I Love a Bandleader
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Del Lord
Phil Harris
Rochester
Leslie Brooks
Walter Catlett
Frank Sully
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
As house painters Newton H. Newton and Phil Burton remodel the Club Monterey on Broadway, owner Gibley auditions acts for his club's reopening. Theatrical agent B. Templeton Jones brings his client, aspiring singer Ann Stuart, to try out for a spot, and when Gibley doesn't hire her, Ann becomes discouraged. When Phil, who has watched Ann perform from his ladder, enters a dressing room and tries on a suit from the costume rack, Ann mistakes him for one of Gibley's partners and asks his help in winning a contract. Phil sympathizes with Ann, and when she runs off stage, he follows her, trips and hits his head. After Phil awakens in a hospital room and discovers that he is suffering from amnesia, his physician, Dr. Gardiner, dubs him "John Doe" and suggests he return to the Club Monterey, where someone might recognize him. While seated at a table in the club, Phil begins directing the band, giving Gibley the idea to launch a publicity campaign exploiting Phil as an amnesiac band leader. Gibley's angle proves a huge success and Phil becomes a hit. When Newton rescues Phil from a group of adoring fans one day, the band leader hires him as his bodyguard. Although Phil reminds Newton of his old painting partner, Newton believes that his new employer really is a band leader. Now employed as a hat check girl at the Club Monterey, Ann checks Jones's hat, and when she recalls her earlier meeting with Phil, the agent informs Gibley. Recognizing a good publicity angle, Gibley decides to promote Ann as Phil's fiancé and hires her to sing in the club. Ann protests the ruse, but when reporters descend upon her and demand the name of her fiancée, she claims that he is George Drake from Buffalo. When Dr. Gardiner encourages Ann to continue the deception to help Phil's recovery, she agrees and soon finds herself falling in love with the band leader. Upon returning home from a date with Phil one evening, Ann finds Edwin, her former beau from Buffalo, waiting for her in the lobby. When Edwin demands an explanation for Ann's alienation of affection, she invites him to her room and tells him the whole story. Unknown to Ann, Phil is just outside her door, and when overhears her tale, he thinks that Ann doesn't love him and leaves, dejected. Later Phil tells Newton about Ann's story and announces that he plans to quit and leave town. Newton finally realizes that the band leader really is his former painting partner and hurries to Dr. Gardiner for advice. In Newton's absence, Phil disappears and Ann, feeling responsible for his misery, refuses to perform. After tracking Phil to the train station, Newton convinces two police officers to arrest the band leader for stealing a suit and deliver him to the Club Monterey. At the club, Jones tries to persuade Phil that Ann is in love with him, but when Phil refuses to believe the agent's story, Newton hits his old friend over the head with a brush. The blow brings back Phil's memory, and after he sees Ann, he remembers meeting her as an aspiring young singer, and the two embrace.
Director
Del Lord
Cast
Phil Harris
Rochester
Leslie Brooks
Walter Catlett
Frank Sully
James Burke
Pierre Watkin
The Four V's
Robin Short
Philip Van Zandt
Nick Stewart
Marilyn Johnson
Louise Franklin
Robert Williams
John Tyrrell
Catherine York
Barbara Ames
Jimmy Lloyd
Mike Lally
Joseph Palma
Roy Darmour
Mildred Boyd
Anthony Caruso
Vernon Dent
Kernan Cripps
Crew
Carl Anderson
M. R. Bakaleinikoff
Dudley Brooks
Sammy Cahn
Philip Faulkner
Doris Fisher
John Grey
Jean Havez
Irving Klein
Michel Kraike
Alex Kramer
Marianne Nussbaum
Franz F. Planer
Andy Razaf
Albert Rickerd
Allan Roberts
Paul Sawtelle
Jule Styne
James Sweeney
Harry Tobias
Pinky Tomlin
Will H. Vodery
Ivan Volkman
Edwin L. Wetzel
Bert Williams
Paul Yawitz
Hy Zaret
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although a Hollywood Reporter production chart places Carole Mathews in the cast, her participation in the released film has not been confirmed. Leslie Brooks's character is called "Ann Stuart" in the film, but both the CBCS and the Variety review list her as "Ann Carter." Both Phil Harris and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson appeared as regulars on Jack Benny's radio show. This picture was filmed during the show's summer hiatus. "The Darktown Poker Club" and "That's What I Like 'Bout the South" were big hits for Harris, who did not make another picture until the 1950 Twentieth-Century Fox film Wabash Avenue (see below). The composers of an additional ballad, which May be titled "Nothing At All" or "What Can I Do?," have not been determined.
