Beautiful But Broke
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Charles Barton
Joan Davis
John Hubbard
Jane Frazee
Judy Clark
Bob Haymes
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When theatrical agent Waldo Main decides to enlist in the Armed Forces, his assistant, Dottie Duncan, takes over the business. Many musicians have also enlisted in the military, resulting in a shortage of male bands. Consequently, when Tom Martin comes to the agency to hire a band for an engagement in Cleveland, Dottie presses her telephone operator friends, Sally Richards and Sue Ford into service. After persuading Martin to audition the band over the telephone, Dottie directs Sally and Sue to call the office and sing over the phone to the accompaniment of a big band record. Thinking that the music is live, Martin hires the band and tells Dottie that he will pay her when she arrives in Cleveland. As Sally and Sue's back up, Dottie hires Birdie Benson and her band, daughters of some old-time musicians. In order to raise money for their train tickets to Cleveland, Dottie then tricks investor Maxwell McKay into buying the agency. En route to Cleveland, the conductor asks Dottie and the girls to surrender their seats to twelve pilots in need of transportation. When they are stranded in the town of San Madero, Nevada, the band rents some rooms at the local hotel, but Joan is unable to locate their train tickets so the ticket master refuses to reimburse the hotel for their bill and they are evicted. In the dead of night, the women seek refuge in an abandoned house, unaware that it is a target for the munitions factory. Awakened by a gunshell flying through the wall, Dottie and the others think that they are being invaded. When munitions supervisor Bill Drake learns of their plight, he treats them to breakfast and invites them to stay at his apartment. Many of the mothers of San Madero are employed at the defense plant, and consequently must leave their children unattended during the day. When Bill suggests that Dottie and the band give a benefit performance to raise money to build a daycare center, they agree. The concert is so successful that an account of the band's patriotic efforts is printed nationwide. Upon reading the story, McKay comes to town, claiming that Dottie defrauded him when she sold him the agency. Overhearing his accusation, Bill informs Dottie that he provided McKay, his uncle, with the money to invest in the agency. When Bill suggests that the band make good on the deal by staying in town and entertaining, Sue is intrigued because she has fallen in love with Bill. As Dottie joins a team of bricklayers to begin construction on the daycare center, she is summoned to the office of Putnam, the plant superintendent, who informs her that the railroad has finally authorized their tickets to Cleveland. At the train station, Bill admits that he was in possession of the lost tickets the entire time and appeals to Dottie's patriotic instincts to stay in San Madero. Sue and Sally, who has become infatuated with Jack Foster, one of the officers, eagerly consent, and following their lead, the rest of the band members decide to remain in Nevada.
Director
Charles Barton
Cast
Joan Davis
John Hubbard
Jane Frazee
Judy Clark
Bob Haymes
Willie, West And Mcginty
Danny Mummert
Byron Foulger
George Mckay
Ferris Taylor
Isabel Withers
John Eldredge
Grace Hayle
John Dilson
Joe King
Emmett Vogan
Joanne Frank
Evelyn Porter
George Bronson
John Tyrrell
Lew Kelly
Thomas Kingston
Chuck Hamilton
Joseph Palma
Brian O'hara
Kernan Cripps
Robert Williams
Ben Taggart
Lewis Wilson
Ronnie Rondell
Christine Mcintyre
Gerald Pierce
Wesley Bilson
Arthur Carrington
Bunky Fleishman
Gary Gray
John O'brien
Kathleen Earhart
Patsy Patterson
Geraldine Tinker
Jean Vanderwilt
June Arleen Wilson
Laura Gruver
Marguerite Campbell
Genevieve Duran
Ruth Gordon
Dorothy Frons
Lorraine Page
Janice Simmons
Gloria Chappell
Helen Ireland
Crew
Lionel Banks
Monte Brice
Irving Briskin
Richard Byron
Saul Chaplin
Dick Charles
Al Dexter
Louis Diage
Walter Donaldson
Richard Fantl
Howard Fogetti
Wolfe Gilbert
Mort Greene
Victor Greene
Arthur Housman
Richard Jerome
Walter Kent
Larry Markes
Wilbur Mcgaugh
Phil Moore
L. W. O'connell
Ben Oakland
Jimmy Paul
William A. Pierce
Walter G. Samuels
Manny Seff
M. W. Stoloff
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
This is the beginning of duck season...- Radio Announcer
What kind of ducks have they *got* around here?- Sally Richards
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Beautiful But Nice. According to a pre-production Hollywood Reporter news item, Jinx Falkenburg was originally cast as "Sally Richards," but left to appear in the film Nine Girls (see below).
