Let's Make Music is a 1941

1941 in film

The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

 musical starring Bob Crosby

Bob Crosby

George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...

 and written by Nathanael West

Nathanael West

Nathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...

. The songs in Let's Make Music include the classic "Big Noise from Winnetka

Big Noise From Winnetka

Big Noise from Winnetka is a jazz composition co-written by composer and bass player Bob Haggart. It was first recorded in 1938 and featured Haggart and drummer Ray Bauduc, both members of a sub-group of the Bob Crosby Orchestra called The Bobcats....

".

Development

In April 1940 Nathanael West, then a contract writer at RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures

RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...

, was asked to work on a script, tentatively named Malvina Swings It, which writer Charles Roberts failed to complete satisfactorily. After working on the screenplay for almost ten nonconsecutive weeks, West had turned it into Let's Make Music, which hoped to benefit from Bob Crosby's popularity. The rewriting was so significant West received solo screenwriting credit.

Plot

Newton High music teacher Malvina Adams (Risdon) is asked to retire since attendance in her classes keeps dropping each year. Trying to prove she's still got it, Adams composes a school fight song which finds its way into the hands of bandleader Bob Crosby (playing himself) who turns it into an overnight hit. Though her niece Abby (Rogers) protests, Malvina travels to New York to perform her song with Bob's band, while her niece falls for the bandleader. The newness of the song fades quickly though, and Malvina tries to write one more hit song before finally giving up and returning to Newton.

Reception

The reviewer from The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

commented that, "no doubt worse movies have been made," but was at a loss to name any. The Film Daily

Film Daily

The Film Daily was a daily publication that existed from 1915 to 1970 in the United States.For 55 years, Film Daily was the main source of news on the film and television industries...

critic called it, "a picture for all situations, ages, and types, although it is conceivable that some inflexible devotees of classical music may be holdouts, and term it esthetically 'gross.' But it's plenty gross for the box offices."

Cast

• Bob Crosby
  Bob Crosby
  George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...
  
   - Himself
• Jean Rogers
  Jean Rogers
  Jean Rogers was an American actress. She portrayed Dale Arden in two of the three Flash Gordon serials.-Early life:...
  
   - Abby Adams
• Elisabeth Risdon
  Elisabeth Risdon
  Elisabeth Risdon was an English film actress. She appeared in over 140 films between 1913 and 1952. An attractive beauty in her youth she usually played in society parts...
  
   - Malvina Adams
• Joseph Buloff - Joe Bellah
• Joyce Compton
  Joyce Compton
  Joyce Compton was an American actress.She was born Olivia Joyce Compton in Lexington, Kentucky and not Eleanor Hunt as is frequently erroneously stated. She had appeared in the film Good Sport with Hunt and this confusion in an early press article followed Compton throughout her career...
  
   - Betty
• Benny Bartlett - Tommy
• Louis Jean Heydt
  Louis Jean Heydt
  Louis Jean Heydt [April 17, 1905 - January 29, 1960] was an American Film, TV, and Theatre character actor from Montclair, New Jersey.-Early life:Heydt was born in Montclair New Jersey and Educated at Worcester Academy and Dartmouth College...
  
   - Mr. Stevens
• Bill Goodwin
  Bill Goodwin
  Bill Goodwin was for many years the announcer and regular character of the Burns and Allen radio program, and subsequently The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on television from 1950-51...
  
   - Himself
• Frank Orth
  Frank Orth
  Frank Orth was an American actor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1897, he was performing in vaudeville with his wife, Ann Codee, in an act called "Codee and Orth"...
  
   - Mr. Botts
• Grant Withers
  Grant Withers
  Grant Withers was an American film actor. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into talkies establishing himself with a list of headlined features as a young and handsome male lead...
  
   - Headwaiter
• Gale Sherwood
  Gale Sherwood
  Gale Sherwood was a Canadian singer and actress best known as the singing partner of Nelson Eddy from 1953 until his death in 1967.Sherwood was born in Hamilton, Ontario and graduated from High School in 1945....
  
  - High School Singer