Radio Pictures sounds like a contradiction, but "radio" was still a byword for this high-tech modern world. (See also, kid-wagons called "Radio Flyers.") But there was still room in this fast-paced, ever-changing world for Old Men. Particularly this guy:
It's a minor musical, but it has its moments. It's set in the carefree world of College, where the Depression never seems to alight; it begins on a train where all the crazy college kids burst into song. Evelyn Poe is her name, I believe:
She only made a couple of movies. She may have been too much even for the time.
I think she's adorable.
When they get to college everyone goes outside under the moon and spoons in the soft glow of lights placed on ground level.
It's a modern campus. Welcome to Gropius U:
Freshmen wear beanies, the Seniors have their own sidewalk - that sort of college. No actual learning, but they hang around the quadrangle and wisecrack. Is there a plot? There is a plot. An industrialist discovers that his son is doing poorly, because he's hanging around with a gold-digger gal, and they're . . . dancing! Holding hands! Making love! (In the old sense, which means everything but. )
Betty Grable is in the movie; Lucille Ball is somewhere back there. But it's Poe you might want to watch, because she appears to be competely insane:
But it's all a wink and an elbow in the ribs; she's obviously comic relief. And so cute! I wish I knew who she was supposed to be mocking here; maybe no one. Just the conventions of the day. Either someone took her aside and said "Sorry, sweetheart - you're cute and you got a nice figure, but you're not the sex appeal in this one. Don't kid-sister it, either."
