close to stealing the film whenever she appears. All in all, disappointing but still enjoyable. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Weakest of the Series

[Maleejandra · 7/10 · 27 July 2007]

Busby Berkeley musicals are always great fun to watch regardless of the storyline because of the outstanding musical sequences. Berkeley's Gold Diggers series contains some of the most exciting. Gold Diggers of 1937 is possibly the worst of the lot, but it still isn't bad. With a great cast and an interesting finale, this film is a must for fans of early musicals.

Dick Powell stars as an insurance salesman with a terrible record. He bumps into Joan Blondell on a train one day and finds his luck steadily increasing from there. Soon, he gets a client (Victor Moore) to open a million dollar insurance policy, which makes him begin to hear wedding bells. However, his client is not very young, nor is he very healthy. His business partners are counting on this. They've gambled his fortune away and now have no other way to cover their backs. With plotting from both sides, poor old Mr. Hobart is in for a heck of a ride.

Unfortunately, this film reads much more like the b-pictures that Powell and Blondell made during the slump in their careers than like the instant classics they were teamed up in at the beginning of their careers.

There are only a few songs used throughout this film, and none of them are as catchy as the ones from past installments. Still, they're created quite well visually. "Speaking of the Weather" features two stagings, the first in an office as a tet a tet between Powell and Blondell and the second at a big party. This version features an excellent tap routine. The big finale is "All is Fair in Love and War" which features a bevy of beautiful girls rocking in rocking chairs and bombing their beaus from across a largely black screen.

V is for Victory over Victor.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 5 September 2016]

That beloved scene stealer Victor Moore steals the show here as a businessman who finds a second childhood as a hypochondriac businessman who gets an instance policy from Dick Powell, finds the fountain of youth and puts on a show. Powell finds love with chorus girl Joan Blondell while Moore doesn't find less with Blondell's pal, Glenda Farrell, who falls for him in spite of the age difference, just as Alone MacMahon did for Guy Kibbee in 1933's entry.

Not as good as previous Busby Berkeley Warner Brothers musicals, it has a bit of a zing, but gives an indication to budget cuts that Warner Brothers was making in their musical department that would be obvious by the end of the decade. There's still plenty of good songs and a few great dance numbers, and the newly married couple of Powell and Blondell have more spark than Dick did with Ruby.

While "With Plenty of Money and You" is the best known song, there's also the snappy "Speaking of the Weather" which has a great staging in a number that doesn't take place on stage. Then, there's the finale, "All's Fair on Love and War" which is no "Lullaby of Broadway" but thrilling none the less.

One of the last great Berkeley extravaganzas, and eerily prescient about modern American history.

[the red duchess · 9/10 · 26 June 2001]

Busby Berkeley's films are the most concentrated tease in the history of movies. it is over an hour into 'Gold Diggers of 1937' before we get any real meat - an astonishing, gossamer-erotic Gatsby-orgy filmed in the manner of Riefenstahl, all glowing Aryan bodies with their glistening mammillae, and idealised framing; with the kind of multi-character cutting of a song Paul Thomas Anderson would borrow for 'Magnolia'; and a magnificent extended tap-dance leading to an agreeable Berkeley fancy, the huge male dancer hand-standing over a bridge of female arms like a fly evading a web - after two tantalising duets featuring Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler that threaten to explode into full-blown imaginative hysteria, but are cut short.

Of course, this is the Berkeley method - coitus interruptus - and our deferred gratification is mirrored in a plot where the hero must prove himself worthy of the heroine before he can have her; the final extravaganza thus functions as a sexual/marriage rite, concluding in a consummating kiss. And what an extravaganza it is - less overt than '1935', but full of fetishised phallic implements, swirling clitoral circles and rocking chairs. Against a sharp black background, our phosphorescent heroes play out their immemorial rites, the heterosexual struggle linked to war (and not to the men's advantage). This idea leads to some striking sequences, including a priapic cannon with a pair of adjacent ball-piles, and a scene of 'trench' warfare, where the skirted female soldiers in 'No Man's Land' triumph through a blitzkrieg of firearms and perfume. There is no way actual sex could ever be better than this.

It is traditional in celebrating Busby Berkeley movies to denigrate the plots as amiable, necessary time-passers before the visual disruption. I always find them highly entertaining, and '1937' has one of the best: an excellently plotted farce combining gold-diggers, an inept salesman, a hypochondriac theatre impressario and his corrupt sidekicks.

This fun plot is noticeable for two things - the extraordinary sexual honesty that persists in spite of Messrs. Hays' and Breen's best efforts: this is a Depression where a woman must prostitute herself for a meal, never mind a marriage; as Glenda Farrell says 'It is so hard to be good under the capitalistic system' (!). The film opens with Powell insisting on the link between financial security and marriage, and the glistening sea of gold moistening the opening credits certainly have a sexual force.

More enjoyable is the portrait of the two heels who try to kill their boss having lost all his money in a Stock Exchange scam, hoping to cash in on his insurance. this kind of plot is quite shocking in such a genre, and we are expected to laugh at various unsuccessful murder attempts (and we do: the whispers for help when they hurl JJ into the pool are hilarious). These are not cartoon villains but the kind of middle-aged, middle class men we might meet in film noir or the novels of Simenon, men whose souls have been made hard by routine, and the American insistence on success. They would have made good collaborators.

In 1933, the 'Gold Diggers' poignantly recorded the effects of the Depression: things haven't really improved four years later, but, significantly, the idea is emerging that if you throw enough razzmatazz, noise, bands and empty phrases at a problem it will go away. it's not for nothing that the two leads are an insurance man and an actress. Powell is amiable in a silly moustache, sillier name and a cheerful pessimism; Blondell is bubbly and serious and lovely as ever; the revelation, however, are Glenda Farrell, convincingly transforming from cynical modern woman to accomplice of scoundrels to loving wife; and Victor Moore, as the inimitable, whining, lonely JJ.

Good stars, fair story, silly musical numbers

[Rosebud-58 · 6/10 · 24 January 2000]

Blondell and Farell are fetching, Powell is suave, story not too bad, but most of the musical numbers are just a little too silly and corny. The last number, the "show" is quite good though. Worth watching. I want a mustache just like powell's! May be the next big thing after the goatee...

Flogging a Dead Horse...without feeling.

[1930s_Time_Machine · 2/10 · 23 March 2023]

This has lost that magic ingredient which was present in all those 1930s Warner musical/light comedies. It's hard to define what's missing but it's that sparkle which made those films so uplifting and joyful: a naïve optimism, faith in our fellow men, a belief that however tough life gets, it can always get better. This was never better displayed than in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 and was never shown less than in this one. That warm, cuddly, cheesy fun has soured into a cynical, mocking, almost cruel sense of humour. I can't believe that attitudes changed that much since 1933 but "Gold digging" as portrayed in this film is rather distasteful and quite a sordid way to behave.

What was so entertaining about GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 was how it showed that "gold digging" was for some people living at the height of The Depression, a necessity - it could make the difference between eating or starving. They weren't bad girls, they were just normal, trying to make the most of their lot. It looked both humorously and sympathetically at people in that situation, it did its best to cheer those people up. The gold diggers in 1935 are just con artists, crooks and chisellers and even though one of them is Joan Blondell, you're not going to like them. Since Darryl Zanuck left the old studio, the studio of the common man, it's like WB schizophrenically switched to making those judgemental, unpleasant "look at all these scroungers getting everything for free from our taxes" type show we get on some tv stations. Glenda Farrell's character is particular nasty - she shouldn't be nasty, she's Glenda Farrell! The whole atmosphere just feels wrong.

That unpleasant, unsavoury after taste - which was actually there in WONDERBAR as well - coupled with mediocre, lack-lustre musical numbers, a disillusioned cast wearing expressions of "here we go again, same old rubbish but this time with half the budget" on their sad faces makes this a sad thing to watch. Of the post-Zanuck Warner musical, Busby Berkley's STAGE STRUCK (also 1936 and also with Blondell and Powell) is the only on which stands out as having some of that original spirit of fun in it.

Unfortunately, like in this horrible picture, STAGE STRUCK also features Dick Powell with that moustache as well. Although it might look to us like something from a joke shop, it's worth remembering that somehow he managed to win the heart of Joan Blondell with that growing on his face so we should actually be congratulating him on his ingenuity!

An Enjoyable Ride, But No Brass Ring

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 21 May 2004]

Warner Bros. trots out its Gold Diggers concept again in this amusing little musical which serves largely as a wistful reminder of the fun & vivacity of the original pre-Code feature. Perhaps Dick Powell's smarmy little mustache, seen immediately after the opening credits, should have been enough to signal that things were different now.

The plot of every Gold Digger film is centered around its music. The songs here are pleasant, but unmemorable and the Busby Berkeley spectacle--'All's Fair In Love And War'--reveals the Master at his repose, his choreographed rocking chairs and banners not quite registering the requisite pizzazz one remembers from his earlier classics.

Powell tries his hardest to ingratiate, but his preppy days appear to be passing and casting him as an insurance salesman is a bit of a ho-hum. Lots of fun, however, can be found with Warner's two sensational brassy blondes, Joan Blondell & Glenda Farrell, in their final film together. Still wisecracking & sassy, they grab the movie's best dialogue and run off with it, giving some laughter to their comedy duo swan song. Comic Victor Moore shines as a cranky impresario with a bad case of hypochondria.

Sharp-eyed movie mavens will spot Fred ‘Snowflake' Toones as a shoe shine attendant; Jane Wyman as an excited chorus girl at the station; and Frank Faylen as a man shaving on the train, all unbilled.

the best of the Gold Diggers series

[mrdonleone · 7/10 · 29 April 2009]

what a great musical this was! in fact, it contained of three individual parts.

the first part was the introduction, where we got to know the story and the characters. this was quite boring, I tried to concentrate on the visuals rather than on the story.

the second part, however, was intriguing. it showed us love can appear on every age and the intrigue was interesting too.

the third part was beautiful and certainly one of the best endings from a Busby Berkeley musical. everything ended as it should be. I left the room with a good feeling. it's a shame pictures as these aren't made anymore today. long live Gold Diggers of 1937, without a doubt the best of the Gold Diggers series!

middling story, mighty musical finale

[mukava991 · 5/10 · 25 February 2010]

The high point of Gold Diggers of 1937 is Busby Berkeley's staging of "All's Fair in Love and War," an all-American dose of surrealism, like a militarized, scrubbed and bleached opus by Bunuel or Dali. It hypnotizes and amuses, mixing silliness and wisdom, finesse with crudeness. And it never hurts to have at one's disposal such raw materials as a superior Harry Warren melody, and in this case, a better-than-average Al Dubin lyric.

The other songs in this light-dark comedy fare less well. The two main entries by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen ("Speaking of the Weather" and "Let's Put Our Heads Together") are routine and interchangeable; when they merge in a poolside extravaganza, it's hard to tell where one leaves off and the other comes in. Harburg and Arlen also contributed the cynical "Life Insurance Song," performed only fragmentarily by Dick Powell, but it's quite sharp ("You'll get pie in the sky when you die, die, die…."). Sadly, Warren and Dubin's splendid "With Plenty of Money and You" is deprived of a big splashy production number all its own.

The plot is actually not bad for movies of this type. Various bad guys, in cahoots with gold digger Glenda Farrell, try to profit from sick old theatrical producer (Victor Moore) by taking out a million dollar life insurance policy on him (innocently sold to them by Dick Powell) and then putting him into unhealthful situations which will maximize the chances of his quick and convenient demise. The proceeds will finance their new musical, which will be a big money- making hit. It's a nasty scenario when you think about it, spun out with a pretty good share of racy double entendres.

Powell, in his 4th year of warbling wholesomely for the brothers Warner and sporting an unflattering mustache, looks like he's just about to roll back his eyes and shout "Enough!" but he manages to deliver the twinkle, the vitality and the sonorous vocals that made up his screen persona. Joan Blondell as his love interest is also beginning to show signs of wear. Her voluptuous chorine days are drawing to a close, but she can still pull off the act; as usual, she doesn't even attempt to sing and merely speaks her lyric lines. Victor Moore, Broadway veteran and seasoned character comedian, brings great nuance and even pathos to a role that might have been played as sheer low-minded slapstick by a lesser actor. Lee Dixon as one of Powell's fellow insurance salesmen comes off as a rather eccentric supporting actor in search of a screen personality until it is revealed that his primary talent is tap dancing, which he displays with great energy in the poolside number. But when you see the truly amazing footwork of the dancers in the 1929 Gold Diggers of Broadway (fragments of which are included as an extra feature on the Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 2), you realize that Dixon by comparison was an eager but clumsy beginner.

So this late entry in the gold diggers series isn't as bad as one might expect. It would have been better, perhaps, if some of the performers had been more youthful and less sick and tired of playing the same types year after year and if there had been more socko musical numbers.

The big budget is gone, but Berkeley still comes through...

[marc-112 · 25 June 2000]

The snappy dialogue and pace of Berkeley's previous films are not to be found here--GD of '37 feels more like a Republic musical than a Warners one. The bankroll went to the one big Berkeley number at the end--"All Is Fair In Love and War." It's a simple piece, lines of chorus girls dressed in white against a shiny black floor, but it is simply astonishing (the song is pretty catchy too). There is also a nice little number with Powell and Blondell called "Speaking of The Weather"--an interesting attempt to seamlessly integrate a musical number into the plot. Among the mistakes (besides the script) is the short-shrift given to the best, most popular song in the film--"With Plenty of Money and You."

It's OK

[AAdaSC · 6/10 · 13 October 2010]

Rossi (Dick Powell) sells a life insurance policy worth $1 million dollars to JJ Hobart (Victor Moore). He then sticks beside him to ensure that he doesn't kick the bucket. If he does, Rossi loses his income and he needs it to settle down with Norma (Joan Blondell) who has scammed a job as a receptionist for the insurance company. At the same time, a couple of JJ's managers who have spent all of his finances need the insurance policy money to stage the next show and scheme to bump him off with the help of Norma's friend, Gen (Glenda Farrell). Things work out for a happy ending and there are musical numbers thrown into the proceedings.

Unfortunately, none of them are particularly good. We are subjected to that irritating form of spoken-word singing a couple of times. Joan Blondell is the offender. However, she is funny at the beginning of the film when going for a job as a receptionist. Glenda Farrell steals every scene that she's in and changes from a wise-cracker to a cold-hearted cow to the gold-digger with a heart of gold. Dick Powell is good in the lead role and has some funny scenes, eg, he is a salesman that hates sales. Good for him. The cast are enjoyable to watch......except Victor Moore. He is an unfunny, irritating man with a flat head who looks mentally retarded and has the most annoying, whiny, slurry speech pattern. I rather hoped that the baddies would get their way with him.

The music numbers were a bit of a let-down for me coz I don't like war themes with soldiers and marching and all that crap but if you like marching and flag-waving, then you'll probably enjoy a couple of the set numbers including the finale. Busby Berkeley has done much better than this. Overall, the main cast make the film watchable (NOT Victor Moore) and it's OK. Nothing more.

1937 was an Okay Year!

[JLRMovieReviews · 7/10 · 12 August 2013]

Victor Moore and his partners are putting on a Broadway show, but they are virtually broke, so his partners' plan is to get Victor Moore some life insurance and then get the old man to croak so they can get the insurance money to pay the bills, in this 1930s movie musical. Dick Powell and Joan Blondell (real life husband and wife) star as the leads, who meet and fall in love and Glenda Farrell is on hand for some fine wisecracks and for being used to dupe Victor Moore. Joseph Crehan and Osgood Perkins (Psycho star Anthony Perkins' father) are Victor's partners who have this secret plan. The film on the whole is very enjoyable and pleasant, but is not terribly inspired or original; it's not that it's a bad film, it's just not that great of a film to write home about at all, along with the fact it's a tad long given for such a paper-thin plot. It's nowhere as good as its predecessors "Gold Diggers of 1933 and 1935", which featured some show-stopping musical numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It's also not as funny as "Gold Diggers in Paris" with Hugh Herbert. So all in all, if you like the stars and this type of movie musical, you'd probably like it, but you won't be wowed too much by some pretty forgettable songs. Period.

Not as good as the "Great 5"

[richspenc · 7/10 · 6 April 2017]

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.

Silly but fun.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 11 December 2011]

If you're going to watch a Busby Berkeley-choreographed film, this is a very good bet. That's because it's a lot of fun aside from the weird singing and dancing at the end.

The film starts off with one of the weirdest singing numbers I've seen in an old film. At a meeting of insurance agents, Dick Powell sings the sweet ditty 'You'll Get Pie in the Sky When You DIE, DIE, DIE'! And, not surprisingly, the maudlin words are quite funny! A bit later, Powell makes a HUGE sale--insuring a rich guy (Victor Moore) for $1,000,000--an enormous sum for 1936. What Moore and the insurance company don't know is that Moore is no longer rich at all--his two very dishonest partners have plundered Moore's production company that bankrolls Broadway shows. And, once he's insured, these two lovely men HOPE that Moore soon meets an untimely end so they can cover up that they've embezzled the company's funds. Fortunately, they are stopped but Moore is ruined. Can Powell and his friends manage to STILL put on 'the big show' and save poor Moore? The film has the usual final production number that Berkeley was famous for, though you wonder just HOW such a number can be arranged considering they have no money! In today's money, this final number would cost millions to create--and it's eye-popping, that's for sure. You just have to see this giant tribute to the joys of war to believe it! It is exceptionally well done and silly--exactly like most of the famed choreographer's other musicals.

So why did I give this film an 8? Well, because aside from the weird songs, the plot itself was quite cute and worked well. Victor Moore was great and it helped that there was nice support from the likes of Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell--two great Warner Brothers 'dames'! Overall, a lot of fun.

awful and boring

[writtenbymkm-583-902097 · 1/10 · 22 May 2022]

I wasn't going to bother writing a review of this turkey, but when I saw that there wasn't a single one-star review, I changed my mind. I'll be brief. First, I've always hated Dick Powell. His "singing" is like fingernails on a chalkboard, it just literally makes me cringe. I hate the characters he plays, and in this movie I hated the stupid mustache he wore. Second, I've seen several movies with Busby Berkeley numbers that were awesome. I didn't watch this movie long enough to see any, if there were any, so I can't comment. Third, the plot took forever to develop and then was ludicrous, with huge numbers of "gold digging" females crowded into a train with huge numbers of men who acted like ten-year-old schoolboys in the presence of the females, totally unbelievable. Fourth, it was so horribly and painfully boring that I finally turned it off. I've actually enjoyed several of the early movies with Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler (who wasn't in this one), in spite of being forced to put up with Dick Powell, but this one was awful, boring, and an absolute waste of time. I'd give it zero stars if I could.

"Drilling can be so thrilling . . . "

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 11 January 2017]

" . . . if you're willing to obey." No, this is NOT a line of dialogue from the latest FIFTY SHADES DARKER trailer. Rather, it comes as part of the lyric for the powerful closing number of an otherwise fairly slow-paced GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937, "All's Fair in Love and War." This ten-minute visual wonder emanates from the delightfully demented mind of Real Life World War One Drill Sergeant turned Broadway and Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley, and is about the closest thing to a live-action Looney Tune ever committed to screen. Call it BUSBY IN WACKYLAND: a tap-dancer strutting his stuff on the seat of a five-story tall rocking chair, a battle of the sexes clinched by womanly weapons of mass deception, Chorines popping out of Cannons, and flag twirlers first performing in mid-air, and then reaching hurricane strength. Otherwise, the plot of this edition of the GOLD DIGGERS series is mostly a vigorous (and prophetic, from Warner Bros.' Early Warning System) defense of the U.S. Affordable Care Act (aka, ObamaCare), with a plot centering on Broadway Producer J.J. Hobart's Pre-existing medical condition. (Spoiler: J.J. will be slain in a New York Minute under the Donald J. Rump Administration.)

Typical Warner musical only for 'Gold Digger' fans...

[Doylenf · 20 July 2003]

A nostalgic look at the old-fashioned (and very corny) musicals of the '30s produced by WB is the only reason for viewing this oldie with Dick Powell and Joan Blondell. Not even the veteran scene-stealer Victor Moore is able to salvage the silly plot nor the shenanigans of the scheming Glenda Farrell.

The weak excuse for a story is all about being able to put on a Broadway show--namely, getting the money to fund it. When the show finally does get staged, it's done in Busby Berkeley style with camera effects that couldn't possibly be duplicated in a real stage show--including trick special effects. But of course, all logic disappeared when watching musicals such as this in the '30s and depression weary audiences probably couldn't have cared less.

One of the crafty villains Morty Wethered (Osgood Perkins) is played by Anthony Perkins' father. And if you look real fast, you can spot Jane Wyman who has one line to speak as a chorus girl.

The tunes are nothing to shout about but "Speaking of the Weather" is done in charming style with Powell and Blondell in a rainy day office scene and later reprised during the poolside sequence. "All's Fair In Love and War" is the big finale--but ultimately the viewer is left with the feeling that this has all been done before and with better results in previous "Gold Digger" films. Most earnest emoting in the film is done by Dick Powell who breezed through his Warner musicals with confidence and charm.

Dick Powell with a 'stache? Odd, but I'll allow it.

[brchthethird · 8/10 · 11 May 2022]

I'll just get my biggest issue with this out of the way upfront: the music to plot ratio left a bit to be desired. That said... what was there was consistently funny and downright cynical, so I can live with it. After not so much gold-digging in the last entry, 1937 (although this was made in 1936) gets back to what made 1933 so great: the Depression-era obsession with hustling and "making it." So much so, that two characters* get a life insurance policy on their sickly (hypochondriac?) business partner in the hopes that he croaks so that they can fund their next show. That cynical. Obviously, they can't win the day, but it's pretty amazing that the filmmakers even went there. Music-wise, there's only one big Busby number, but it's quite a doozy. There are also a few songs sprinkled through the rest of the picture. It was great to have Dick Powell and Joan Blondell's legendary chemistry back again. Victor Moore gets comedy MVP, and Glenda Farrell does very well as the most prominent gold-digger in the cast. Honorable mention to Lee Dixon who shows off some impressive tap-dancing chops, and Rosalind Marquis who plays a nice Southern belle (and left me wanting more). The whole thing ran a bit too long, but overall, I had a swell time (as I often do with these musicals).

* One of whom is played by Osgood Perkins, father to Anthony Perkins and grandfather of Oz Perkins.

Interesting, if daffy, musicomedy

[weezeralfalfa · 8/10 · 17 January 2017]

The penultimate of a series of musicomedies that Warner produced with the title Gold Diggers of.....or in...... . Only those produced in the '30s are still available. They may be purchased, along with 5 other films, in the Busby Berkeley 9 Film DVD Collection. It's commonly concluded that these films declined in interest with progression over time. However, to me, the 1935 installment is least interesting. Certainly, the screen plays in the last 2 are at least as interesting. The finale musical production was more interesting to me than in the '35 film or "Gold Diggers of Paris".

During the credits, Dick Powell sings "With Plenty of "Money and You", which would be reprised. Then, during a life insurance salesman conference, he sings "The Life Insurance Song". When the meeting adjourns, a horde of female gold diggers are waiting outside to follow the men when they board the train outside. One remarks "Ï Like fat men. You can always outrun them" Joan Blondell(as Norma) pairs up with Powell, and asks for a job in his insurance company. They get further acquainted in his office, as the wind from a storm blows his desk papers all over the room, and Powell sings "Speaking of the Weather".

J.J. Hobart(Victor Moore),a stage producer, is always in a bad mood, especially complaining about his body. He has innumerable bottles of pills on hi desk. He wants to produce a new show soon but, unknown to him, his 2 assistants lost the money he gave them on a stock market gamble. Powell shows up to sell him life insurance, but he says he doesn't need any because he has no dependent, and enough money. However, his crooked associates convince him to take out a $1 million policy, with his company as the beneficiary. But can he pass the physical?. Four doctors examine him, and, amazingly, pass him. Now, Powell wants JJ to have a long life, as the longer the policy is in force, the more commission he gets. In contrast, JJ's crooked assistants(Hugo and Morty) want him to die soon so they can replace the money they lost. They talk showgirl Genevieve(Glenda Farrell) into trying to stress his heart by vigorous dancing and seduction. But JJ feels much younger with the attention of a young woman. He's playing ping pong and leap frog in his office. This is not working, so his assistants discretely bump him into the swimming pool, hoping he will drown. But Powell is nearby and dives in to save JJ and his future commissions. Genevieve finally tells JJ that his associates lost all his money for the show. He faints and is taken to the hospital. Powell gets a call from the hospital saying that JJ is 'gone', which Powell interprets as meaning he died. But it really means he left the hospital, and shows up at his office.

Meanwhile, Powell and Joan have taken time out occasionally to romance. Powell sings "With Plenty of Money and You", and later "Let's "Put Our Heads together". He organizes a fund raiser for the show. His boss invests significant money in it. The chorus girls try to blackmail their boyfriends into investing in it, and finally, enough is collected to put on the show, which features the song "Äll's Fair in Love and War". Against a pitch black background, a mass of rocking chairs appears, with a couple in each. This transforms into a single huge rocking chair, which is blown up by a chorus girl. A white cannon and stacks of white cannon balls appears in its place. Each ball that is fired turns into a circular close up of one of the chorus girls, until the cannon is blown to bits. A lineup of male dancers in soldier uniforms, with rifles, is in a trench. Parallel to them is a trench filled with female dancers, who charge into the no man's land between, wielding spray bottles: presumably squirting perfume as they advance. This scene turns into a drum corps, then a bugle corps, then a flag corps, all of whom march around, doing various maneuvers.

To me, the funniest character was bald, pudgy, Victor Moore, who played JJ. Powell also provided some laughs. Joan was cute and personable, this being her 3rd leading lady role in the Warner musical series including Busby Berkeley.

the weakest of the gold digger franchise

[didi-5 · 6 May 2003]

Fairly disappointing following the 1933 and 1935 entries in this series, this film sees Dick Powell in insurance and Joan Blondell as a showgirl who gets a job in his firm. He has a silly name and everyone is chasing a million dollar policy. Cue Victor Moore, that great comic actor, as the creaking gate who just has to be kept alive / not kept alive, depending on who you are. Not that big on songs or routines, two stand out - the garden party with all the duets on the weather, and All's Fair in Love and War, where the girls beat the boys with ... well, that would be giving it away...