Campus Rhythm
Brief Synopsis
A radio singer escapes her managers to attend college incognito.
Cast & Crew
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Arthur Dreifuss
Director
Johnny Downs
Scoop Davis
Gale Storm
Joan Abbott, also known as Susie Smith
Robert Lowery
Buzz O'Hara
Candy Candido
Harold
Gee Gee Pearson
Babs Marlow
Film Details
Also Known As
College Sweetheart
Genre
Musical
Comedy
Release Date
Nov
19,
1943
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 3m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
5,472ft
Synopsis
While New York radio singer Joan Abbott, who is known as "The Crunchy-Wunchy Thrush," records a jingle for her sponsor at the studios of the Amalgamated Broadcasting Company, her legal guardian, Uncle Willie, is busy negotiating a new contract for her. Joan, who dreams of attending college, is angered when she discovers that Willie has signed her to a new contract to pay his debt to a talent agent. Ignoring her contract, Joan adopts the name Susie Smith, the name of her agent's secretary, and leaves for the Midwest to attend Rawley College. There she visits the Kappa Psi Delta fraternity house and meets orchestra leader Buzz O'Hara, who invites her to attend a dance hosted by the fraternity. Though Buzz is attracted to Joan, Joan falls in love with newspaper editor Scoop Davis. Meanwhile, back in New York, J. P. and Willie begin a desperate search to find Joan, and decide to start a publicity campaign challenging college students all across America to find the singer on their campus. When Scoop denounces the nationwide hunt as a cheap attempt at free publicity for an unknown singer, Joan protests his assertion and tells him that the "singer" has an audience of twenty million fans. After Joan joins Rawley's Theta Nu sorority, one of her sorority sisters, Cynthia, begins to suspect that Joan is the contest's sought-after singer. Jealous of Joan's popularity, Cynthia sends an anonymous note to J. P. informing him that the singer is hiding on the Rawley campus. Willie immediately sets out for Rawley, and finds Joan in her exercise class. Joan refuses to leave Rawley, and quickly gets rid of her uncle by having him arrested and charged with being a "peeping Tom." The police order Willie to leave town immediately, and forbid him from ever returning. Willie returns to New York, but because he is ashamed of having been charged with peeping, he does not tell J. P. that he found Joan. Furious at Willie's incompetence, J. P. threatens to have him jailed if he fails to get Joan to return to the city within a week. Meanwhile, Joan helps Babs Marlow, Rawley's star singer, rehearse for a radio contest. Later, when Babs comes down with laryngitis, Joan is pressured into taking her place. J. P. hears the radio broadcast, recognizes Joan's voice and races to Rawley to find her. The Rawley orchestra wins first prize in the radio contest, but the award is rescinded when it is learned that Joan is an impostor, and that she is already under contract to sing for the Crunchy-Wunchy advertisements. Though forced to leave Rawley and return to New York, Joan negotiates a new contract that permits her to sing with the Rawley orchestra.
Director
Arthur Dreifuss
Director
Cast
Johnny Downs
Scoop Davis
Gale Storm
Joan Abbott, also known as Susie Smith
Robert Lowery
Buzz O'Hara
Candy Candido
Harold
Gee Gee Pearson
Babs Marlow
Doug Leavitt
Uncle Willie
Herbert Heyes
Hartman
Tom Kennedy
Marie Blake
Susie
Johnny Duncan
Freshman
Claudia Drake
Cynthia
Crew
Ewart Adamson
Original Story
Albert Beich
Screenwriter
Eddie Cherkose
Composer
Richard Currier
Editing
Eddie Davis
Assistant Director
Irving Gordon
Composer
Lou Herscher
Composer
Alvin Kaufman
Composer
Edward Kay
Music Director
Edward Kay
Composer
Dick L'estrange
Production Manager
Tom Lambert
Recording
Jules Loman
Composer
Charles R. Marion
Screenwriter
Dave Milton
Tech Director
Lindsley Parsons
Producer
Allan Roberts
Composer
Mack Stengler
Photography
Frank Tarloff
Screenwriter
Charles Warfield
Composer
Jack White
Original Story
Clarence Williams
Composer
Film Details
Also Known As
College Sweetheart
Genre
Musical
Comedy
Release Date
Nov
19,
1943
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 3m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
5,472ft
Articles
Campus Rhythm
Monogram earned its scrappy reputation on the strength of spare, tough B-noirs like Fall Guy (1947), but the Poverty Row studio's output was more diverse than usually credited, with this lighthearted campus musical proof that its wartime output wasn't all dames and fisticuffs. Pretty radio jingle singer Joan Abbott (Gale Storm) makes a lot of money for her shady agent Uncle Willie (Douglas Leavitt), but secretly harbors a wish to go to college. When he ropes her into a new contract without her consent, she slips away to a happier life as "Susie Smith", carefree campus coed. dating student editor "Scoop" Davis (Johnny Downs) But will her sorority sisters rat her out when Uncle Willie announces a nationwide search for the missing starlet? The stars at Monogram were either on their way out, like Downs (a former Our Gang kid actor) or on their way up like the then twenty-one year old Storm, who'd made a good dozen pictures before -- and after -- this one before finding her true niche in television on the sitcom "My Little Margie".
Campus Rhythm
Monogram earned its scrappy reputation on the strength of spare, tough B-noirs like Fall Guy (1947), but the Poverty Row studio's output was more diverse than usually credited, with this lighthearted campus musical proof that its wartime output wasn't all dames and fisticuffs. Pretty radio jingle singer Joan Abbott (Gale Storm) makes a lot of money for her shady agent Uncle Willie (Douglas Leavitt), but secretly harbors a wish to go to college. When he ropes her into a new contract without her consent, she slips away to a happier life as "Susie Smith", carefree campus coed. dating student editor "Scoop" Davis (Johnny Downs) But will her sorority sisters rat her out when Uncle Willie announces a nationwide search for the missing starlet? The stars at Monogram were either on their way out, like Downs (a former Our Gang kid actor) or on their way up like the then twenty-one year old Storm, who'd made a good dozen pictures before -- and after -- this one before finding her true niche in television on the sitcom "My Little Margie".
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was College Sweetheart. Although a Hollywood Reporter news item reported that the film was to be based on the short story "College Sweetheart" by Leona Dalrymple published in Women's Home Companion, screen credits note that the film is based on an original story by Ewart Adamson and Jack White. The Screen Achievements Bulletin also lists the film's source as an unpublished story.
