She Loves Me Not (1934)

There is not much by way of originality to this rather overlong comedy but it does give Bing Crosby a chance to croon his way through the charming “Love in Bloom” with his amiable co-star Kitty Carlisle. You see, “Curly” (Miriam Hopkins) is a dancehall gal who’s gone and got herself mixed up in a murder. Having the sense not to want to get involved, she flees the scene and ends up in some rooms amidst the Ivy League’s finest. She’s quite an adaptable young woman, and surrounded in this all-male environment by pin-stripes galore, she decides that being a boy for the duration might be her best line of defence. Certainly from the pursuing “Mugg” (Warren Hymer) but also, she quickly realises, it might help her against the more hormonal students at the university. Fortunately she hooks up with “Paul” (Bing Crosby) and his pal “Buzz” (Edward J. Nugent) who give her a short back and sides before she becomes a bit of a bass-baritone. The question is: for how long can this not very cunning wheeze keep her safe? Things become a darned sight more awkward when the Hollywood producing dad of “Buzz” sends his minions to recruit her for a film, and then when the fiancée of “Paul” (that’s Miss Carlisle) starts to put two and two together and get 22. Trying to keep this all out of the glaring eye of publicity is the dean  (Henry Stephenson) who just happens to be the father of “Midge”. Still with me? Well once we’ve established the rather slapstick-light credentials of this comedy, the thing rather stutters along mixing it’s genres and showcasing some fairly mediocre writing and flat characterisations as “Curly” et al leap from comedic frying pan to fire just once too predictably often. If there is a star, then it has to be Hopkins as she looks like she is having fun throughout, but sadly it’s not really contagious. It is watchable enough, and it doesn’t hang about - but it’s really only that song that stands out.