Swing High, Swing Low (1937)

Set in Panama, a singer (Carole Lombard) falls in love with a trumpet player (Fred MacMurray) who has no ambition. He's happy the way things are but she pushes him toward success. Based on the play BURLESQUE by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins and directed by Mitchell Leisen (TO EACH HIS OWN). This was the third of the four movies Lombard and MacMurray made together. One doesn't think of them as a team but they had a nice rapport and the chemistry was there. That harmony is the only successful thing about this hokey romantic comedy. It was probably hokey in 1927 when the play was first produced. Lombard's character is rather unpleasant here. MacMurray's trumpeter is happy in Panama with his modest success and his marriage but she pushes him into going to New York for fame and fortune even though she knows there's another woman (Dorothy Lamour) waiting to get her hands on him. Remade in 1948 as WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. With Charles Butterworth, Jean Dixon and Cecil Cunningham.